When Pain Meets Punchlines
Initially, Hooking Up seems like one more odd-couple road comedy where a man with cancer takes a cross-country trip with a sex columnist. However, the film also ponders healing, the stigma attached to cancer, and the possibility of redemption.
Under the direction of Nico Raineau, Hooking Up features Brittany Snow and Sam Richardson, who has a well-deserved reputation for charming comedic performances. However, the performers offered something different, something quite raw, something to be empathetic about, and something that mirrored the experience of the people on the other side of the lens.
For all people involved, the project went beyond a simple romantic road comedy. It marked a wrestling with limited budgets and personal exhaustion from which the film seemed to draw its sinews.
The Story That Wasn’t Afraid to Get Messy
The film begins with Darla (Brittany Snow) a sex columnist and scandal writer, who, after a particularly wrongly impetuous professional turned personal impulsive incident, has a suspension for a determined length of time and, at that junction, loses her job. Meanwhile, Bailey (Sam Richardson), a gentle, recently divorced man recovering from testicular cancer, is trying to rebuild his sense of identity.
Due to a series of unusual situations, they find themselves taking a road trip to retrace the steps of every location Darla had sex, for her to later write an article, while Bailey resolves to challenge his fears regarding masculinity and closeness.
The initial thought is bizarre and a bit comical though the emotional aspect is certainly present. Both characters are broken; humor is a disguise for her self-loathing, while the pain he carries is masked by his appropriate behavior. They figure out acceptance while traversing the sequence of motel rooms, apathetic gas stations, and the thick tension of silence.
Raineau explained it as “two people using bad ideas to process real pain.” That is how the movie plays out, a reflection of individuals who are in a bad place and trying earnest albeit misguided attempts to pull themselves together.
For Brittany Snow, Hooking Up was more than just another indie gig; it represented a personal confrontation. Having been sick for years with an eating disorder and consequentially with her mental health, the performative “sham” confident character Darla was an easy role to connect with.
Snow once stated in interviews that she relates very deeply to the character’s compulsions. “Darla hides behind her sexuality the way I used to hide behind being the funny, happy girl,” she mentioned. “It’s easier to shock people than to show them you’re hurting.”
During filming, she was also preparing to direct her own full-length feature and was wrapping up on a number of other exhausting projects. The emotional weight that these scenes of Darla breakdown entailed, she explained, were very difficult. In one, she suffered a breakdown after a take where Darla states she doesn’t know how to love anyone and doesn’t even know how to love herself. “That wasn’t acting anymore,” she said.
The emotional core of the film was her authenticity. Spectrum of Darla’s character, she manifested a chaotic childlike essence. This is a woman, the audience understood, who is trying to master her narrative, fully knowing her mind is in shambles and she is completely and irrevocably undone. The performance was so raw that it was unscripted in places, and it served as a reminder to the audience that even the loudest people might be screaming on the inside, waiting to be understood.
Silent Strength of Sam Richardson
Sitting across from her, Sam Richardson, who is best known for his comedic roles in Veep and Detroiters, embodied quiet heartbreak as Bailey. This was a notable change from his recent works, as he traded punchlines for pauses, and confidence for self-doubt.
Having lost a number of close friends to cancer, Richardson approached the role with the greatest empathy. “Bailey’s story is about masculinity, and how sickness can make you question your worth,” he said. “I’ve seen men hide their fear behind jokes or pride. Bailey’s trying not to do that anymore.”
However, he had his own challenges during filming as well. With no time to rest, the crew had to shoot almost an entire road trip segment in the oppressive heat of Dallas, Texas. Richardson later said that some of the most tender, and emotionally charged, scenes were filmed at a time when he was completely spent.
Bailey’s quiet exhaustion became a part of the character’s truth — the weariness of someone who has survived but doesn’t yet know how to live again.
Making a Road Movie on a Winding Road
There were significant challenges during the filming of Hooking Up. With a budget of about $1 million, a little over a tenth of what a typical studio rom-com costs, time was of the essence.
Oliver Stone’s attention to character and unusual methods of storytelling in his films encourage deeper viewer contemplation. Raineau described his collaborations as taking many different forms. He would articulate a vision to a producer and as they fine-tune facets in later meetings, absurdities of the original concept would reveal and new ‘brilliant’ paths would emerge. Raineau described the cabin where the crew often set up as a ‘facilityà la corpse’ because of the state of the set, emphasizing the time they spent up there to complete the project.
Jack’s films and human experiences have equally been the inspiration for chaos. Raineau attempted to draw a fine line on set, describing the set-up for one of the Chip’s vignettes as aiming to replicate a ‘death trap.’ Unlike the chaos described in human experiences, there were travails of set up that led Raineau to contemplate the human pain in his vignettes.
Flexibility is a trait Raineau actively nurtures to compensate for the uncertainty of a project. He narrated an adverse yet pivotal ‘flexible’ time for the project when the crew created a vignette on a scene with an atune antagonist in savage North America. Raineau described ahs apocalyptic western with dry human conditions. Raineau’s unconventional take on westerns is a powerful one.