Queering the Canon: CHUCK & BUCK (2000)
A daring dark comedy written by and starring Mike White (THE WHITE LOTUS) as a willfully naive man-child who moves to LA with the sole aim of reviving the past with his childhood pal.
Description
Stuck in a state of arrested development, willfully naive Buck (Mike White) moves to LA with the sole aim of rekindling a boyish friendship with his childhood pal in this daring dark comedy.
Chuck (Chris Weitz), who now goes by Charlie, has grown into a professional music executive with a steady girlfriend. Charlie is clearly uncomfortable with Buck’s incessant insistence to revive the past, and rebuffs Buck’s numerous advances – from nonstop phone calls to unexpected office visits. Unable to fully process the pangs of rejection, Buck decides to write a play based on their early kinship and enlists the help of Beverly (Lupe Ontiveros) to stage the production at a local community theater in order to win Chuck’s affection.
At once cringeworthy and exceeding earnest, CHUCK & BUCK was shot on digital with a shoe-string budget and received a much ballyhooed premiere 25 years ago at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Miguel Arteta from a razor-sharp screenplay by Mike White (THE WHITE LOTUS), remains a fascinatingly thorny character study and offbeat relic of early 2000s independent filmmaking.
Special guest introduction by Jorge Molina.
Part of Queering the Canon: So Obsessed
Director
Miguel Arteta
Writer
Mike White
Cast
Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Ontiveros, Beth Colt, Paul Weitz