A circle of friends who met in college struggle to come to terms with their successes, their failures, and their ambitions as they approach their 30th birthdays in this independent drama. Yuppie Julie (Nicole Bilderback) has been scaling the corporate ladder with skill and enthusiasm since graduation, and her longtime boyfriend and husband-to-be, Andrew (Ryan Locke), wants to take what he's learned from his years as a businessman and apply it to a new firm he plans to launch. However, Andrew is
lured away from his plans by fast-talking financier Louie (Terry Serpico), who takes advantage of Andrew's workaholic nature and causes a rift between him and Julie. Julie's brother Tony (Andrew Wei Lin) hasn't had much success with long-term relationships until he meets Robert (Bill Sage), a handsome and charming academic. However, Tony is troubled by the fact Robert is almost two decades older than he is, and has been diagnosed as HIV-positive. Ben (Colin Fickes) is overweight, painfully shy and lonely, and is hoping that Andrew will give him a job with his new company that will take him out of his rut. And Felix (Thomas Sadoski) is embarking on a tentative romance with Lucy (Cordelia Reynolds), but that, like everything else in his life, is compromised by his ongoing addiction to heroin. The New Twenty was the first feature from writer and director Chris Mason Johnson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Writer/director Chris Mason Johnson is a sharp observer of urban life, and his story moves along so briskly that you won't spend much time considering the fact that it should have been set in 1999
Co-writer/director Chris Mason Johnson's amateur debut effort could be credited with creating a new genre of pretentious triteness tailored to define of the pop slang word "Redonkulous."
There's something uniquely irritating about the kind of too-serious-for-its-own-good alternative-lifestyle drama subheading that Chris Mason Johnson's The New Twenty neatly falls under.
There's nothing particularly new or moving in this study of friends growing up and apart from one another, which only makes you want to yell, "Move on! College was ten years ago!"
Chris Mason Johnson's ensemble drama could've been just another earnest time capsule about friends in their late twenties; what saves it from devolving into mere mumblecore is a broader-than-average outlook.
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