MERCURY IN RETROGRADE
dir. Michael Glover Smith, 2017
105 mins. United States.

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE follows three couples who spend a weekend together on Lake Michigan: Jack (Jack C. Newell) and Golda (Alana Arenas) have been married for a decade, Richard (Kevin Wehby) and Isabelle (Roxane Mesquida) are in a committed love relationship but clearly on (or near) the rocks, and Peggy (Najarra Townsend) and Wyatt (Shane Simmons, who will reprise the character in Smith's followup RENDEZVOUS IN CHICAGO) just linked up. Embracing the intrinsic anxiety of its classic setup, Smith's film is a handcrafted trip into the terra incognita of monogamy, epitomized by a jarring sequence of dudes being old-fashioned dudes back at the cabin while (because) their partners have repaired to the local watering hole. MERCURY IN RETROGRADE is that rare slice-of-life film with a grip on the darkness below its surface, driven forward by its flawed characters' alternating fears of being committed or alone (no spoilers!) and anchored by six committed performances from a pitch-perfect cast.