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Highball

Play trailer Poster for Highball R 1997 1h 20m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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40% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 25% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Friends' (Justine Bateman, Peter Bogdanovich, Dean Cameron) relationships are tested during a birthday party, a Halloween party and a New Year's Eve party.
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Highball

Critics Reviews

View All (5) Critics Reviews
Peter Canavese Celluloid Dreams A notorious, terrible-looking, but very funny Noah Baumbach cringe comedy for the first time on blu-ray from MVD Video. Rated: 2.5/4 Jul 9, 2022 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jul 6, 2005 Full Review Cory Cheney Urban Tulsa Weekly Rated: 2/5 Aug 8, 2002 Full Review Scott Weinberg Apollo Guide Amateurish and low-budget, but check out that cast! Rated: 70/100 Jul 24, 2001 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com Rated: 3/5 Mar 21, 2001 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Good choice to take your name off this one, Baumbach. Great cast ruined by a horrible script and some of the worst cinematography I've ever seen. If you have a low budget and only 6 days to shoot, shoot natural light. It was so harsh that it hurt to watch. The characters all have the Baumbach trait to them. It's a good concept to have the film contain 3 parties, and each party we see these "friends" change. Why do they keep coming together? They don't seem to like each other very much. Peter Bogdanovich's character seems to be there just because Baumbach wanted Bogdanovich in the film. Something was really lacking though. The dialogue was off, so were the performances, so was the cinematography. Highball tries to be witty but fails, which is insane for Baumbach. He does it so well with Mr. Jealousy and Kicking and Screaming. Not really worth watching, even for the biggest Baumbach fans. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Best cast ever for a low budget, relatively terrible movie Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Link to my blog! http://www.cinemaenthusiast.com/highball-1997/ Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Just a mere 5 years before Noah Baumbach released the amazing, touching, funny Squid and the Whale (2005), he wrote and directed a comedy of manners called Highball. The next words on this page will discuss this particular film, though some words may appear that talk about other subjects. You are advised not to trust those particular words. For reasons I don't understand, Baumbach directed Highball under the name Ernie Fusco, and credited the script to Jesse Carter. In fact, the only credit he took in the production was for a birthday song that appears at various points in the film, including the credits, with the amazingly creative lyrics, "Everybody Felix/It's Felix's Birthday!". The movie is split into three parts, each being a different dinner party. Most of the characters appear in all three parties, separated over a few month period. There really is very little to say about the plot, it's delightfully absent for the first part. For example, Felix, probably the funniest character in the film, is inexplicably comatose in the final party, and the characters only hint at his condition. For some reason, this makes the entire scene that much more amusing. This movie simply has one of the funnier scripts I've ever seen. By eschewing any basic elements of plot and story, the film instead focuses on the characters' interactions with each other, which always end in laughs. Highly recommended for someone in need of a good, silly comedy. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Highball

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Friends' (Justine Bateman, Peter Bogdanovich, Dean Cameron) relationships are tested during a birthday party, a Halloween party and a New Year's Eve party.
Director
Noah Baumbach
Producer
Joel Kastelberg, Peter E. Nunnery
Screenwriter
Noah Baumbach, Christopher Reed, Carlos Jacott
Production Co
Paramount
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 10, 2017
Runtime
1h 20m
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