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"&lt;p&gt;Male infantilism, from &lt;em&gt;BIG&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Big Daddy,&lt;/em&gt; continues to elicit a perverse fascination in Hollywood. But unlike &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=\"../../../movies/reviews/disneys-the-kid-20000707\"&gt;The Kid&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/em&gt; the defiantly non-formulaic &lt;em&gt;Chuck and Buck&lt;/em&gt; &amp;#x2013; it was shot cheaply on digital video &amp;#x2013; has not been Disneyfied. This hilarious and haunting movie is a shocker in the best sense of the word &amp;#x2013; it explodes easy definitions of childhood, friendship and sexuality. Buck, superbly played by Mike White, who also wrote the astutely nuanced screenplay, invites his buddy Chuck (Chris Weitz) to his mother&amp;apos;s funeral. The boys haven&amp;apos;t seen each other in fifteen years. Chuck is now an L.A. music exec with a fancy BMW and a fancier fianc&amp;#xE9;e, Carlyn (Beth Colt). Buck is still sucking lollipops and playing childhood games &amp;#x2013; such as grabbing Chuck&amp;apos;s crotch. Freaked out, Chuck returns to L.A. and alleged normalcy, but Buck appears on his doorstep ready for more games.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;wm:embed type=\"related\"&gt;&lt;/wm:embed&gt;&lt;p&gt;Put away any fears that &lt;em&gt;Chuck and Buck&lt;/em&gt; is a homophobic thriller with White as a gay stalker who goes psycho and Weitz as his unwitting victim. The film also dodges the &lt;a href=\"../../../movies/reviews/forrest-gump-19940706\"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Forrest Gump&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/a&gt;trap of turning Buck into a holy fool. White, a former writer for TV&amp;apos;s &lt;em&gt;Dawson&amp;apos;s Creek&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Freaks and Geeks,&lt;/em&gt; delivers an uncaricatured script that is both humane and startling. &amp;quot;I was tired of writing about people who are too wonderful to exist,&amp;quot; says White, who joined with gifted director Miguel Arteta (&lt;em&gt;Star Maps&lt;/em&gt;) to reconcile the past with the grown-up demands of the present.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;To rattle Chuck, Buck hires Beverly (the wise and wondrous Lupe Ontiveros), the manager of a struggling children&amp;apos;s theater, to direct his play, &lt;em&gt;Hank and Frank,&lt;/em&gt; which Beverly aptly describes as &amp;quot;a homoerotic, misogynistic love story.&amp;quot; Buck even casts a no-talent actor, Sam (Paul Weitz, Chris&amp;apos; real-life brother), because Sam resembles Chuck. The Pirandellian fracas that follows spins off in unexpectedly funny and touching directions that mark White as an outstanding new talent and &lt;em&gt;Chuck and Buck&lt;/em&gt; as one of the year&amp;apos;s best and most provocative films.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/chuck-and-buck-20000714>