Zany 'It's A Disaster': Anything But
In the early going, It's a Disaster has the snap of a witty social commentary, like something Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale) might have done on the cheap earlier in his career. Berger is a strong, crisp writer who establishes these characters and their tribal dynamic without breaking much of a sweat.
But then the film takes a nasty little turn when word of dirty bombs detonated nearby — and in cities across the United States — has the assembled malcontents believing they've only got a few hours before the radiation kills them. As the double-whammy title suggests, it was a disaster before the bombs hit, and it's a whole other kind of a disaster now.
As in last year's uneven dramedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, the imminent apocalypse inspires people to behave in radically different ways: Buck and Lexi are inclined toward plane-going-down sex, Pete and Emma consider reconciliation, Hedy homebrews her own Ecstasy, Shane frets about the rogue nation responsible for the attack — and poor Glenn and Tracy, just on their third date, are still in the getting-to-know-you phase. There's good reason for all of them to behave the way they do, and Berger delights in bouncing their neuroses off one another like players in a lively stage farce.
It's a Disaster doesn't end gracefully; a late-breaking twist makes sense only as a means to wind this zany scenario down without its turning into The Road. But for most of the way, it's clever and smartly proportioned, with the action confined to one well-exploited location and gags about love, the curdling of long-term friendships and petty social mores popping off everywhere.
The best — and worst — that could be said of the film is that it doesn't need that looming apocalypse. These characters are detonating plenty of dirty bombs on their own.