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Review: Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011)

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Directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, 2011.

Cue scene. A girl walks into a bar. Of course, since the movie is directed by Sebastián Gutiérrez, it’s Carla Gugino. Having worked with her on six movies to date, Gutiérrez’ seems to have standardized his casting decisions by now. In Girl Walks into a Bar (2011) the director teams up with frequent collaborators like Gugino, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Robert Forster. Gutiérrez’ is mostly known for directing the (as of yet unfinished) ensemble comedy trilogy that started with Women in Trouble (2009). Much like the anthology style of Women in Trouble and Elektra Luxx (2010), his newest movie follows a group of strangers through interconnecting stories that take place in ten different bars in Los Angeles over the course of one evening.

Gutiérrez is a talker and in Girl Walks into a Bar his monologues and dialogues successfully help to solidify his latest characters. The dialogue tends to give a voice to the sexy underbelly of society which the director seems to love so much. Girl Walks into a Bar takes us through the ‘palaces of sin’ of Los Angeles, where we get to meet a score of wonderful characters like Alexis Bledel as the muse, Chriqui as exotic dancer Teresa, Josh Hartnett as the slick cop Sam and Gil Bellows as Gutiérrez mystery link Emmit. Like in his previous movies everything in Girl Walks into a Bar seems to click together in the end. The director is definitely worth the wild card in any list of recommendations.

Plus a funny production note: Girl Walks into a Bar was one of the first movies produced exclusively for Internet distribution!

Official poster (Credit: Girl Walks Into a Bar)

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