"Straight Up" _ In the classic "His Girl Friday," Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell sling verbal jabs at the virtually unheard-of rate of 240 words per minute. I didn't keep a running count of the dialogue in the breathlessly hyper-articulate "Straight Up," mainly because I was too busy enjoying it. But as two pop-culture-obsessed L.A. millennials trying to see if they can build a relationship on snark rather than sex, James Sweeney and Katie Findlay make their own winning contribution to the motormouthed rom-com canon.
Sweeney, who also wrote and directed, plays Todd, a professional house-sitter who's beginning to question his homosexuality. He meets and bonds instantly with Findlay's equally whip-smart Rory (cue the "Gilmore Girls" references), and the two decide to give dating a go, based on their undeniable if strictly platonic chemistry. "Straight Up," which will be available for streaming on Friday, may court your eye-rolls with its arch visual style and precision-tooled one-liners, but its insouciant sensibility is the work of a fresh and disarming new talent.
_ Justin Chang
