When Ida (Eliza Coupe), cheeks streaked by mascara tears, unexpectedly shows up at her sister’s house, the unadventurous Alison (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) bargains her way out of mom duty for the night and the two head off to an Eastside L.A. wine bar. There they run into Will (Demetri Martin) and the freshly divorced, sweat pants-attired Clark (Kyle Bornheimer). After some commiserating about mismanaged marriages and other adult concerns, the foursome head out into the night, determined to prove they still have what it takes to have a good time.
The Last Time You Had Fun, also starring Charlyne Yi, Jimmi Simpson, and Todd Berger, is a delightfully funny and poignant grown-up comedy directed by Mo Perkins, written by Hal Haberman, and produced by Drea Clark. I recently had the chance to talk to Mo Perkins.
Danny Miller: What impressed me the most about this film, besides the great performances all around, was how you got these four characters to the crazy places they go and still have it all seem quite plausible and relatable.
Mo Perkins: That was what we were aiming for so I’m very happy to hear you say that!
They all seemed like people I’ve met. Was it a challenge to avoid going too broad or farcical?
We worked really hard at that balance. My husband, Hal Haberman, wrote the script. At that point we’d been married 10 years but we had many friends who were married longer and there seemed to be a lot of re-evaluating going on in our social world. It was something very interesting to us that you don’t see all the time in movies. From the beginning, we wanted to make it funny and light, but we also wanted to take something on that was genuine and real.
I’ve been married for 10 years, too, and I love that this is clearly a film about marriage and yet we barely see these characters’ spouses. I will say that in the one scene when we see Alison’s husband, I knew he’s supposed to look like a total jerk but I was thinking, “He doesn’t seem like such a bad guy overall.” I kind of felt for him. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that!
No, that’s great! That was our challenge — to show people behaving very badly at times — which we all do — without completely judging them.
Did you ever consider showing Will’s pregnant wife?
No, we didn’t. I think Will starts out the most unlikeable — he has this kind of sleazy veneer. But then you start to learn more about what’s going on with him and why he came to adopt that veneer. Hal and I both thought if that if you actually saw his pregnant wife and then heard some of the things he was saying, it would be much harder to get him where we wanted him to go!
Good call. Somehow even considering doing sleazy stuff when you have a pregnant wife at home is a whole different ballgame.
Yeah, Hal and I talked about it for a long time. We have a kid and it definitely ups the stakes — you’re responsible for more than just yourself when you bring a life into the world. Not that either of us think that couples should stay together just for a kid. I hope it seems a little open-ended with Will. From my perspective, I think Will grows up a little during the course of the film and realizes that he’s going to be a dad and all that means, but that he doesn’t have to be an unhappy husband. It’s complicated — his character was definitely the most challenging.
I guess every film is like a Rohrschach test because I left the film feeling quite hopeful for Will’s marriage. Alison’s, too — maybe I would have felt differently if I saw the film at a different point in my life. I have to tell you how impressed I was with all of these actors. These were complex characters to portray and they were so damn good.
I think every one of them is fantastic. I wooed them all into this with the prospect of doing something that they may not normally get to do. I was so grateful for everything they brought to those roles.
I know they’ve all worked a lot but it must have been great to sink their teeth into such meaty parts. I’m guessing that there wasn’t a lot of money here—
Oh, you don’t have to guess about that. There wasn’t!
I admit that when I first saw Ida at the beginning, I thought, “Oh God, here we go, another shrill, nutty character who is a ticking time bomb of trouble.” And yet her transformation over the course of the film is incredible, I completely fell in love with her!
Eliza Coupe is so great. She’s known for being funny but she is right on the cusp of doing everything. I think people get known for something that they do really well in this town and sometimes they don’t get to wander out and try new things, but she’s so good at both comedy and drama. You’ll be seeing a lot more of her and the others.
Did working so closely with your husband on this film provide any special challenges?
You have a different level of responsibility when you’re directing and it’s his words! Sometimes I’d come off the set and he’d ask, “So, how did it go?” And I’d say, “It was great today!” and he’d say, “Yeah, but did they say the lines I wrote?” (Laughs.) I guess there was an extra pressure on me to really honor what was written because I was married to the writer!
You couldn’t just throw away pages willy-nilly!
Not that I ever would! If I really wanted to add something new, I had to investigate what it was I wanted to do and why. But that’s the attitude a director should have anyway. You don’t just wander away from the script unless you have a really good reason. Not to say that Hal was breathing down my neck because he wasn’t at all — he was actually pretty gorgeous about letting go.
I watched this film with my wife and I know that as funny as it is, it brings out all sorts of emotions in people. Have you ever get any reactions that you didn’t expect?
When we showed it in Austin, someone stood up and said, “So you’re just against marriage?” This person thought every marriage depicted in the film was terrible and I must be against the entire institution. Believe me, that was not at all our intention! I said that in my mind, it’s an optimistic film because these are all people who are coming to some personal truths that’s going to make it better for everybody in their lives.
I happened to read that article you wrote last year after you shadowed Jill Soloway on the set of Transparent. Boy, I love that show!
There’s nothing better on TV right now. Jill Soloway is so inspiring to me.
Did you do that because you hope to work on similar kinds of projects?
Yes. Anyone making content right now is realizing that there’s no longer a barrier between television and feature films. Having more skills is just smart. Jill’s show makes it so clear that television can be really exciting and that it’s now tackling the content that used to be delegated to the indiest of indie films. Jill is a complete inspiration to everyone right now — we’re all looking at what she’s done and saying, “Okay, the lid’s off!”