by Mike Favila, Editor

Lust For Love is a new romantic comedy film coming out this Friday (2/7/2014) starring a number of excellent actors from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, including Franz Kranz, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj and Miracle Laurie. It also features other cool people as Mo Tancharoen (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) and Felicia Day (The Guild, Buffy The Vampire Slayer). With that kind of pedigree, surely it’s got to be an amazing film, right? Let’s peek in and find out.

So why haven’t you heard of Lust For Love? For starters, it’s an independently released film that was financed by Whedonverse fans on Kickstarter. (Full disclosure here: I was a backer.) This is director Anton King’s first full length release, having created a number of short films a few years before. Lust For Love was based on one of those initial shorts, and is obviously a real passion project for King.

Franz Kranz plays Astor, a funny, slightly quirky guy who finally gets together with his childhood crush Mila (Beau Garrett of Tron fame) and is dumped soon thereafter. From the relationship flashbacks, you can immediately tell that Astor is smothering her. Being Astor’s ‘first’ is obviously a very big responsibility. They do a great job of relaying that awkward ‘you are way more into somebody than they are into you’ feeling. I felt pure discomfort during the poetry reading, when Astor lays out his heart in gory, poetic detail for the jaded LA audience to hear. There’s another scene where he talks about their future, nonexistent children. These are all prototypical scenes found in a number of movies in the romantic comedy genre, but Franz Kranz does an amazing job making you wince, like it was the first time.

Dichen Lachman plays Cali, a former friend of Mila’s that has decided to take Astor under her wing and teach him the ways of the player. Her motivations aren’t very clear for why she adopts him as a student, but their scenes together are so enjoyable that I stopped overthinking it.  Her detached manner and breezy comebacks make you think that she isn’t really a person ruled by reason or heavy motivation.

Lust For Love is very funny at various moments. Cameos from Felicia Day as a humor -free Roman Catholic and Mo Tancharoen as his first insanely quiet girlfriend are a nice little aside in Astor’s quest to become a more stereotypical man. Enver Gjokaj plays the jocky bro type that becomes Mila’s boyfriend, and he plays it to great effect. It’s not often you see somebody slap another character with a rotisserie chicken. That ENOUGH is worth the price of admission.

I was surprised how long the dating sequences continued throughout Lust For Love, and how little Astor learns throughout the process. Usually, the protagonist will go through the sequences, withstanding the disasters that are caused by either their date or themselves. I don’t know if this was on purpose, but it definitely threw me off.  At one point, I found myself wondering when Astor was just going to wake up and realize Cali was “the one” already. Whether this was done on purpose or not, this pacing choice was a definite contrast from the usual romantic comedy arc.

Kranz and Lachman obviously still have the personal connection.  They have a warm, sympathetic chemistry on screen that makes their friendship seem so believable.  Lachman does an excellent job of being guarded and vulnerable, all within the same scene.  Though Lust For Love is a little uneven at times, the cast and crew have put together an enjoyable movie that is a great first effort. From the fun new wave soundtrack, to the mix of situations and sets, it seems like all involved did a great job of putting together a very complete experience from the minute Kickstarter budget that they were provided. The actors and King really helped buoy what could have been boilerplate material and made it their own.

Lust For Love comes out tomorrow on VOD and iTunes. Check it out!

ComicsOnline.com gives Lust For Love 3.5 out of 5 poetry slams!

Fall in love with us all over again at ComicsOnline.com by following us on Facebook and Twitter!