Entertainment

NEW LOOK AT BLIND DATE

‘SO what are you looking for?”

“The love of my life.”

“On Craigslist?”

The tactics are new, but the goal is the same as ever in the indie romantic com edy “In Search of a Midnight Kiss,” which takes a bit of “Swingers” and a bit of “Manhattan” to create a slacktacular vision of uncertain youth in today’s L.A.

Wilson (Scoot McNairy) is troubled, lonely and confused – in other words, a comedy writer. He has $108 in the bank and no job, unless you count working the bong. As the movie opens, he is caught doing unspeakable, pantsless things with the picture of his roommate’s girlfriend. We are in the year’s final hours, so Wilson flings a Hail Mary pass onto Craigslist, hoping for a Doug Flutie-style last-second score.

As his mother murmurs disturbing words over the phone (“I’m getting breast enhancement”), a call comes in from Vivian (Sara Simmonds), who wants to meet him. Soon the two of them are sharing a strange afternoon and evening against the forlorn, prairie-empty backdrop of downtown LA.

Those strange vistas are photographed in creamy black and white by Robert Murphy, who finds enough dilapidated wonder to fill three Wim Wenders films as the pair quietly graze downtown’s minimal offerings. Their chosen transportation, the uncrowded LA subway, is appropriately cavernous, demonstrating the woebegone difficulty of making a personal connection in a city that keeps everyone at a distance. LA feels so empty and anti-human that the movie is a kind of “Omega Man” of love.

Wilson and Vivian have the same kinds of conversations you hear in other evaporating-youth films, and the story is slight, with a haphazard subplot about an ex-boyfriend of Vivian’s. But writer-director Alex Holdridge keeps the dialogue oblique and prickly while expertly drawing on the charm of his young leads.

McNairy’s rumpled passivity draws you in, and the beautiful Simmonds, who spends much of the movie under sunglasses she uses as both weapon and fortress, is splendid in either attack mode (she is fueled by vodka and milk) or when she gets her feelings hurt. Meanwhile, Brian Matthew McGuire provides excellent support as a sidekick somewhere between Kramer and Jason Segel.

LA filmmakers rarely take notice of their surroundings, which seem to strike them as artificial and boring, a mere workspace rather than a home. Having ventured to the edge of the known universe – 10 miles east of Beverly Hills – Holdridge and his cast are going to get a lot of attention on Wilshire Boulevard.

IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS

California Droopin’.

Running time: 98 minutes. Not rated (nudity, profanity, drug use). At the IFC Center and the 62nd and Broadway.