After his brother's wedding, the best man Charlie (Graham Coffeng) invites a number of the guests over to the bride and groom's house for a late-night afterparty. All of these friends, who haven't seen each other in years, are all at a different stage of their life. For instance, Tracy (Ali Liebert) has a successful television series, Bruce (Nicholas Carella) has recently ended his marriage and is “rebooting” his life, Dave (David Milchard) wishes he reunited with the guys more often, and Charlie is not-so-successful actor, who receives an ultimatum from his husband Derek. With all these long-time friends now in their 30s, they use the night to air out their baggage and contemplate the status of their life. Afterparty is a film based on a completely improvised script, consisting nearly entirely of lengthy conversations between the various guests at this afterparty. In many ways, this story might have have been better suited at a play, rather than a film, since it not always that interesting watching a bunch of people stand around talking for 90 minutes. That said, you do get to know the characters more as the film progresses and the film as a whole gets more interesting as the subject matter of the conversations get more serious. As someone in his early 30s, I have to admit that I related to the worries of many of these people, particularly involving the line that “time gets very fast after you turn 30.” While Afterparty is a bit boring in parts, with many of the early scenes coming off as little more than filler, it did turn into a somewhat interesting character study of people at a crossroads of their lives, who are wondering about what they should do next.7 | FAIR
