Two Friends Harness Their Extremely Unique Dynamic For Meta, Queer Stoner Comedy
I hesitate to label Extremely Unique Dynamic as “stoner comedy,” except for, you know … the not insignificant amount of cannabis involved, both on and (presumably) off camera. But a term like that will no doubt conjure certain expectations of content and humor, and it only takes a few minutes to see that Extremely Unique Dynamic is not trading in the broad, bawdy, sophomoric or gag-heavy territory of Seth Rogen-style 2000s stoner comedy. Nor is its prominent, film-within-a-film meta element–the primary selling point for the low-budget indie comedy–really where its attention truly resides. Although these labels are accurate in the abstract when describing the debut feature from writer-director-stars Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu, what they’ve really crafted is a sweet ode to their own, barely exaggerated friendship. It’s a film about the transitory periods of life, the ending of comfortable status quos and the disintegration of relationships that may only have been held together mostly by convenience. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been friends for your entire lives to date, at some point you do have to ask: Is this simply easier to continue than the alternative?
In the case of Extremely Unique Dynamic, the alternative would be admitting that relationships simply peter out and end on their own; people drift apart, particularly when big life changes occur such as someone moving out of the country. Daniel (Leung) and Ryan (Xu) are childhood friends whose plans for life always involved each other, from the time when they were first old enough to dream of stardom. They moved to L.A. together years prior to pursue acting aspirations and side hustles–Ryan fancies himself a vaguely defined “marketer,” while Daniel is a would-be hip-hop icon. But now, with nothing to show for their years of auditions, and with Ryan preparing to move to Canada with his fiancée in a tacit white flag-waving gesture toward his former goals, the pair suddenly find themselves running out of time to broach all those little things that can for so long go unsaid in a close friendship. For years, those conversations remained safely sequestered by the fact that there was always more time to get to them. Now, that time has suddenly become scarce.
It’s Ryan who hits on an unconventional idea of how to spend their last weekend together: They’ll somehow scramble to scrape together a feature-length film about two characters going through more or less the same situation, as Ryan’s character waves goodbye to L.A. and Daniel’s character grapples with the departure of his closest friend. But wait, that’s not “marketable” enough–better add a meta twist, in the form of another layer–the characters in their film are also making a film about the same topic. That gives Extremely Unique Dynamic not two but three layers of kayfabe to maintain, and if that sounds potentially confusing to the audience, it’s scarcely any less challenging to its addled characters, especially when cannabis is involved. It’s not even the only timeline we’re privy to, either–the film is also intercut with home movie/amateur video footage of the two interacting as incredibly charming little kids, child actors Lucas Liu and Jason Sun providing a hopeful counterpoint to the duo’s increasingly bitter adulthood.
This all likely makes Extremely Unique Dynamic sound more plot driven than it actually is–suffice to say, we’re not diving into the nitty gritty of indie filmmaking here. There are layers of film satire and parody that are generally effective–I love the moment when Ryan describes Terrence Malick as “the most popular filmmaker in the world”–but the overall effect is very loose and free-floating, pulled in many directions at once. This isn’t really a “movie about movies,” or even a movie about “movies about movies.” Movies are entirely secondary to the real thrust of it. The entire construction serves as a platform for the central relationship between Ryan and Daniel, with the meta layers serving to obfuscate the deeper, more real conversations they each want to have or avoid having with one another. When in character, two or three levels in, Daniel finds himself able to say things to Ryan’s character that he wouldn’t dare bring up outside of the context of their movie, most notably his closeted gay sexuality. Refreshingly, this isn’t in service of a romantic angle between the two, or between anyone in fact–Daniel simply wants his friend to fully grasp who he is, who he’s always been. He knows intellectually that Ryan wouldn’t judge him for his orientation, but fears all the same that the way they interact with each other–their “extremely unique dynamic”–would be altered, butterfly effect-style, in ways no one could possibly predict. Daniel is withering under the anxiety of a fast-encroaching deadline to prove to himself that his friendship with Ryan is valid.
And that’s all part of the problem, because long-term friendships often don’t end up being equally reciprocal. Especially when it’s decades after a childhood meet cute, it’s all too common for one friend to simply need or depend on the interaction of the other to a greater degree, and such is the case here. Ryan is ready to pack his bags to Canada; he has a girlfriend and soon to be wife, and a seeming rolodex of other friends. Daniel … has Ryan, or he did until recently. It’s an accurate distillation of the way that dependence can slowly but surely build some level of resentment in a relationship, all of which slips out in moments of real pathos that peek through the absurdity and confusion of the pair filming their chaotic little movie.
Extremely Unique Dynamic is stream-of-consciousness comedy, feeling every bit like something that was filmed over the course of five days, as was reportedly the shooting schedule. There are times when it seems like its rattling wheels are about to be jettisoned entirely, and its oddball sense of humor is peppered with a steady flow of head-scratching non sequiturs, but it gets stronger as it goes–the more we come to understand the characters of Daniel and Ryan, their relatability grows, and a sense of comfort in being in their presence. It builds to a decidedly cute ending hammering home the meta point, throwing things off yet another cliff of kayfabe. Three layers deep? Four? It doesn’t really matter. Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu pull off the most difficult trick–assembling a quirky, functional (but messy) comedy–like professionals.
Directors: Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu, Katherine Dudas
Writers: Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu, Katherine Dudas
Stars: Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu, Hudson Yang, Nathan Doan
Release date: Jan. 10, 2025
Jim Vorel is Paste’s Movies editor and resident genre geek. You can follow him on Twitter or on Bluesky for more film writing.