In every single place Cora (Megan Stalter) goes, she finds herself in conditions that beg others to ask one easy but pointed query: “What’s improper with you?” Cora might brush off such flippant passive-aggressive digs at her wellbeing and general sense of composure, nevertheless it’s quickly clear that Hannah Pearl Utt’s wry comedy “Cora Bora” will forcefully (and hilariously) get this aspiring musician to reckon with the life she’s attempting to construct for herself in Los Angeles, away from her household, her girlfriend and a previous she’ll quickly not be capable to run away from.
Life in L.A. doesn’t appear to be going nicely for Cora. In between daytime gigs at largely empty espresso retailers and late night time gigs at even emptier bars, her solo profession appears to be like to be floundering. With titles like “Desires Are Silly” and “Don’t Wanna Hear You Anymore,” her embittered folksy songs garner her few followers. They’re a far cry from the rueful pop stylings of her erstwhile group “The Possibly Nots,” which is not any extra.
Cora’s hookups lately are awkward and generally even finish in tears. Out of the blue, even her supervisor is leaving the business to start out up a microbrewery together with her soon-to-be-husband, all whereas Cora’s girlfriend Justine (Jojo T. Gibb) again in Portland retains dodging her calls — proof maybe that their open relationship might not be understanding that nicely for both of them. There’s solely a lot delusion that may gas Cora’s present scenario. And so, in a futile try to curry favor with Justine, Cora books a flight dwelling to shock Justine at her commencement social gathering.
Toying with a well-known narrative (“Cora Bora” is ostensibly a homecoming story about discovering your manner again to your self), Rhianon Jones’s script nonetheless vegetation sufficient surprising left turns that make Cora’s wayward days in Portland really feel like playful twists on well-worn tropes. It helps that all through her journey — which has her smoking weed with Justine’s new girlfriend (Ayden Mayeri’s Riley, as flummoxed by Cora’s return as anybody else), hanging out with a gaggle of younger buddies who randomly invite her into their van, attempting to get right into a bar the place a bouncer received’t let her in and ridesharing to the outskirts of the town for a Tinder match — Stalter will get joined by a string of stellar actors that properly play off Cora’s frazzled vitality.
Sure, there are Margaret Cho, Darrell Hammond and Chelsea Peretti cameos. However maybe probably the most impressed supporting casting alternative right here is Manny Jacinto (“The Good Place”) as a bespectacled and all-around good man who retains working into Cora in more and more distressing conditions. In one other movie, Jacinto’s Tom could be a rom-com match with Cora. And whereas there may be palpable chemistry between the 2, Utt’s movie refuses such a tidily knotted arc for them, even when their meet cute on a airplane — the place the ever-charming and bashful Jacinto meets Stalter’s dry supply beat for beat — is a pleasure to observe.
In the end, “Cora Bora” locations Stalter, in a cheetah-print fur coat, badly dyed blond streaks and inexperienced boots, entrance and heart. For anybody who’s adopted her work within the Max collection “Hacks,” or who has been charmed by the comic’s many viral social media movies (“Hello homosexual!” being, maybe, her most well-known, spoofing because it did rainbow capitalism), “Cora Bora” is a welcome probability to see the performer in a quieter, extra affecting register. Cora is a little bit of a large number — messy, even — and Stalter’s signature awkward-inducing humor stays intact right here. Her deadpan supply of traces like “L.A. is superb. The individuals are actually actual. Not actual like they’re right here, however they’re actually attempting to be one thing that they’re not … but” keys into her capacity to make non-sequiturs into comedy gold.
Dropped right into a story that slowly (too slowly, maybe) reveals itself to be about how Cora is struggling to maneuver previous a traumatic second in her latest previous, Jones’s screenplay offers Stalter loads of alternatives to lace her cringe-worthy humor with extra melancholy notes. It’s a difficult tonal steadiness that generally falters (an odd late-night would-be orgy with of us allergic to labels and into late-night music jams feels a bit too off-kilter), and that requires some suspension of disbelief, particularly with regard to how Justine and Cora method their distinct long-distance dynamic.
Regardless of such unevenness, “Cora Bora” performs like a humorous, fleshed-out character portrait of a flailing younger lady attempting to grasp why her equally abrasive and aloof demeanor are doing her no favors. Scored with songs by Miya Folick (who fronts The Possibly Nots within the movie) that carry out a poignant, gentle pop rock sensibility to the proceedings, this distressing sojourn via Portland proves to be a (largely) satisfying romp — each softer- and harder-edged than Stalter’s personal model of comedy would initially counsel.
