Written by Ben Murchison
Paddleton is an eccentric buddy comedy on Netflix that is packaged within a deeply emotional transition for both of its main characters. It highlights the awkwardness and dry humor that exists in the final months of their friendship as they come to terms with a terminal cancer diagnosis before it reaches its very sobering conclusion.
This film was Directed by Alex Lahmann and written by Lahmann and Mark Duplass who stars as Michael alongside Ray Romano as Andy and tells the story of best friends and neighbors who seem content to live their lives within the confines of their comfortable routine until Michael learns he has months to live. Their routine consists of making pizza, watching a kung fu film called Death Punch and playing a game that they invented called Paddleton which lends itself to the title. While Andy struggles to accept Michaels decision to end his life on his terms through a death with dignity medication, he reluctantly agrees to help him.
The first step is taking a road trip six hours away to a pharmacy that will sell the medication, and it is mostly through their time spent in the car and subsequent hotel room stay that we get to know them best. While Michael seems mostly comfortable interacting with others, Andy seems to have social anxiety and likely is somewhere on the autistic spectrum, which would be supported by his comfort with routine, and with Lahmann’s previous documentary Asperger’s Are Us. Watching their interactions with other people you appreciate what they provide for each other and understand why just spending time together is enough for Michael in his final days, and why Andy is so neurotic about it all.
As Michael deals with the pain and sickness associated with his cancer, he is comfortable with his choice, but Andy is having a hard time accepting a life without his friend. The pacing of the movie goes quickly, as after it establishes Michael and Andy’s relationship it must come towards its inevitable end which is done remarkably, and with more emotion than anything that comes to mind recently. The last twenty minutes of the film are so well acted that it truly feels that you are watching these two men go through this experience together, and it is likely heartbreaking for anyone that has endured it with a loved one.
It seems like this story could be told on a grander scale with the duo embarking on vacations and adventures together in the time they have left. Maybe Michael could lose the mustache and Andy could be less disheveled looking, or they could be more slapstick with the comedy or introduce a love interest, but that isn’t the story being told, and it isn’t where the real heart of the film lies.
Everyone knows someone like Andy and Michael from work or from school, or maybe they see themselves in one of the characters to an extent. These two guys found a level of comfort and belonging with each other that they never found outside of their friendship, and their bond as odd as it may seem to anyone else is essential in both of their lives and validated by this ill-fated journey.
For most people Romano and Duplass are both best known for then work on long running comedy shows, so while it isn’t surprising to see them deliver in that regard, their aptitude during the most intense and dramatic moments of the film are certainly going to impress. Mortality is a hard-subject matter to come to grips with, and Paddleton does a good job of bringing all the difficult questions up without trying to answer them or make the audience comfortable about its finality. If a film makes you feel something, and think about it well after its conclusion, then it enriched your life in some way and this one succeeds in that regard.
Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10
