Dirty Laundry (Walls, 2024)
“Victory lies at the intersection of vulnerability and acceptance,” opines writer/director Rocky Walls. That sentiment so earnestly captures Dirty Laundry‘s themes and tone that it is tempting to accept it and evaluate it on those terms. Walls captured the struggle of men trapped in the undefined space between adolescence and adulthood, grown enough to feel the weight of consequences yet still clinging to the evaporating vapors of innocent youth when powerful feelings need not be interrogated nor second-guessed.
But — and this is not meant as a criticism so much as an acknowledgment — the film also lies at the intersection between indie drama and “very special episode.” The two protagonists, Kyle and Eric, meet at the laundromat to discuss plans to start a business together. They could be idly dreaming or seriously planning…or a little of both. But when a guest in the laundromat adds a bit of magical realism by casting a spell that prevents them from lying, that which is undercurrent becomes explicit.
I am not sure whether or not the chief unspoken thing between them is supposed to be a plot spoiler or not. Given how strongly Walls stresses the film is about representation and him not seeing himself in the buddy comedies he grew up with, I suspect not. And, to be honest, within the first five minutes, I had correctly deduced the nature of their relationship and what the climactic scene would be.
That transparency is not a deal breaker, but it is a problem. Were the script a bit more skillful, a bit more willing to explore the impact of what was unspoken rather than simply using it as a climactic reveal, I would have appreciated it more. The writer’s childhood film viewing experiences notwithstanding, the character getting up the courage to share his secret is perhaps the most familiar form that this genre takes when dealing with adolescents. (I think, for example, of Love, Simon.) I would like to think that we have arrived at a point of cultural development where two characters with this level of history could work through such a revelation with a few less histrionics, and I would have preferred a film that more or less started where this one ended.
But, as a critic friend of mine used to say, that was not the film I was given, and we should be responsible for evaluating the film as it is, not how it measures up to some imaginary incarnation of it in our heads. The film I was given has one stellar performance from Mithcell Wray as the confessor and one good one from Charlie Schultz as the friend who is supposed to be surprised by his best friend’s confession even though we aren’t. If Dirty Laundry has a longer than anticipated half-life, it will probably be because Wray or Schultz breaks out in something more commercial and people go searching for their earlier work. Though there is enough restraint in the writing that I wouldn’t mind seeing what Walls does next, either. Can he write other characters with this much detail, or has he been writing and revising the climactic scene in his head for so long that it will be hard to move on to anything else?
