Real Time

Here we have a Canadian film from 2008, which wasn't even given a theatrical release in the U.S., save for a couple of festival showings. It's unfortunate, because it's truly an undiscovered gem of a picture - easily among the best of the year.
I must preface this review by pointing out how astonishingly bad this film could have been. The plot is wafer-thin, and something we've seen many times before: A hit-man (Randy Quaid) gives a compulsive gambler who's $68,000 in debt (Jay Baruchel - Knocked Up, I'm Reed Fish) one hour to live. The movie takes place in "real time" - thus the almost cringe-worthy aptness of the title. So yes, by reading the paragraph above, it seems like an interesting diversion, but not exactly something to put on your must-see list.
But somehow, some way, this movie works. Credit a great script by writer/director Randall Cole and wonderful performances by the two leads for this movie's success. This is a film about dialogue. It's a low-budget picture, and mostly consists of the two men talking to each other in a car. It's sort of what I call the "holy trinity" of independent film. Some people may not be into it, but for my money, if you have two great actors speaking great dialogue, it's just as exciting as a car chase.
In this picture, all three guys step up to the plate and hit immediate home runs. Baruchel is great as lovable loser Andy Hayes, a guy who's most definitely getting what he deserves, but who somehow makes you feel that he deserves yet another chance. Randy Quaid turns in a career-best performance as Reuben, the hit-man who gives Andy one last hour to settle his affairs. Quaid has taken some real chances as of late, playing the homophobic ranch boss in Brokeback Mountain, and now this. In this picture, he plays the role with an Australian accent. What could have been a laughable mistake turns out to be a pitch-perfect and memorable character. People these days remember Quaid from his role as "Cousin Eddie" in the Vacation movies, but I always remembered him most from his early role in Hal Ashby's 1973 film The Last Detail (for which he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor), where he played a quiet, timid Navy man. In all honesty, if you compare these four roles - Cousin Eddie, Brokeback, Real Time, and Last Detail - this guy has some amazing range. Kudos to Quaid for taking these increasingly risky parts.
Last but not least, Randall Cole's script manages to be both funny and somber, at exactly the right moments - all in the span of a scant 77 minutes. And while there's only a few characters to speak of, they're all pretty well-drawn, given their short screen time. His direction is fittingly sparse, letting the actors take center stage.
The movie's not perfect - one sequence taking place at a fried-chicken restaurant (Andy's old job) feels strangely out-of place as it tries to hammer the humor home. But even this isn't a complete failure: I understand what Cole was trying to do, and the ending of the sequence provides a nice moment for the character of Andy. Hey - you can't have everything, right?
There are two moments in the film which I particularly liked. Two brief things which probably take up 10 seconds of screen time. Early in the film, speaking of long lost memories, Andy mentions playing with a Playdough barber shop toy when he was a kid. It's a short, fleeting moment, but it's a nice little detail. Later on, at his grandmother's house, he opens the refrigerator and presents Reuben with a deformed, flattened bottle of soda. As he does this, he explains how his grandmother would squeeze every last bit of air out of a two-liter bottle of soda, in order to maintain its freshness longer. Another nice little moment. A movie can't quite survive solely on things like this, but when they're present, they add just that little bit extra to push a good movie over into being great. I'm still thinking about this movie two days after I've seen it. Who knows if I'll be thinking of this movie two months or even two years from now, but at this moment, I still think it's pretty damn good.