There’s a reason why indie directors love working with Jason Schwartzman. He is incredibly versatile and can make an audience laugh with just a little facial tic. While written and directed by Somebody Up There Likes Me’s Bob Boyington, 7 Chinese Brothers is completely Schwartzman’s movie.
7 Chinese Brothers, which shares a title with a song used during the end credits that Boyington felt fit the film, centers on Larry (Schwartzman), the laziest person seen in a movie in awhile. After getting fired from a restaurant for filling a cup with alcohol from the bar, he gets a job at a Quick-Lube garage. He really knows nothing about fixing cars, but the garage’s charming manager Lupe (Eleanore Pienta) captures his attention and he worms his way into a job there.
The one noble deed that Larry does is visit his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) at a nursing home whenever he can. The two are perfect for each other, mostly because they are the only members of their family left. His one friend also works at the nursing home and is much more charming than he is. Major (Tunde Adebimpe) is just about everything Larry aspires to be, but he’s too lazy to do it.
Sure Major is a good friend, but his real friend is his adorable bulldog Arrow (played by Schwartzman’s real dog Arrow). Larry talks to Arrow like he’s just another person and somehow gets these hilarious reactions from a dog that’s just as lazy as he is.
This new film from Boyington is definitely more straightforward than Somebody Up There Likes Me, a 75-minute movie that somehow spanned decades. 7 Chinese Brothers is more of a character study than a film with a plot, but it still has the weird tone that ran through Boyington’s previous film. There’s a sense of quirkiness that isn’t a copy of Wes Anderson, since Boington's script is much more personable. We spend 75 good minutes with Larry, understanding his character. That helps the ending to be even more satisfying.
But the key to the movie is still Schwartzman’s performance. Boyington said in a post-screening Q&A that Schwartzman really contributed when it came to little visual gags. There’s a scene when he uses an apple as an icepack for a black eye, then eats it. Writing that out doesn’t sound funny, but just picture Schwartzman doing it. Another ongoing gag is his “fat kid getting out of a pool” joke, which is only repeated because Schwartzman liked it.
Of course, Boyington didn’t give Schwartzman all the best lines. Dukakis is hilarious as Larry’s grandmother and Adebimpe’s flat delivery of jokes adds to his character’s apparent infallibility.
7 Chinese Brothers is all about how a person finds happiness. While we might question Larry’s dedication to anything, if that’s how he wants to live his life, then so be it.
image courtesy of SXSW