"First Date" a wild, rough-hewn, unpredictable indie

First Date (2021)

In its purest form, there is homespun, blood-and-sweat, up-for-hours indie filmmaking going on in “First Date,” the writing-directing feature debut of Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp (who shot this in their California hometown of Valley Springs). Rough around the edges as it may be, “First Date” comes across as a weirder, violent “Superbad,” like a one-crazy-night teen comedy baked into a violent crime caper. It’s like the DIY art of combining all sodas from a fountain soda machine.

Being late to a first date can come with a lot of excuses, but in this story of “shy boy asking out confident girl,” getting involved in the wacky life-or-death circumstances our protagonists get thrust into would seem like a stretch. Tyson Brown makes his feature acting debut as Mike, a sensitive, soft-spoken, and overly timid teen. He has a mad crush on the cool, self-possessed Kelsey (Shelby Duclos, also making her feature debut), who constantly shuts down the moves put on her by Chet (Brandon Kraus), the persistent jock next door. When Mike finally works up the guts to ask her out, Kelsey accepts and plans on him to pick her up later. The problem is, Mike’s pro-(safe) sex parents took the minivan to the airport for her vacation to Mexico, so he needs a car. He does manage to quickly buy a jalopy of a ’65 Chrysler from a middle-aged sleaze named Dennis (Scott Noble), but in doing so, Mike gets in the crossfire of a crime boss (Nicky Katt lookalike Jesse Janzen) and his gang of criminals who all part of the same “book club.” They are holding Dennis hostage, and Dennis’ trigger-happy yet confessed wife (Leah Finity, finessing funny and pathetic) thinks Mike is behind her husband’s disappearance. Mike also finds a large amount of cocaine in his new ride and, naturally, a pair of cops are always on his tail. Everything that could possibly go wrong does. 

Wildly convoluted by design, “First Date” is a joyride blending wicked humor and violent boobery. It admittedly falls off balance from time to time—a benign hijacking by the car’s old owners leads to a lover’s-lane make-out session, which flippantly ends up in death—but it can be shockingly funny, too. When writer-directors Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp succeed in walking a tricky tightrope, they do deliver indelible weirdo character moments from their actors throughout and a simultaneously timeless yet specific sense of place. There also get mileage out of novellas, 8-track players, and the two-VHS set of “Titanic” (if you didn’t own it, who are you?) for amusing running jokes.

As the film's conduit, Mike is a bit of a doormat. Things just seem to happen to him. Perhaps part of that is the point to make its coming-of-age arc, but it does make him a frustrating passenger in his own story. There is still a sweetness between Mike and Kelsey, especially when the characters acknowledge what they could have done differently to actually have their first date. Considering there are so many colorful characters and so much chaos, “First Date” hangs together pretty well. Before Crosby and Knapp’s climax culminates with a free-for-all western standoff, it’s hard to detect where things will go from scene to scene, and that’s a rarity nowadays. 

Grade: B 

Magnet is releasing “First Date” (103 min.) on VOD on July 2, 2021.