Tina Kakadelis
Since the surprise screening at Telluride of the upcoming Elizabeth Holmes-centric documentary, You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder’s name has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Fielder is someone whose comedy will rub a lot of people the wrong way, and he would likely take that as a person. The Toronto International Film Festival-premiering Anchors Aweigh doesn’t feature Fielder, but it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to think it could. Anchors Aweigh is a cringe, pseudo-man-on-the-street comedy about how embarrassing it is to be alive.
Anchors Aweigh opens with lyrics from Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song.” The featured lyrics are about finding a peace of mind of sorts where there’s “nothing to fear and nothing to doubt.” Everything around the nameless main character (Matt Barats) in Anchors Aweigh, fills him with fear and doubt. The downward spiral of his life begins when he proposes to his much younger girlfriend (Serena Profaci), who says she needs space and leaves. This thirtysomething man is now on his own, and the only place he can afford to live is a sailboat docked near LaGuardia Airport. Desperate to win his ex back, he begins a misguided self-actualization journey.
In addition to starring in the lead role, Barats also wrote and directed Anchors Aweigh. It’s a messily personal reflection on the ways we try and fail to connect with people. Not just the main character’s failed relationship, but the fact that he’s forced to start over again. He may be an adult in age, but there’s a bit of a never-grow-up mentality to him that creates the arrested development prison he’s found himself in. This man is bumbling around, trying to figure out what to do with his life, like most of us are. His attempts at finding companionship, making jokes, and rekindling his relationship are not pretty to watch, but it’s the fact that he’s trying that makes Anchors Aweigh cringey and endearing.
A viewer will know almost immediately if this type of humor will suit their funny bone. If they’re already a fan of Nathan Fielder, Anchors Aweigh will likely scratch that same itch. The main character is as though Fielder decided to get in tune with his emotions. Both Anchors Aweigh and Fielder’s breadth of work enjoy the simple absurdities of being alive, but Fielder closes himself off more from the feelings related to the events around him. Barats won’t let a scene go by without reminding the audience that he’s a little sad, a little lonely, and “hornier than a ten-dick dog.”
Barats’ main character wants to prove to his ex-girlfriend that he’s doing something artistically purposeful with his life because she has dreams of Broadway. He wants to prove that he’s also soulful and artsy, so he goes back through old VHS footage he shot in his younger years. As he’s describing the project to people, he keeps referring to it as “a series of loosely connected vignettes.” When he tells that to his ex, she asks why he doesn’t put in the extra work to connect them all into one story. Therein lies the essence of our main character. Someone who believes life is happening around him without understanding he has the power to guide his existence.
A passivity exists for those who feel lost, disillusioned, and lonely. Barats’ Anchors Aweigh mixes all those heavy emotions together to spit out something ugly, silly, and stupid in the best way. There’s no air of confidence or pretentiousness. How can there be when Barats is arguing about Family Guy in front of a crackling VHS camera? In an attempt to find companionship after the breakup, the main character meets another man living at the marina. This man tells Barats’ character that he needs to “get that boat out on the water.” It’s not so much about finding peace in the open water, but the act of doing, which is more than Barats’ character can say about many aspects of his life. Anchors Aweigh likely won’t work for many because of its cringe comedy DNA, but for those who thrive in the uncomfortable, this is a surefire success.
