Bachelor parties have long been the cultural equivalent of a Viking funeral. Except instead of sending the lifeless body of a berserker felled in battle out to sea on a blazing longboat, it’s a bunch of dudes drinking themselves into a stupor, consuming their body weight in drugs, and hiring strippers to commemorate the end of sowing their wild oats. But what do you do when your engagement ends without any notice? If you’re the characters in the new indie dramedy Joshy from writer-director Jeff Baena, you go right on ahead with that proud American tradition and dial it up to eleven. Or at least you’ll try to, as you’ll see in this exclusive clip from Joshy in which Brett Gelman, Nick Kroll, and Alex Ross Perry realize that making small talk with the sex worker (Lauren Weedman) you’ve hired for your bachelor party can be excruciatingly uncomfortable.
The film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, stars a murderer’s row of funnypeople, including Thomas Middleditch, Brett Gelman, Jenny Slate, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Pally, Nick Kroll, Lauren Graham, Alison Brie, and many more. Middleditch plays the eponymous Joshy, a man who suddenly finds himself suddenly fiancé-less before getting married. But rather than letting him succumb to sadness, Joshy’s pals decide to give their forlorn friend the weekend of a lifetime at his would-be bachelor party in Ojai, California. The dark comedy isn’t your standard cinematic story of a debaucherous bachelor weekend though; it’s an exploration of grief, friendship, and catharsis too. But don’t worry — there’s plenty of jokes in there, so you won’t leave feeling like Giles Corey crushed under the weight of an emotional boulder.
Here is the film’s official synopsis:
“After his engagement suddenly ends, Joshy and a few his friends decide to take advantage of what was supposed to be his bachelor party in Ojai, California. In their attempt to help Joshy deal with the recent turn of events, the guys turn the getaway into a raucous weekend filled with drugs, booze, debauchery, and hot tubs.”
Joshy opens in theaters and on VOD on August 12, 2016.
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).
