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Baked in Brooklyn
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Well Go USA Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (23rd December 2016). |
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The Film
 "Based on an unfictional story," Baked in Brooklyn depicts the belated coming-of-age of David Shapiro (Silicon Valley's Josh Brener), the first generation American college-educated son of Russian immigrants (Brewster's Millions' Tovah Feldshuh and The Deer Hunter's Joe Grifasi) who finds himself paying his dues at a boring corporate consultancy job, numbing his boredom with hallucinogens, partying on the weekend, and writing a music blog on the side. No sooner does David meet and fall for unpaid law firm intern Kate (Texas Chainsaw 3D's Alexandra Daddario) and offer to let her move in with him and roommates Joe (Tyrone Brown) and Mike (the Fame remake's Paul Iacono) than he is laid off. Too proud to tell his doting mother he is unemployed and not wanting Kate to slip away (and back to the absent boyfriend she was with when they first met), David hits upon the idea of dealing marijuana. Despite the warnings of threatening supplier Ace (Fighting's Michael Rivera) that smartass David should keep the conversation with his customers to a minimum and suppress his need to express himself (after admitting that he views dealing as an experience to fuel his writing), David texts his entire contact list the message: "Hey, this is David Shapiro. I lost my job, so I sell weed now. This is my weed number. Text me if you need, please. I deliver. Also feel free to pass this number around." David gets no takers until he hits upon the idea to advertise via Craigslist and soon finds himself delivering by bicycle to a series of regular customers at all hours of the day. As David becomes embroiled in the lives of his regulars – among them a jaded trust fund baby (Todd Bartels), a soon-to-be-ousted CEO (Royal Pains' Mark Feuerstein), a hippy (Chris Northrop), and vaguely flirtatious Mary (Girl, Interrupted's Drucie McDaniel) – he finds their situations more depressing escapism than literary fodder. David's working hours soon take a toll on his relationships with his roommates and Kate who worry about David's safety and also warn him that he will be an impossible hire for a legitimate job if he gets caught. Based on this film and its vague similarities to Get a Job, the job safety and career goals of millennials is simultaneously despairing and tiresome with their emphasis on unconventional methods of creating one's "brand" (the protagonist is the namesake of the screenwriter but there is little indication in the film or a general internet search as to how autobiographical this "unfictional" story really is). The loosely-structured story hits upon its plot points and touches upon its character arc in a rather lackadaisical manner, with the worst of the effect his new line of work has on his relationships with his friends is David being too tired to play tennis with Mike and dozing off during his surprise birthday party. Thankfully, Brener and Daddario have sufficient chemistry for the emotional turmoil of their relationship to be more interesting and the climax effectively bittersweet. Not wacky as far as "stoner" comedies go or particularly subversive, Baked in Brooklyn is more of a "cute" time-waster than an indie sleeper. 
Video
This digitally-lensed indie film looks very fine most of the time in Well Go's single-layer 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen transfer with some softness and murk creeping into under-lit scenes (although a certain roughness around the edges suits the film's feel). 
Audio
Well Go USA give the film their usual audio array with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo downmix. The 5.1 track is fairly sedate apart from the usual exterior atmospherics and party scenes in which the music reaches the surrounds but then lowers almost artificially when dialogue is exchanged. Optional English SDH subtitles are also included. 
Extras
The sole extra is a trailer (2:16) for the film. 
Overall
Not wacky as far as "stoner" comedies go or particularly subversive, Baked in Brooklyn is more of a "cute" time-waster than an indie sleeper.
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