CHUCK & BUCK
Year: 2000
USA: Artisan
UK: Metrodome Distribution
Cast: Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Ontiveros, Beth Colt, Paul Weitz, Maya Rudolph, Mary Wigmore, Paul Sand, Gino Buccola, Doug Keifer, Glory Simon, Barry G Thomas
Director: Miguel Arteta
Country: USA
USA: 96 mins
UK: 95 mins
USA Rated: R for sexuality and language
UK Certificate: 15 for strong language, sex and sex references
USA Release Date: 14 July 2000 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 10 November 2000
Synopsis
Director Miguel Arteta follows up his acclaimed debut feature Star Maps with CHUCK & BUCK. Written by and starring the gifted television and film writer Mike White, CHUCK & BUCK is the story of a childlike young man who becomes fixated on his onetime best friend, now a cool, polished young record executive.
Buck O'Brien (Mike White) exists in a state of suspended childhood, a 27 year-old man who still thinks and behaves like an 11-year-old. Buck listens to his old records over and over, plays with his Matchbox cars and he has never been to college, or even held a job. Living at home with his mother, he has remained frozen in time.
Buck's childhood friend, Chuck, has taken the opposite route and thoroughly embraced adulthood. No one calls Chuck by his nickname anymore; they know him as Charlie Sitter (Chris Weitz). Ambitious, confident and handsome, Charlie is living the American dream. Though not yet thirty, he's a fast-rising executive in the music business who has acquired all the trappings of success: a sleek car, a beautiful home in the Hollywood Hills and a lovely fiancee, Carlyn (Beth Colt).
Although they haven't seen each in fifteen years, Buck still thinks of Charlie as Chuck, his best friend. When his mother dies, Buck tracks down Charlie and invites him to the funeral. Alone for the first time in his life, Buck now turns to his old friend, the only other source of love and companionship he has ever known, believing that he and Charlie can pick up their friendship where they left off so many years ago.
But Charlie doesn't share Buck's nostalgia, and politely tries to give Buck the brush-off. Undeterred, Buck obsessively pursues his long-lost friend, moving to Los Angeles, staking out Charlie's workplace and home, offering him bizarre gifts, even writing a play that expresses his feelings. Knowing no boundaries, Buck tries everything that comes into his head to secure the love he once had and so desperately needs, and hang onto the childhood he doesn't want to end. Finally, in confronting Charlie about their shared past, Buck learns that letting go of childhood needn't mean letting go of his entire self, he can grow up and still be who he is.
