When a friend needs support with approaching potential partners, that role is taken by a "wingman" -- someone who is on the "inside" and is used to help them attract desirable potential mates. The term is from the military, in which an aircraft pilot supports another in a potentially dangerous flying environment, typically the plane flying beside and slightly behind the lead plane in formation. In Jim Zibailo's WINGMAN, Leslie (Micah Doris) is a shy and somewhat eccentric newcomer in the city who hangs out at a local bar but cannot bring himself to approach the female patrons. Leslie takes the questionable advice of a bartender and pays a series of "for hire" wingmen to help him find a date, but instead they take his cash and leave with the women.
Zibailo's unassuming sketch comedy floats lightly, at times succeeding with its humorous observations about the pitfalls of singles in bars. The movie is more successfully laced with funny mock-documentary interviews with various elderly men reunited with their now-retired wingmen; all of whom are seemingly the best of friends but with an acerbic edginess in their banter that also spills over into the main plot line. These segments are highlights in WINGMAN, producing belly laughs in contrast to the mild humor revealed in Leslie's predicament.
One drawback here is Micah Doris' performance, which is wooden and overflowing with strange facial tics and other unfunny bits of physical humor. The role seems more suited to an actor in the mold of early Woody Allen or even Shelley Berman. A faint mask of normalcy is needed to offset Leslie's desperate naiveté, but instead the character grows irritatingly passive and gloomy. It becomes obvious that even a thousand wingmen would not be able to help the poor guy get a date. In spite of stacking the deck so heavily against Leslie, Zibailo fades out on a romantic and sanely happy note.
WINGMAN presents a few choice cameos -- for example, Hutch Brown's veteran wingman, decked out in an improbable costume that would turn heads in a Vegas casino and who displays even less wing-ability than Leslie. All of the older gentlemen in the blackout segments are superb, and James Shalkoski Jr is amusingly squinty and smirky as the bartender. Production values for the movie (which was made in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) are adequate.
Zibailo's unassuming sketch comedy floats lightly, at times succeeding with its humorous observations about the pitfalls of singles in bars. The movie is more successfully laced with funny mock-documentary interviews with various elderly men reunited with their now-retired wingmen; all of whom are seemingly the best of friends but with an acerbic edginess in their banter that also spills over into the main plot line. These segments are highlights in WINGMAN, producing belly laughs in contrast to the mild humor revealed in Leslie's predicament.
One drawback here is Micah Doris' performance, which is wooden and overflowing with strange facial tics and other unfunny bits of physical humor. The role seems more suited to an actor in the mold of early Woody Allen or even Shelley Berman. A faint mask of normalcy is needed to offset Leslie's desperate naiveté, but instead the character grows irritatingly passive and gloomy. It becomes obvious that even a thousand wingmen would not be able to help the poor guy get a date. In spite of stacking the deck so heavily against Leslie, Zibailo fades out on a romantic and sanely happy note.
WINGMAN presents a few choice cameos -- for example, Hutch Brown's veteran wingman, decked out in an improbable costume that would turn heads in a Vegas casino and who displays even less wing-ability than Leslie. All of the older gentlemen in the blackout segments are superb, and James Shalkoski Jr is amusingly squinty and smirky as the bartender. Production values for the movie (which was made in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) are adequate.
