Must See Movie - SWINGERS (1996)

Today is the birthday of film director Doug Liman, who has been making films for over 25 years.

Although Liman may be best known for his popular action films like THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) and EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014) today’s Must See Movie is the USC graduate’s sophomore film, SWINGERS (1996), a breakout movie for himself, and unknowns at the time Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. Favreau wrote the script in a span of two weeks as an exercise to see if he could write a screenplay. He based the story on his experiences of breaking into the film industry and night life in LA. The film also pushed forward the careers of Ron Livingston and Heather Graham.

Liman raised $250,000 to make the film, with conditions that he was to direct. Most of the budget was spent on music rights. SWINGERS would later be sold to Miramax for $5.5 million.

The film is funny and has a 90s hip quality with 40’s swinger vibe. It benefited from timing. As it was released at the time that 40’s swing culture and music was on a revival upswing.

Some of the lasting contributions of the film has been the dialogue, with expressions like “You’re so money” and “Vegas, baby!”. Of course, the answering machine scene is one for the ages and worth the watch in itself. The scene was inspired by a comedy bit created by Jeff Garlin of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and ‘The Goldbergs’ fame.

Bravo TV ranks the film 58 in the top 100 comedies of all time. SWINGERS is available for rent on most streaming renting services.