Four Letter Words

Sean Baker’s feature debut is an acerbic, hilarious portrait of college-aged men unwilling to jettison the raucous immaturity of adolescence. It’s three in the morning as a group of friends, on break from their respective universities, let loose at a house party in suburban New Jersey, where beer, weed, and sex talk flow freely. Over the course of the night, simmering rivalries explode when pothead Sam (Henry Beylin) attacks the arrogant Jay (Matthew Dawson) over an ugly ethnic slur, and lady-killer Alex (Vincent Radwinsky) baits the jealous Drew (Edward Coyne) for his nerdy proclivities. Party host Art (Fred Berman) is left to clean up the wreckage from these various disasters (especially after a round of “Coca-Cola baseball”) as musician Noah (David Prete) chides him for not following his father’s footsteps into the corporate world. Reminiscent of early Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater, FOUR LETTER WORDS raises the bar for the indie hangout film through Baker’s re-creation of the unique patois of the North American undergraduate male—an absurd mix of vulgarity, braggadocio, and (every so often) glimmers of self-awareness.