Chuck & Buck

Stuck in a state of arrested development, willfully naive Buck (Mike White) moves to LA with the sole aim of rekindling a boyish friendship with his childhood pal in this daring dark comedy.

Chuck (Chris Weitz), who now goes by Charlie, has grown into a professional music executive with a steady girlfriend. Charlie is clearly uncomfortable with Buck’s incessant insistence to revive the past, and rebuffs Buck’s numerous advances—from nonstop phone calls to unexpected office visits. Unable to fully process the pangs of rejection, Buck decides to write a play based on their early kinship, and enlists the help of Beverly (Lupe Ontiveros) to stage the production at a local community theater in order to win Chuck’s affection.

At once cringeworthy and exceedingly earnest, Chuck and Buck was shot on digital with a shoestring budget, and received a much ballyhooed premiere 25 years ago at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Miguel Arteta from a razor-sharp screenplay by Mike White (The White Lotus), it remains a fascinatingly thorny character study and an offbeat relic of early 2000s independent filmmaking.

Queering the Canon: So Obsessed is presented in partnership with NewFest