Swingers (1996)

You're so money, baby. You're so money and you don't even know it. This week we're sliding into a booth at the Dresden Lounge for Swingers (1996) — Jon Favreau's razor-sharp, effortlessly cool, painfully funny and quietly heartbreaking independent film about heartbreak, male friendship, and the desperate grind of trying to make it in Hollywood that launched three of the most significant careers of the late 1990s, entered the cultural vocabulary permanently, and has only gotten better with age. This is the movie that made everyone say "baby" for two years. We are not apologizing.Written by Jon Favreau — who completed the screenplay in approximately two weeks as a semi-autobiographical account of his own post-breakup spiral after moving from New York to Los Angeles — and directed by Doug Liman, the film follows Mike Peters (Favreau), a struggling comedian six months out of a six-year relationship who cannot stop thinking about his ex-girlfriend Michelle, as his supremely confident friend Trent Walker (Vince Vaughn) drags him to Vegas and across the Los Angeles nightlife scene in a relentless attempt to get him back in the game. Ron Livingston is Rob, Heather Graham is Lorraine, and Patrick Van Horn is the magnificently irritable Sue. The Dresden Lounge and the Derby are playing themselves.We're going deep on everything: the remarkable fact that more money was spent on music licensing for the film than on the actual production itself, the extraordinary chain of events by which Steven Spielberg happened to watch the film while clearing rights for some Jaws music cues and was so struck by Vince Vaughn's performance that he immediately cast him in The Lost World: Jurassic Park — a single viewing that launched Vaughn's career into the mainstream, the "you're so money" phrase being directly inspired by the Spike Lee and Michael Jordan Nike commercials, and the legendary answering machine scene which was inspired by a Jeff Garlin standup bit and has since become one of the most purely excruciating and hilarious scenes of second-hand embarrassment in American cinema. Favreau and Vaughn had met while working together on Rudy, and the characters were all loosely based on their real friend group — with the screenplay drawing almost verbatim from real conversations.We're also asking the big questions: is Swingers the greatest film about male friendship and heartbreak of the 1990s? Does it hold up as a portrait of a very specific Los Angeles moment, or is it universal enough to transcend its era? And who in your life is the Trent — and who is the Mike?Whether you're a Jon Favreau fan, a Vince Vaughn admirer, a Doug Liman enthusiast, a lover of 90s indie cinema, a 90s swing revival devotee, someone who has ever left one too many voicemails after a breakup, someone who has ever been dragged to Vegas by a friend when all you wanted to do was stay home, or just a person who believes that true friendship means telling your guy he's money even when he absolutely does not feel it — this episode is essential.Topics covered: Swingers 1996 | Jon Favreau | Vince Vaughn | Doug Liman | Ron Livingston | Heather Graham | you're so money | best 90s indie films | best buddy comedies | best breakup films | Hollywood struggling actor films | 90s swing revival | Los Angeles nightlife | Dresden Lounge | the Derby | answering machine scene | Spielberg cast Vaughn Lost World | Rudy connection Favreau Vaughn | Jon Favreau screenplay debut | Doug Liman Bourne Identity connection | best independent films 1990s | most quotable 90s movies | best low budget films | Miramax films | Vegas road trip movies | post-breakup movies | male friendship films | best ensemble castsSubscribe, rate, and leave us a review — and tell us: who in your life is the Trent, and who is the Mike? And what is the absolute maximum number of voicemails a man can leave before it becomes unforgivable?YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@RegularorMentholContact us: [email protected]