Results

If Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess was his most defiantly uncommercial film to date, Results initially seems like the first time this filmmaker has courted a mainstream audience. It’s a romantic comedy with attractive protagonists played by Pearce and Smulders, but the most interesting thing about the film is the way Bujalski attempts to impose his own aesthetic on this genre and refresh its familiar narrative beats.

In truth, it doesn’t quite work, but the dissonance between the content and Bujalski’s approach is oddly compelling, and he does create a number of memorable moments that feel particularly striking within this context. Pearce and Smulders deliver note-perfect performances as the fitness freaks negotiating personal ambition and sexual tension, while Kevin Corrigan is tremendous as a nouveau riche slob who enters their world. A director more in tune with the demands of the rom-com might have kept the story from fizzling out, but it’s an admirable effort. [Philip Concannon]