Jay Duplass gets behind the camera as a feature film director for the first time since 2012’s “The Do-Deca-Pentathlon” for 2025 SXSW Audience Award winner “The Baltimorons.” Set on Christmas Eve, the whirlwind May-December romance stars Michael Strassner (who also co-wrote the film with Duplass) and Liz Larsen as a dental patient and his dentist amid an unexpected holiday-season crisis. The charming romantic comedy opens in September, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer and more details below.
Here’s the official synopsis courtesy of distributor Independent Film Company: “‘The Baltimorons’ follows the newly sober Cliff (Michael Strassner) on an unexpected May/December adventure through Baltimore with Didi (Liz Larsen), his emergency dentist, after he cracks a tooth on Christmas Eve. While they can’t seem to solve their own problems, Cliff and Didi are uniquely equipped to help the other; Cliff longs to get back on stage with his improv troupe for the first time since becoming sober, and Didi would love the confidence to attend Christmas dinner with her daughter and intolerable ex-husband. The film has a wonderful, lived-in naturalism, anchored by terrific performances from both leads and a supporting role from the great Olivia Luccardi as Cliff’s frustrated girlfriend.”
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Here’s what IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote out of SXSW, saying the film brought to mind “Before Sunrise” and “Between the Temples”: “‘The Baltimorons’ tells the breezy, sweet, and mega-charming story of what happens when a wayward ‘yes, and-er’ winds up spending Christmas Eve with a lonely ‘no, but-er’ who doesn’t have anyone else to help her celebrate the season… Funny and fully believable, ‘The Baltimorons’ is a small movie, but a smart distributor would do well to seize on a Christmas classic in the making.”
Indeed, the film does have a smart distributor: Independent Film Company opens “The Baltimorons” in New York on September 5 with an expansion to follow on September 12.
