An Intervention (2021)

Twelve Steps Off the Ledge

If you thought The Social Dilemma painted a grim portrait of unchecked media influence on American culture, I present you a real museum-quality piece: An Intervention. True, writer/director Dan Eden’s mockumentary isn’t actually about Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram—in fact the characters appearing therein are barred from using their cellphones at all. But most of them carry on as if they are the stars of a constantly recording, constantly adoring reality show that conflicts with the half-dozen other series that also happen to be filming in their immediate orbit.

We open with a dramatic news report showing surveillance footage of a car spinning out of control and crashing into a building. That car belongs to a young alcoholic named Henry Volkman (Phil Platakis), who never got over his high school sweetheart, Chelsea Bledsoe (Kaitlin Eden), and is still reeling from the death of his entire extended family during a reunion that, by sheer chance, he and his twin sister, Marcia (Kara Brinkman), were unable to attend.

Chelsea sees the news segment and decides to host an intervention for her ex-boyfriend. Her husband, Graig (Jeremy Eden), is only too eager to help, as the event will provide him a captive audience on which he can test a new roast recipe. They enlist the services of professional interventionist Liam Crabb (Michael Klappauf), whose teetering lid of professionalism barely contains a bubbling cauldron of disdain for everyone he meets.

For reasons I don’t recall, a small documentary crew has been invited to film the proceedings, and as numerous guests arrive at the Bledsoe home, we come to understand the true motivations (conscious or not) of everyone’s participation. Henry’s best friend, Frank (Ryan O’Hara), is an aspiring wrestler; K. Paul Pennington (Bryan Schmiderer) wants to show off his new trophy wife, Kat (Katie Binkley), promote his re-branded candy company, and prove to the world that he is not, in fact, gay; Henry’s sister, Marcia, wants to craft a sympathetic image for her 2028 congressional run as a Kansas Republican.

Last on the list of anyone’s priorities is Henry, who serves as the audience’s incredulous conscience—ironic, since he’s the one who ostensibly needs the most help. To be clear, Henry has real problems that require patience, understanding, and structure to overcome, but in the face of this preening cadre of attention whores, it’s no wonder our sympathies lie squarely with him as he sneaks into the basement, offering a flask to the equally beleaguered camera crew.

The most obvious way to categorize An Intervention is as a Christopher Guest-style film: faux documentary aesthetic, oddball characters, and an oddly specific niche setting that’s mostly unrepresented in mainstream movies. Unlike Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show, however, Dan Eden infuses real soul and emotion into his freak parade, while also providing a sharp meta-commentary on the new-millennium currency of showing off our “best selves” at all times to the public while concealing the sadness, failure, judgement, and old fashioned mediocrity that define most of our less-than-glamorous lives (the very human part of the human condition that drives many to escape through drink—or social media).

I found this confluence of pathos and satire to work in bursts, but it created an uneven tone throughout. That’s not really a criticism; just a way of saying that I had to re-calibrate my expectations in real time. I can’t think of a movie in which Christopher Guest swung from a hilariously pathetic back yard brawl to a genuinely emotional reading of an intervention letter, or asked his audience to see themselves in each of the caricatures on screen instead of merely laughing at their antics.

Sure, it’s easy to snicker at the hypocritical counselor’s marriage woes, or roll our eyes at the Bledsoe’s declaration that buying a dog is the perfect practice for raising kids. And the chauvinistic wrestler, the closeted businessman, and the opportunistic politician provide a lot of laughs while bouncing off of each other’s totally bizarre and often conflicting reality shows. But in the end, these are all just clever enticements arranged neatly by Eden, who makes us nice and comfortable before getting some things off his chest—things we desperately need to hear.

Note: Part of me wonders if I would have enjoyed An Intervention as much as I did had it not A) taken place in my hometown of Bolingbrook, Illinois (the first and only film, to my knowledge, to have this distinction), and B) featured a cast and crew whose work I greatly admire—several of whom I know in some capacity. I’ve interviewed Dan, Jeremy, Kaitlin, and Katie for various creative endeavors over the years, such as the indie films I Hate Theatre!: The Movie and Villain. And I’m a regular guest on the Eden’s excellent film podcast, 90 Under 90.

So, how objective can I possibly be when reviewing one of their movies? What if I’d hated it? Would I even know if I’d hated it—or would my affection for the creative team dampen any negativity I might have felt while watching a movie run straight off the rails? I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t expect you to believe any rationalization I might offer if I did. The best I can say is that I laughed a lot during An Intervention, and I felt a lot, too. Most importantly, I’ve thought about the movie every day in the week since I saw it and am now seriously considering getting some kind of help.