{"id":26684,"date":"2025-07-12T14:43:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/?post_type=movie&#038;p=26684"},"modified":"2025-08-01T11:47:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T09:47:38","slug":"the-baltimorons","status":"publish","type":"movie","link":"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/en\/movie\/the-baltimorons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Baltimorons"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"moviemeta\"><li class=\"meta\">Jay Duplass<\/li><li class=\"meta\">2025<\/li><li class=\"meta\">USA<\/li><li class=\"meta\">99&#039;<\/li><li class=\"meta\">Romantic comedy<\/li><li class=\"meta\">English<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong><strong><strong>Funny, sweet, painful and romantic: that&#8217;s The Baltimorons&#8217; Cliff (played by co-screenwriter Michael Strassner, who we&#8217;ll be hearing more from) and Didi (the emergency dentist whom Cliff encounters on Christmas Eve and with whom he subsequently spends the entire evening wandering around Baltimore). Yes, he&#8217;s insufferable (and leaves his fianc\u00e9e waiting), but also irresistibly charming. Much like the film itself, the solo directorial debut from Jay of the Duplass brothers.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-create-block-the-catcher-slider\"><figure class=\"tccSlides\"><div class=\"tccSlide\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"tccSlideImg\" src=\"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/the-baltimorons-309700-scaled-jpeg.webp\"\/><\/div><div class=\"tccSlide\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"tccSlideImg\" src=\"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/The-Baltimorons.jpg\"\/><\/div><\/figure><div class=\"slick-arrow-tcc slick-prev-tcc\"><span class=\"buttonMiddle\"><\/span><\/div><div class=\"slick-arrow-tcc slick-next-tcc\"><span class=\"buttonMiddle\"><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:4rem\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>There&#8217;s something maddening about someone being so charming they can get away with being insufferable. But there&#8217;s also something utterly disarming about it. This applies to Cliff and, judging from interviews, to actor Michael Strassner as well, who doesn&#8217;t merely play Cliff but embodies him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cliff is rather like an enormous puppy\u2014one who knocks things over in his enthusiasm and constantly forgets everything, yet still looks genuinely contrite when scolded. Now, Clifford is a grown man who really does try to do grown-up things (he&#8217;s been six months sober, for instance) and genuinely attempts, when necessary, to have serious conversations and listen earnestly to what others have to say and how he&#8217;s hurt them. But you can see it takes effort. And that he&#8217;d rather bounce around like a puppy. And then immediately forget everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The director is Jay Duplass of the Duplass Brothers (who, incidentally, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/directors\/jay-duplass-the-baltimorons-mark-brothers-uncoupling-1236382916\/\">Jay claims<\/a>, would easily win a fight against the Coen Brothers and the Safdie Brothers because the Duplasses are in the best shape), making his solo directorial debut with The Baltimorons. It&#8217;s a more polished (and I don&#8217;t mean that negatively) version of what the brothers became known for: low-budget contemporary talky films (mumblecore).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which brings us to the second protagonist: the dentist whom Cliff encounters on Christmas Eve after walking into a wall while looking at his phone. She&#8217;s called Didi (Liz Larsen) and has her own issues, which he pokes at shamelessly and accidentally overhears. She initially rebuffs his advances because he&#8217;s thoroughly insufferable (and also because he keeps mentioning his fianc\u00e9e, with whom he should actually be celebrating Christmas at that moment\u2014rather as if he&#8217;s trying to remind himself: I have a fianc\u00e9e, I have a fianc\u00e9e).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>But he&#8217;s also charming\u2014and slowly but surely (and because various chance events keep them from saying goodbye at various Baltimore locations), she gives in. Just as I did. And just as the visitors to South by Southwest, where The Baltimorons won an audience award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d rather not have to mention that Didi is considerably older than Cliff, because the gender-reversed situation is so commonplace in cinema (and in the world)\u2014just look up Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. But it genuinely is part of the story: Didi&#8217;s ex-husband has remarried a much younger woman, she tells us, and she also references her menopause and grandchild. In one sense, her disappointment fits perfectly with Cliff&#8217;s hesitations about embarking on the whole house-picket fence routine, and in that regard the difference in life stages genuinely plays a role. But in another sense, not at all: these are simply two people with tremendous chemistry who fall hard for each other. He&#8217;s unfiltered and clumsy; she&#8217;s adventurous and suspicious\u2014boom!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So yes, it&#8217;s thoroughly insufferable how Cliff leaves his fianc\u00e9e with her mother at Christmas to gallivant about with his emergency dentist. But it&#8217;s also an evening I wouldn&#8217;t want to end. And that fianc\u00e9e (Olivia Luccardi) gets room in a handful of beautiful scenes to be a complete, fully-realised character\u2014angry, worried, and understanding, all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trigger warning: suicide plays a role in the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KEES Driessen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-create-block-tccyoutube\"><div class=\"video\" id=\"10a4a765-de8f-43bc-8ac0-d5a1cb31b963-unique\" data-url=\"\"><\/div><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster\" src=\"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/the-baltimorons-309700-scaled-jpeg.webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/the-baltimorons-309700-scaled-jpeg-300x169.webp 960w, https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/the-baltimorons-309700-scaled-jpeg-1024x576.webp 1600w, https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/the-baltimorons-309700-scaled-jpeg.webp 2000w \"\/><div class=\"playBtn\">Play<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-create-block-the-catcher-spacer\"><div class=\"desktopSpace\" style=\"height:60px\"><\/div><div class=\"mobileSpace\" style=\"height:30px\"><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group ticketsBottom\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-create-block-tccbutton\"><a href=\"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/en\/tickets\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"btnWrapper\"><div class=\"btnLeft shape shape2\" style=\"color:#ff7f67\"><\/div><span class=\"buttonMiddle\" style=\"background-color:#ff7f67;color:#ffffff\">Tickets<\/span><div class=\"btnRight shape shape2\" style=\"color:#ff7f67\"><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26690,"template":"","categories":[62],"class_list":["post-26684","movie","type-movie","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","category-feature-en","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Baltimorons - Pluk de Nacht<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plukdenacht.nl\/en\/movie\/the-baltimorons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Baltimorons - Pluk de Nacht\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Funny, sweet, painful and romantic: that&#8217;s The Baltimorons&#8217; 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