HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS (2015)
I started watching The State right around the time it stopped filming. In 1995, my friends and I had a plan to drive into the city and see an episode taped live, but pre-internet popularity, we had no idea that there were no new episodes coming. I was left with the VHS tapes I had made off of MTV to watch and rewatch, committing not only lines and beats to memory, but music cues, blocking, wardrobes. It became a way of life for me, not just sketch comedy, but a love and idolization of those 11 performers specifically. This kind of devotion can only be developed when you're young, taking hold of a mind that's just been blown by the exposure to something new that connects with you on such a deep level, you feel your cellular makeup change. Also, any and all information about them was hard-fought-for (again, pre-internet). Every morsel I found out about The State felt earned. I remember when they were featured in Details magazine, I felt like I had won the fan lottery—finally something to hang on my wall.
Made up of ten men and one woman, their (relative) closeness to my own age made them feel more accessible than anyone on SNL or The Kids In The Hall. I religiously followed any and all career developments: the airing of a State Halloween Special on CBS, the cast appearing at MTV's Beach House, ¡Viva Variety!, Stella, pilots, bit parts in movies, bands, stand-up shows, podcasts, everything. We got older together, and I was able to watch their careers grow in ways that my little teenage heart could never have dreamt. At this point I've been following their 11 careers for 26 years, more than half of my life. It's no wonder they feel like friends.
When I found out Michael Showalter had written and directed a movie, I dutifully tracked down a copy. THE BAXTER initially presents as a romantic comedy, with Showalter in the lead, surrounded by Justin Theroux, Michelle Williams, and Elizabeth Banks. But with him at the helm, there's an energy to the film that's almost old-timey, classic, but ridiculous at the same time. It's sweet and odd, which is the exact kind of magic Showalter brings to his follow-up feature, HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS.
Sally Field plays Doris, a sixty-something data entry clerk who develops a paralyzing crush on her new, younger coworker, John (Max Greenfield). While Doris is not innocent, she's inexperienced, and with the help of a friend's granddaughter, she dips her toes into the world of catfishing on Facebook in hopes of finding out more about John.
Her new fixation serves as a happy distraction for Doris, who has just lost her mother after a long illness. Their shared home, stuffed to the ceiling with years of accumulated "junk," is a point of tension between Doris and brother, who would like to sell the house and split the money.
I liked the movie my first viewing, but when I sat down to watch it a second time earlier this year, I had forgotten all of the more serious elements of it. What stood out was the sweet nomance in the center of it, and the two stars. Sally Field in cat's eye glasses, dancing to EDM, so likeable in her Sally Field way. Greenfield, her object of affection, was the main draw for me after Showalter. I fell in love with him when watching New Girl, and his John is effortlessly charming. John is really just a regular dude, sweeter and kinder than most, sure, but not dull like sweet and kind men are sometimes written. His smile flashes with ease, and it's easy to see why Doris likes him so much.
A movie about an older lady with a crush on a younger man, written by a member of The State, promised to be silly and funny and maybe a little romantic. It's absolutely all of those things. There are moments that have Showalter's fingerprints all over them: bizarre and acutely comedic. One of the most Showalter-iest scenes is John using a bicycle pump to re-inflate a yoga ball Doris is forced to use as an office chair. The physical comedy from Greenfield is almost creepy. I love it? Field chomps on celery or mentions her bad knees and the silliness is just there, present. But it's the vulnerability of Doris that has stuck with me.
Be it mental illness or oversentimentality, Doris holds onto everything she finds, adding to her collections at home. She's also in mourning for her mother, but it's clear Doris has been mourning her own lost opportunities for far longer. When she finally breaks down, admitting these things to herself and to her brother, the movie is miles away from the light and quirkiness of her interactions with John. It's heartbreaking. I absolutely love her romantic pursuit, but the the strongest kind of intimacy I felt from HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS came straight from Doris herself.
It's delicate work to balance that sort of emotional heft with the machinations of a workplace crush. Showalter and co-writer Laura Terruso (who made the short that the film is based on) expertly blend the heavy with the breezy, the same way the absurd threads are woven into more traditional comedic models.
There's plenty to explore in the universality of having a crush—navigating the overwhelming feelings, the excitement, the daydreams, sharing new details with friends, trying to arrange interactions with the object of your desire without that desire being obvious. It's not just Doris' age that leads to the misinterpretation of general kindness and attention for something more, it's something most of us have optimistically done. New love is weird for everyone. New lust and infatuation are even weirder.
For me, it's the limbo between weird and routine where Showalter has done his best work so far. He's gone on to direct three more films since DORIS: THE BIG SICK and THE LOVEBIRDS were both sizeable hits, and THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE (with Jessica Chastain playing Tammy Faye Bakker) is due out later this year. I'm excited to see it though, like the other two, unfortunately Showalter isn't credited as a writer. Hopefully his next movie as writer and director can tap into some of the same warm, off-kilter magic of HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS.
HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS is currently available to stream on Hulu and on Amazon Prime.
