Movie Review: 'It's a Disaster' -- 3 stars

It’s a Disaster
3 stars
Directed by Todd Berger
Starring David Cross, Julia Stiles, America Ferrera
Rated R
Playing at the Village East and Nitehawk Cinema

"It's a Disaster" is the story of annoying millennial couples who gather for a Sunday brunch at one of their homes and discover, at some point before the quiche is served, that the world is coming to an end.

When it comes to high concepts, you could do worse, especially with actors such as David Cross, Julia Stiles and America Ferrera involved and a narrative that is filled with schadenfreude. Put simply, this isn't one of those movies where you hope humanity will be saved.

Writer-director Todd Berger smartly uses the apocalypse as a catalyst for his dissection of a particularly modern form of self-absorption; there's nothing like a major disaster to rouse you from a technologically-induced zombie state. Betrayals come to light and old hurts are aired in between drunken dance parties and moments of generally panicked frenzy.

Each character is meant to illustrate one of the stages of grief and in some ways the movie is an elaborate conceptual ruse. The opening conversation, in which Stiles' Tracy expresses the agony of getting no satisfaction when Cross' Glenn turns off his car radio right before the climax of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," reverberates throughout the film.

But sometimes it's fun to be manipulated. It's impossible to care about the characters, but that's fine because they're just meant to be archetypes anyway. And at its best, Berger's flick has the manic energy of a quality bedroom farce mixed with the urgency that comes with end times unfolding just outside the front door.