THEY should sell antidepressants along with the popcorn at theaters showing Cecilia Miniucchi’s “Expired,” one of those Sundance “comedies” that make you contemplate slitting your wrists.
Samantha Morton and Jason Patric give pointlessly committed performances as a pair of much-loathed parking enforcement agents in Los Angeles who improbably hook up.
She has poor social skills and a horrendous hairdo and lives with a wheelchair-bound mother (Teri Garr, who also plays her aunt). He’s a paranoid misogynist with a hair-trigger temper and an addiction to online porn who disdains everyone – including his son from a long-ago marriage.
Only in this kind of quirkfest would Morton’s character not flee instantly from his on-and-off flirtations – and Patric’s character begin to learn appropriate behavior from hanging around with her.
“Expired” derives much of its condescending humor from two characters without any hint of taste – they make love while her mother lies dead in the next room, facedown in a bowl of mashed potatoes.
Running time: 90 minutes. Not rated (profanity, sex). At the Angelika, Houston and Mercer streets.