paddleton (2019) offers that contemporary vision of the friendly and authentic relationship between two mature men who simply share what they like and what bothers them. It is an independent film that deals with the story of Andy, played by Ray Romano himself (yes, the one from Everybody loves Raymond), and his great friend Michael, played by Mark Duplass (yes, that of the Duplass brothers, who have their independent film production company and also produce this one).
It turns out that Michael has stomach cancer and must deal with it until death. His doctor offers him an alternative with certain drugs, one of which will make him less suffering at the last moment, that is, it will euthanize him if he decides to finish before. But in order to fill the prescription he must travel to a picturesque city on a six-hour road trip and of course Andy will have to accompany him. Arriving at the hotel, receptionist Nancy (Dendrie Taylor) mistakes them for a couple, which leaves them wondering. Michael and Andy are actually kind of weird, but they’re not gay.
Michael is somewhat shy and spends his time watching TV in his apartment, while Andy works as a file clerk, is very meticulous with his use of language and lives just upstairs. They both get together to eat homemade pizza and watch very often the same karate movie whose plot, Andy says at some point, is not only about martial combat but about a greater spirituality between the characters, a master and his apprentice, who also end up being great friends.
Michael and Andy also spend their free time playing “paddleton”, a kind of racquetball they invented and which they practice on a very high fence of an abandoned drive-in movie theater; The biggest attraction of this game is putting the ball in a water tank that they put in the middle of the “court”. The “paddleton” is something like the materialization of “charolastrismo” referred to by Alfonso Cuarón in “Y tu madre tú”, only that in the case of Andy and Michael the bond is appreciated with an even deeper feeling.
This is the second film directed by Alexandre Lehmann (his first was blue-jay, 2016) who also wrote the script in tandem with Mark Duplass himself. A very legitimate and spontaneous story that is solid and without corniness; an example of this is when Nancy comes on very directly to a embarrassed Andy in a jacuzzi and when he rejects David (Kadeem Hardison), the pharmacist, who in a town bar wants to get acquainted with Michael in a matter of movies. karate fighters.
Thus, the entire film meant an interpretive challenge for both Duplass and Romano, who here abandons his set as a comedy actor and gets into the character of Andy, accompanying his friend in his illness, just as the martial arts student carries his physically handicapped teacher. It is this half-road movie and half-comedy/piece plot (because of its naturalness) that visually unfolds through shots with a good dose of cinéma vérité and with two stupendous performances, especially in the conclusion that shakes for its verism.