Joshy (film)

Plot

Josh returns home from work on his birthday. His fiance Rachel agrees to cook dinner while Josh is at gym. Josh returns home to find out that Rachel asphyxiated herself with a belt.

4 months later, Josh along with his friends Ari, Adam and Eric decide to spend the weekend, that was supposed to Josh's bachelor party, at a ranch in Ojai. At a bar the first night, Ari meets a girl named Jodi and finds a connection with her; Adam finds out that his girlfriend wants to break up with him; and Eric, wanting to keep the night alive, invites his friend Greg over. Jodi, being locked out of her place, crashes in with the guys at their place after a fun night.

The next morning, their friend Aaron arrives with his wife and kid only to find the place infested with drugs and booze. An argument erupts between Eric and Aaron over the matter of Josh's state of mind and the current situation. Aaron storms off with his family and the guys spend the day out with Greg learning about Rachel's death from Ari. In a state of high, Greg turns into his emotional self due to his troubled past. They head to the bar and find Jodi and her friends there. Ari tells Jodi that he is married which makes Jodi distance herself from Ari. They return home gloomy, due to which Eric invites two strippers over to keep the night alive, and an argument breaks out between Eric and Adam. Josh and Eric realize there is a mysterious man stalking them who they try to confront, but in vain.

The next day Eric invites a sex worker over for each one of them to have sex with. But, the situation is interrupted by Rachel's parents who are there to confront Josh. The parents ask for a clear detail of the events leading to Rachel's death, accusing Josh to have framed a story with the police. They show Josh pictures of the guys with the stripper from the previous night (the stalker having been hired by them to spy on the guys) and inform him how a second autopsy report said that Rachel's death being a suicide was inconclusive. Josh, in a fit of rage, pushes the bag they brought with them only to find out a wire inside it implying that they were there to get a confession out of him about killing their daughter. Josh asks them to leave and goes to his friends and opens up. They console him, and the group decides to play the board game Adam wanted to play since the beginning.

The group then spends the last night of the weekend playing the "very complex board game" and is joined by Jodi. The group loses the game and Ari walks Jodi to the door while she leaves. He kisses her before leaving, which is interrupted by her after a while, realizing that Ari is a married man. She walks out abruptly. The next morning the group bids farewell to each other and decides to meet again some time soon. Josh and Ari are the last to leave. The movie ends with Josh wanting to say something to Ari, but doesn't because of his hesitation.

Production

Production on the film lasted 15 days, only shooting off a 20-page outline, with the rest of the dialogue improvised by the cast. In December 2015, it was announced that Devendra Barnhart would compose the score for the film.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2016. In March 2016, Lionsgate Premiere and Hulu acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on August 12, 2016.

Critical reception

Joshy has received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 79% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 62 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Geoff Berkshire of Variety gave the film a mixed review writing: "Boasting a hodgepodge of strong comic voices riffing their way through underdeveloped characters, writer-director Jeff Baena’s second feature after the under-appreciated zombie romantic comedy Life After Beth is an altogether looser affair, but rarely to its benefit. The name cast guarantees ancillary interest, though theatrical life should be even briefer than Beth’s.