Launching in 1999, College Humor is a mildly successful website where people can go to watch videos that are usually pretty entertaining. They aren't always great, but I always get a laugh out the ones that star Ben Schwartz. The folks that head up College Humor must have felt similarly because Schwartz is featured prominently in CH's debut feature length film, Coffee Town. Schwartz, who most notably plays the fantastic Jean Ralphio on NBC's Parks and Recreation, shines in a cast full of underrated comedy TV titans including Glenn Howerton (It's Always Sunny) and Steve Little (Eastbound and Down). Coffee Town, a comedy in the spirit of 1999's Office Space, is dark, poignant, and possibly the funniest comedy of 2013. Betcha didn't predict that from kind of praised heaped on College Humor's debut film.
Coffee Town is the story of a disillusioned website manager named Will (Howerton) who works out of a coffee shop, Coffee Town, three blocks from his house. In the year since he was laid off from his office job and started working inside the Coffee Town, Will has grown attached to his new office. It has everything. His friends, the dimwitted Chad (Little) and the incompetent cop Gino (Schwartz), are there, his dream girl, Becca (Palicki), is there, and Will thinks things will stay like this forever. There lies the problem, the management of the Coffee Town wants to transform their best store into a Coffee Town Bistro, where, if this shop is transformed into the bistro, Will would no longer be able to live the good life.
The management of Coffee Town hasn't quite settled on which shop they should make into their flagship bistro store, this spawns an idea. Should Will's Coffee Town be robbed, there is no chance that the management would see this store in the light. Your best store isn't the one with the most risk. So, Will, Chad, and Gino formulate a plan to rob the store. That's plausible, right? From the inception of the idea to the aftermath of the follow through, there are several amazing scenes. One such scene is when Chad fights a kid with Down Syndrome is centerpiece of truly well-written and well-acted film.
Howerton, who never really gets the praise he deserves for his portrayal of Dennis Reynolds on Always Sunny, has a real coming out party here. He has deserved a starring role in a film for years and it's nice to see College Humor reward him. Howerton plays the straight-man to Schwartz' and Little's outrageous characters. Little proves he has a career waiting for him in film when Eastbound and Down comes to a close later this year.
Penning the script sitting in the director's chair, was Brad Copeland (Arrested Development) in his debut film. Copeland displays the same quick wit that was shown throughout the television run of AD and I can't wait to see what he has coming up next in his career. Apparently he has signed on to write a reboot of Knight Rider, which should be, at the very least, interesting.
There's a real synergy to all of the components at play in Coffee Town. It was clear from the trailers that the movie had potential, but I didn't expect it to be this good. From the very first sound of the film, Ratatat's "Lex", I knew that the $7 I paid to rent this film from amazon.com, amazingly on the same day it was released in theaters, would be the best $7 I've spent this summer. Coffee Town isn't a perfect movie but it does everything it sets out to do, and it does so in style. Will worries that if he loses Coffee Town, the world will forget about him, I'm sure that Coffee Town will become a cult classic and will not be forgotten any time soon.
