Better Off Single: A Hallucination-Filled Dating Comedy

Aaron Tveit and Abby Elliott star in “Better Off Single,” arriving in theaters and on demand October 7. Image courtesy of GRAVITAS VENTURES

Produced, edited, written and directed by Benjamin Cox, Better Off Single stars Aaron Tveit, Abby Elliott, Lauren Miller Rogen, Kal Penn, Shane McRae, Kelen Coleman, Annaleigh Ashford, with Lewis Black and Chris Elliott.

To put it simply, this is a New York City dating comedy and the main focus is Charlie Carroll (Tveit). He’s seeing a therapist. He also just quit his job and broke up with his girlfriend, Angela (Abby Elliott), on the same day. His journey to finally meet the one as well as finding himself is filled with hallucinations.

It is not until after Charlie is free from his previous relationship in which he starts to enter the NYC dating pool. Charlie realizes he doesn’t want to be single and starts to consider whether or not he made a mistake. In fact, he might not even be ready for life in general.

Unemployed and single, Charlie starts to find himself and suffers from hallucinations, flashbacks, and fantasies in the process. He just isn’t able to get over Angela. His friends try and help but with his obsession over Angela, he appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown if he doesn’t meet the one sooner rather than later.

From their first meeting on a plane, it seemed like Charlie and Angela would spend the rest of their lives together. If this were a true romantic comedy, that’s what would have happened. Angela drank too much for Charlie’s comfort and she was becoming more like her parents (real-life dad Chris Elliott plays her on-screen father).

Charlie’s best friend is Vince (McRae) and he wants to help Charlie but is driven crazy by the the constant rants about dating. Vince is engaged to Kathy (Rogen). Kathy is the conscience of the group of friends, unlike Brice (Penn), who could easily be the movie version of Barney Stinson before Stinson did his best to settle down and find live.

At 1:21 in length, the movie is rather short. Throw in the 10 minutes or so credits at the end and the movie seems to be just a glorified made-for-TV film. With a super-limited theatrical release, it’s for the best that this movie gets seen by an on demand audience. How wide of an audience, who knows. There’s a few stars in the movie but not much to warrant a huge audience.

Danielle Solzman

Danielle Solzman is native of Louisville, KY, and holds a BA in Public Relations from Northern Kentucky University and a MA in Media Communications from Webster University. She roots for her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, and Boston Celtics. Living less than a mile away from Wrigley Field in Chicago, she is an active reader (sports/entertainment/history/biographies/select fiction) and involved with the Chicago improv scene. She also sees many movies and reviews them. She has previously written for Redbird Rants, Wildcat Blue Nation, and Hidden Remote/Flicksided. From April 2016 through May 2017, her film reviews can be found on Creators.

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