Extremely Unique Dynamic (2024) ‘VQFF’ Movie Review: Triple Meta Film is Neither Smart nor Sufficiently Lively

In “Extremely Unique Dynamic,” Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu, who are also directing the film along with Katherine Dudas, play two childhood best friends, Daniel and Ryan. The two are roommates in LA. We meet them at the point where Daniel is set to move to Edmonton. To do something fun together and have a jovial last time before the two parts, they decide to cobble together a movie.

Neither of the two has the faintest idea of what the film could be about. Nor do they pull out a lot of stops. What’s vital is they have a good time and tap into something that aptly articulates their ease with each other. The tussle remains one between simplicity and cleverness. They shuffle in several layers of self-reflexivity to pepper mischief and sparkle into the proceedings. But it also seems those binds are posited as distractions from the center of their relationship.

The film is light and buoyant. It doesn’t labor its points, or at least that’s what it designs itself as. What starts out as two friends shooting the breeze does, though, shift to urgent, repressed considerations. These two are the best childhood chums. They share a long history. Their families and lives are all intricately linked with the time that has deepened the friendship. But do they know everything about one another?

Could there also be some intimate, fundamental secrets about their identity one is holding off from the other? Is it a fear of judgment that adds a veil to what seems like a freely open, transparent relationship on the surface? Will the dynamic shift with the knowledge that one is gay? Hence, the film Ryan and Daniel toy with putting together obviously becomes everything about a final confrontation of personal truth before Ryan makes his big move to Canada with his girlfriend.

However, too many issues with the screenplay and direction impede the film from blooming with its desired scrappy honesty. Under the pretext of a clueless DIY ramble that underpins the film the friends seek to make, there’s no sustained energy. The humor forces itself with awful, amateurish silliness in many scenes.

So, when Ryan teaches Daniel how to deflect in an attempted scene of a person asking his gay friend about his dating experience, the entire thing comes off as facile and puerile. Daniel tries to act all witless and naïve. Therefore, Ryan has to school him, and we have to watch a cringe-inducing protracted scene where the characters try out the situation thrice. Each successive time, it becomes progressively foolish.

A film like this has to earn its meandering course. Yes, the actors must give the impression of winging it and making things effortless and purely instinctive. This airiness is crucial. That’s where “Extremely Unique Dynamic” slips big time. It would help if you had a slinky sharpness to land the outing as believable, fun, and frothy.

The sweetness and bumbling nature also start to grate. So do the two actors, whose performances mostly go in circles. This is a very brief film. Yet it’s tough not to speculate that it could have easily been snipped heftily. The writing is too thin and broad. The guys serve out every stereotype about Asian Americans as a helpful reminder, which they aspire to demolish.

“Extremely Unique Dynamic” keeps its ambitions modest. Right off the bat, the characters enumerate it’s a home video film they are making, with ample servings of nostalgia and warm remembrance. Yet, the film feels too slight, simultaneously too hurried and spread out. There’s the routine spark of a sudden anger, which dissipates soon enough. The switch to sober emotional terrain doesn’t stick to the landing. A latter force-fitting of yet another meta layer sinks the entire affair.

Extremely Unique Dynamic screened at Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2024.

Extremely Unique Dynamic (2024) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Letterboxd
The Cast of Extremely Unique Dynamic (2024) Movie: Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu, Hudson Yang, Nathan Doan
Extremely Unique Dynamic (2024) Movie Runtime: 1h 13m, Genre: Comedy/Drama