Movie Review: Quitters – A Promising Start

Genre: Comedy

Director: Noah Pritzker

Cast: Ben Konigsberg, Greg Germann, Morgan Turner, Mira Sorvino, Kara Hayward, and Kieran Culkin.

Studio: Momentum Pictures

Runtime: 96 Minutes

Release: In Theaters July 22, 2016

Rated: R
Rating ★★★★★

Admit it, at one point in your life, you probably wished you had a different family. You grew tired of the fighting and the dysfunction and longed to have the perfect family. That feeling could have been momentary or you could even be feeling it right now. Well, you know what they say, ‘You can’t choose your family.’ Or can you?

Quitters, written and directed by Noah Pritzker, tells the darkly comic tale of high school student Clark Rayman (Ben Konigsberg). After his family starts to crumble due to his mother entering rehab, he decides to find a replacement family to call his own. When he begins a relationship with Natalia (Morgan Turner) and sees how perfect her family is, Clark decides he wants to join them.

Dark comedies can be hilarious but only if you pull them off right. Directors have to find the right balance between taking it too far and going just far enough. Despite some shortcomings, Pritzker’s directorial debut results in a funny and surprisingly heartfelt tale.

Photo credit: David Scardina © Momentum Pictures

Ben Konigsberg as Clark Rayman.

What makes Quitters work is its writing and characters. The dialogue is constantly smart and funny and each actor does a terrific job of making their characters feel realistic. No matter how cynical Quitters seems on the surface, there’s an underlying heart that makes the film worth caring about.

Konigsberg is fantastic as Clark, playing him with an equal mix of sincerity and sarcasm. Clark is manipulative and self-obsessed, and Konigsberg makes this potentially unlikable brat a character viewers can relate to.

Turner is also great as Clark’s new girlfriend Natalia. The chemistry she and Konigsberg share is believable

Clark and Natalia share a moment with each other.

and the two work marvelously off each other.

One character who feels a bit like a missed opportunity is Mr. Becker (Kieran Culkin), one of Clark’s teachers at school. Culkin’s talents are a bit underutilized as he’s only featured in a handful of scenes. When he is on screen though, he’s hilarious with his deadpan delivery.

Where Quitters fails is with its pacing. Despite the film’s short runtime of only 96 minutes, it feels much longer due to how slowly it moves. That’s not to say Quitters is boring, but the film could have been trimmed more during editing to help pick up the pace.

It doesn’t help that the ending of Quitters is very abrupt. The film builds and rather than having a pay-off, Quitters calls it quits. There’s nothing wrong with an abrupt ending but Quitters leaves a few plot threads unresolved, leaving the ending even more unsatisfying.

Another aspect of Quitters I took issue with is the look of the film. Everything is gray and dreary looking. While this could have been due to the dark subject matter, it makes the movie boring to look at. Had the color pallet been bright and cheerful, it would have been a funny juxtaposition to the events of the film.

Despite these issues, Quitters is funny, smart, heartfelt, and a promising start for Pritzker, who hopefully moves on to work on even better films. Quitters is definitely worth checking out.

Photos: ©2016 Momentum Pictures. All Rights Reserved

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Dustin Kogler

Professional amateur movie watcher. Dustin is a laid-back nerd who loves discussing pop culture. He loves listening to 80s music, playing video games and watching netflix all day. He's pretty sarcastic and if you tell him your favorite movie he can tell you why you're wrong.