First Date (2021)
(Manuel Crosby, Darren Knapp, US 2021, 103 min., DCP)
First dates are hard enough. Mike (Tyson Brown) makes it harder on himself when he finally asks out girl-next-door Kelsey (Shelby Duclos) and promises to pick her up in a car he doesn’t own. His parents are taking their car for the weekend and Mike turns to a shady online advertisement to purchase a beat-up 1965 Chrysler for a few hundred dollars, setting off a chain of events that will have Mike and Kelsey running from the police, a group of criminals taking a break from their book club, and a vengeful cat lady. Alternately violent and hilarious, this feature from first-time filmmakers Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp manages to shift tones wildly while ratcheting up a propulsive plot. With shades of early Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, the madcap crime comedy is updated for the social media age.