MICHAEL STRASSNER AND LIZ LARSON IN THE BALTIMORONSA little Christmas charmer about fixing a tooth and finding romance in BaltimoreTRAILER Cliff (Michael Strassner), a newly sober improv comedian, cracks a tooth on Christmas Eve in Baltimore and lands in the emergency care of Didi (Liz Larsen), an older no-nonsense dentist. What begins as a routine checkup sparks a long unpredictable evening of misadventures. As he's getting fixed by Didi, Cliff's car gets towed so she ends up helping with that. Together, Cliff and Didi fight to overcome being shut out by their families, face their biggest fears, and discover their own surprising and tender connection. A major charm of this little offbeat rom-com for me, admittedly is that the film, directed by veteran ultra-indie director Jay Duplass and co-written and starring Baltimorean Strassner, is so evidently shot in Baltimore and shoots little seen Charm City with such a knowing and appreciative eye. This is the town where I grew up and my parents were born and lived all their lives, and it rarely gets such a good look. Strassner also includes several of his family members more or less as themselves.
Aliceanna Street, on Baltimore's Inner Harbor; that's the location of the only dentist is who Cliff can find open on Christmas Eve when he chips a tooth and needs urgent care. The tooth is not Cliff's first mishap today. Things all started when Cliff, a big soft bear of a man, tries to hang himself in the attic of his house. That this fails is a good thing, of course.
Cliff is a recovering standup comic. He's a guy with a gift for living but also a gift for messing up. He's an alcoholic, who's just achieved six months sober. His fiancee Brittany (Olivia Luccardi) is very pleased to hear that when he joins her - but then he falls and damages the tooth. Didi, the dentist, becomes Cliff's cohort and companion for the next twenty-four hours, as things turn out. The film stays close to the spirit and methods of standup comedy. It feels improvisational but the way improv goes when it's going right.
For Cliff improv has been intimately connected to drinking. He doesn't believe he can do it when he's sober so he hasn't done it for half a year. This will change when Didi pushes him to go to improv night at a popup in an auto garage with his frieds and he goes on the stage, joined by Didi. This is a milestone for Cliff. The whole crazy but curiously blissful time with Didi prompts the realization that he is. not really ready for the conventional format of having a fiancee. Didi, an aging divorcee with grown kids and good credit and a tough, realistic outlook, is a safer place for him, if she'll have him. And by film's end it seems maybe she will.
The movie feels authentic not only because of Baltimore but because Strassner uses his own life as the basic format here. This is Duplass working on film for the first time in a n a while and for the first time away from his brother and usual co-director Mark.
This film is about honesty, which in the time-honored twelve-step program of which Cliff is an active member, is an essential given. It's about realism, hope, and being ready to grab the good times in life sober. This happens when Cliff is with Didi. Somehow all this feels a natural for the Baltimore setting. Baltimore is a non-nonsense kind of place. There's a special kind of clear light in the streets when you see the Washington Monument in the distance (the little, older, rounded Baltimore one on the cobblestone square where my friend Michael settled for his last years), and the harbor skyline glitters prettily at night. We're in good hands with the amiable spirit of Mr. Strassner and the fortitude of Ms. Larsen, necessary since this is primarily a two-hander, ably helmed by Jay Duplass, working solo without his brother who has retired from directing. The tech credits for this little film are seamless and easy, the way smoothed by a quiet background trio of piano, drums and bass. It's nice to see that the team of
The Baltimorons - the humorous, forgiving epithet is also the name of Cliff's former standup team - touched base at the Senator Theater on York Road near where I grew up, the classic local movie house where John Waters and Barry Levinson films have opened, as have numerous other films set and shot in Baltimore.
The Baltimorons, 101 mins., premiered at SXSW Mar. 8, 2025, also in Phiadelphia and other US festivals followed by Munich, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Toronto, Stockholm, and Baltimore. Now available online since Dec. 13, 2025.
Metacriticrating: 75%
JAY DUPLASS, LIZ LARSON, MICHAEL STRASSNER AT SENATOR SCREENING
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