Awful Nice

Jim and Dave are just your typical dude-bros who engage in bouts of one-upmanship, differences of opinion about cleanliness, and full-on brawls at their father’s funeral. They’ve completely lost touch with each other – Jim is a college professor with a wife and family, while Dave lives off the grid in a wigwam. But when they each inherit half of their dad’s house in Missouri, it’s time for the brothers to pile into a car and drive cross-country to tie up loose ends on their childhood. If they don’t rip each other’s throats out first. The house becomes an allegory for their broken bond: shattered, moldy, and filled with Dave’s junk. But can they fix it in time to sell it, collect the money, and not kill each other? On the surface, AWFUL NICE is a slapstick comedy relying on the brilliant comedic performances of James Pumphrey, Alex Rennie, and Christopher Meloni as their father’s lawyer; but deep-down it’s a well-executed study of the things that can tie two people together—two people who seemingly have no qualms about punching each other in the face. —T.W.