Publication Date: 09-16-2025

The Baltimorons (2025) review

Dir. Jay Duplass

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

When I think back to my high school days, I recall just how formative mumblecore was for my ongoing love for movies. I caught the train late, around 2011, when some would argue the filmmakers behind the subgenre — Joe Swanberg, Andrew Bujalski, Alex Ross Perry, and of course, the Duplass brothers — had graduated to making films with larger budgets and more polished aesthetics as opposed to the shoestring, lo-fi, shaky-camera works that were their bread-and-butter in the late-aughts. No less, the freeform structure of these films, improvisational dialog, and amateur actors (one of whom, Greta Gerwig, who went on to direct Barbie) all drew me in to what felt like anarchic American cinema.

Just as I found myself gravitating to the works of brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, the pair ceased directing movies. The Baltimorons marks Jay Duplass’ first feature directorial effort since the brothers’ The Do-Deca-Pentathlon in 2012. During this time, Jay has been an actor, a producer, and even behind-the-camera for a few TV shows. Seeing him slip back behind the camera for a long-form work was a treat in itself. Seeing it on the big screen was something special too. Luke Combs said it best: “that might not mean much to you, but it does to me.”

Taking place over the course of Christmas Eve, The Baltimorons introduces us to Cliff Cashin (cowriter Michael Strassner), a recovering alcoholic who is six months sober, en route to Christmas dinner at his fiancée Brittany’s (Olivia Luccardi) mother’s house when he collides into the door frame and chips a tooth. Writhing in pain, mouth bloodied like a boxer, he manages to find a dentist, Dr. Didi Daw (Liz Larsen), willing to come into work. In her office, we learn a lot about Cliff. A former improv comic, he seemingly can’t stand the sound of silence, so he fills the air with his nonsensical ramblings, awkwardly flirting with Didi and expressing anxiety about needles, until the dentist hits him with the sleeping gas.

Didi is a bit older than Cliff, divorced, and now facing the prospect of attending a party thrown by her ex-husband (Brian Mendes) to celebrate his marriage to his new, “younger” woman that morning. She assumes she’s off to grapple with the “should I or shouldn’t I?” decision when she notices Cliff, who just left her office, is frantically trying to call an Uber after his car was towed.

This is the start of an all-day excursion between the two unlikely parties. Didi takes him to the impound lot, where they have to break the vehicle out. From there, they contemplate getting dinner. Cliff is trying to resist temptation to attend a Christmas Eve comedy show organized by some old friends he hasn’t seen since he put down the bottle. Didi would like to see her grown daughter, but that would mean having to go to her ex-husband’s hastily organized last-minute party. Meanwhile, Brittany tracks Cliff on her phone, worrying whether or not her fiancée’s oral episode and lack of a vehicle is gonna lead him down a skid row back-alley in search of some Thunderbird.

The Baltimorons deals with two lonely souls at different crossroads in their lives. Didi appears forever haunted by her “high school sweetheart who turned out to be a nightmare,” as she describes him to Cliff. Now that he’s gotten married on Christmas Eve, and her daughter remains close with him, she’ll now have to be reminded of that fact when the weather turns cold and the sleigh bells start ringing. Meanwhile, Cliff is still learning how to operate without the social conduit of alcohol. Becoming a teetotaler has seemingly forced him to stay away from his hard-partyin’ friends and colleagues, to the point where he has given up the stand-up/improv life all together in favor of becoming a mortgage lender. At least he thinks. He’s not sure if he passed the test, but he’s certain he got a couple questions correct.

Like most Duplass movies, The Baltimorons succeeds in large part due to the characters’ personalities. Michael Strassner has a genial presence to him, even when he’s talking too much or seems overwhelmingly consumed by his own prankster ways. There’s a great moment when he interacts with Didi’s ex-husband, Conway, where he’s basically acting as a stand-up comic heckling an ignorant audience member. He subtly ribs him for his unconventional name, and when the conversation shifts to the Baltimore Ravens, and Lamar Jackson, Strassner’s Cliff replies “I’m sure you are” to Conway proclaiming that he’ll always love Joe Flacco. He’s broad and oafish, but he means well and is often very funny.

Liz Larsen is every bit as good, though perhaps conveying the look of pained and weary in her eyes. The moment when Didi receives a call telling her that her ex-husband got married on Christmas Eve and the newlyweds are hosting a party on Christmas Eve has her sniffling and just about to cry before hurrying to compose herself for her impromptu patient. It’s in these quite moments that Larsen finds herself emoting to such a profound yet subtle degree that it’s easy to take for granted how effective she is.

Credit is due to both Duplass and cinematographer Jon Bregel for capturing the beautiful side of Baltimore, a city that’s often in the political crosshairs for being synonymous with urban rot. Bregel’s camerawork portrays the city on the eve of a major holiday as lived-in and homey; a place where gatherings shift to cozy interiors, be them domestic living spaces or ramshackle comedy clubs, everyone in search of a happy place. While time is never mentioned, you can tell by the sunlight and the shades of overcast grays coupled with the peeking blue sky when it’s about noon and when it’s that slightly upsetting 3pm/4pm-haze when darkness starts becoming imminent. Downtown regions, the suburbs, and even the industrial quarters of the city, all of which at one point or another major players in the film’s story, feel lived-in.

Complementing its lead/cowriter Michael Strassner, The Baltimorons feels like a work of improv in itself. But like improv, you can tell the talent behind it worked diligently at their craft to make a simple story this funny, multilayered, and moving.

Starring: Michael Strassner, Liz Larsen, Olivia Luccardi, and Brian Mendes. Directed by: Jay Duplass.