Blu-ray Review: Lola Versus

Relationships can be a gigantic nuisance. Just ask anyone who has ever been in one — especially an individual that has just been dumped. Why, I’ve been left holding the bag many times, and have discarded my time with another human being on several occasions myself. For poor Lola (Greta Gerwig), however, her dreams of being a beautiful June bride have become a waking nightmare of loneliness and confusion — as her former fiancée (Joel Kinnaman) has just left her hanging in that precarious limbo of uncertainty for no apparent reason. Worse still, her horoscope predicted this whole sordid thing was going to happen. Damn mass-publication hippie astrologers!

Lola, on the other hand, feels about as lost and dejected as one of John McCain’s major campaign supporters did on the evening of the 2008 Presidential Election. In fact, she may feel even worse than that. Sadly, we’re not entirely sure — as the filmmakers behind Lola Versus really didn’t seem to be too terribly interested in keeping the attention of their viewers transfixed to the screen for any sort of semi-lengthy duration. In fact, you’ll probably want to tune out before the story even starts, as the film begins with a (what seemed) lengthy dream sequence — one that ultimately attempts to push you away once it mentions something about discarded vibrators.

I mean, I realize that that might appeal to some of you, naturally. It’s rather silly nonetheless. But for Lola, however, it appears to be an omen of sorts; a premonition of loneliness that is headed her way like a bat out of Hell. And the timing of this impending disaster couldn’t be any worse: she’s about to turn the big 3-0, working on getting her PhD in 19th century French literature, and all of her friends are — as you might expect — extremely weird and about as reliable as a mechanic’s estimate. So, she begins to sulk about a bit. A lot, actually. She also tries to find her place in life as she simultaneously attempts to rebel against the world.

Well, that’s what the title suggests. Really, she just whines a lot and sleeps with a bunch of losers. The only true insurgence here is the one that takes place against the audience at the behest of the filmmakers.

Fox Home Entertainment releases Lola Versus to Blu-ray in a High-Def presentation that shows off the best the shot-on-Super-35 flick has to offer. There is nothing too terribly negative to report as far as evils or annoyances go (translated: no signs of debris, DNR, etc.), and the overall picture quality is pretty sharp and colorful for a modern-day film of this caliber. Accompanying the movie is a DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless mix that brings out the abundance of noise a movie set in NYC is expected to have, while the infernal “quick-witted” dialogue and music are presented quite clearly.

Special features for Lola Versus include an audio commentary from writers Daryl Wein (who also directed) and Zoe Lister-Jones (who didn’t), a batch of deleted scenes, several gag reels (none of which are very amusing), a couple of behind-the-scenes/making-of featurettes, some footage from the movie’s premiere (which are in SD, for some reason), and a trailer.

In the end, Lola Versus is just another forgettable dramedy about breaking up. Granted, I will give the writers credit for the very last few seconds of the film, wherein they finally managed to make me crack a smile and say “Yup.” It’s a real darn shame they couldn’t have put as much effort into the rest of their feature.