This LA-set breakup comedy at least has a nifty hook: when a longstanding couple part ways, who gets drinking rights at their favourite bar? After five years together, flannel-shirted carpenter Allen (Luka Jones) and go-getting talent agent Nina (Melissa Fumero) are undergoing what Los Angelenos now call a “conscious uncoupling”. Having never fought when they were together, their separation proceeds on the same smooth lines – until they set foot in the Martinez Bar & Lounge on the same evening, both on the town as singletons for the first time. Staff allegiances are divided, so they come up with a decider: Allen and Nina have to undergo a best-of-three bar challenge, with the loser “eighty-sixed” for good.
Debut director Jim Mahoney gets a tasty buzz on in the early stages, couching Bar Fight! as an upbeat Californian Christmas affair in the Shane Black tradition, with a rhythmical snap in his stride as the characters face off in front of the counter. He tries to make the Martinez a Cheers-style home-from-home, with boozy dramatis personae including soft-touch manager Dick (Vik Sahay), silver-tongued barman Mason (Daniel Dorr), and 1,000-yard-stare cook Elena (Dot Marie-Jones).
These mini-dramas are interwoven with the central competition, yet Mahoney goes weirdly light on the main rivals’ backstories. There is some character development in a jarringly wistful last stretch, when Allen’s stuck-in-the-mud nature and Nina’s restlessness come to the fore. Deprived of this extra depth for most of the runtime, Bar Fight! coasts on not-especially-interesting challenges (trike-racing; blindfolded darts) and smug snark, exemplified by Nina’s wingwoman Chelsea (Rachel Bloom) egging her pal on to “root some dicks”. (She seems to have drunk Steven Stifler’s dregs.) Bar Fight! wants to be the best night out of your life, but – mistaking dodgy drunken acting for ambience – it feels pretty ersatz throughout, like one of those pseudo-Irish bars that has bought in all its decor.
• Bar Fight! Is available on digital platforms on 14 November.
