“I need to be pissed off right now, OK?”

Justin’s rating: 1,677 cigarettes were smoked, and somehow I got second-hand cancer from watching it

Justin’s review: What was it like being a Gen X graduating into the real world in the ’90s? It was scary, uncertain, and — if movies are an accurate documentary of the process — a bit rebellious. My generation had an attitude, no doubt about it, and that made for some interesting indie films.

Today we’ll check in with 1997’s Mixed Signals, another one of those projects that can’t envision any life existing outside of southern California. Judy (Brooke Langton, Swingers) is a highly intelligent girl who’s struggling with what to do with her long-distance boyfriend. She’s best buds with Nick (Peter Johansson), a barista before they called them “baristas,” and slightly pretentious Alex (Jason London, Dazed and Confused), who’s spending way outside of his income level.

Each in their own ways, these three are wrestling with early career ennui, needing some forward momentum but at a loss as how to get it started. Alex is digging himself into a financial hole, Judy doesn’t know whether to choose between her boyfriend or Stanford, and Nick wants to become a novelist and profess his love for Judy. To get to wherever they’re going, a lot of coffee’s going to be drunk, cigarettes smoked, and silly conversations bandied about.

Early on, after a night of light partying (in costumes!), Nick sort of tricks the other two into an impromptu roadtrip-slash-therapy session to figure out stuff. They hit a diner, visit the Salton Sea, and paint mugs. Yet stuff isn’t figured out, and a crisis arises when Judy’s boyfriend Bob proposes over an answering machine, Alex gets sacked, and Nick finds out that his “great American novel” was already written by someone else.

Mixed Signals isn’t forging any new territory on Gen Xers trying to figure out their lives. Previous movies like Reality Bites and Kicking and Screaming covered these same topics, albeit with bigger stars, better writing, and more humor. There isn’t much of a story that’s progressing here — just a series of introspective and sometimes conceited chats in various LA locales, including the gang’s favorite diner booth.

Yet there’s a plucky spirit here that I admire even so. Judy occasionally talks to the camera, the conversations are plenty amusing, there’s a soft groovy soundtrack set to pensive drives, and all of the diner trips reminded me of those kinds of hang outs with my college friends late at night. You can see that these three are messes, but they’re trying, and I kind of wanted them to find their happily ever after.

Mixed Signals seems to be one of those small indie efforts that nobody noticed or remembered, but I think it’s deserving of being discovered. It’s cute and charming and fumbles its way around trying to find a purpose and say something meaningful. I don’t think it accomplishes that, but I’ll tell you one thing — Nick, Alex, and Judy will stick in my mind long after the end credits.

Intermission!

• “They don’t call it the armpit of the world for nothing!”
• Oh hello, Ms. Breaking Fourth Wall
• Everyone’s making smoking look so cool
• Judy’s clown costume… and Nick’s bunny outfit
• “We didn’t talk about it.” “I thought you were a communications major!”
• “Are you folks here on vacation?” “Actually it’s a kidnapping!”
• DINOSAUR ALERT
• “Oh yeah, I don’t feel well, there’s 40 years of dead fish here!”
• “That’s not art, Nick, it’s a bruise.”
• Who would propose over the phone? On voicemail? “He proposed to my answering machine.”
• Alex owns 42 pairs of shoes.
• Nick’s adorable little laptop, I think I had the same one
• “Anything else?” “A life for my buddy Nick.” “…No.”
• Now ALEX is breaking the fourth wall by smirking at the camera? Stop.
• “I’m a wealth of useless knoclwedge.”
• “I figure that by the time we’re in our mid-20s, we’re already damaged goods.”
• What is the Breakfast Club up to 10 years later?
• Sucks to Be You: A Novel
• “He didn’t steal it, he got there first.”