The Comedy 2012

Swanson is an aging, upper-class hipster who alternates between apathy and resentment toward his surroundings. He lives on a boat and spends his days partying and wandering around Brooklyn with his equally privileged friends, ridiculing the various people they encounter in a humorless, pointed way. At the outset, his father lies in a coma, and Swanson is poised to inherit the estate. He mentions a brother who is institutionalized, though the details of that situation remain unclear, and his only familiar connection seems to be his sister-in-law.

The film presents no clear narrative structure; instead, it unfolds as a series of vignettes that focus on Swanson’s offensive behavior as he improvises situations to unsettled strangers and acquaintances. Swanson and his buddies (Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, Richard Swift) repeatedly mock their less intelligent friend Cargill after he confesses that Swanson and his circle are important to him. Cargill keeps spending time with them despite the taunting. Swanson flirts with a woman at a party while sarcastically praising Hitler, and the next morning she is found sleeping naked on Swanson’s boat, from which he solemnly ferries her back to land.

The exploits continue as Swanson and his crew visit a church, desecrating various objects and provoking a scene. He later goes to a Harlem bar alone, flaunting his wealth and insulting the Black patrons by suggesting he would “gentrify” the place. At one point, he pays a cab driver $400 to let him drive the car, only to speed recklessly and harass a woman on the street.

Growing bored, Swanson takes on a part-time job as a dishwasher. His ironic humor attracts the attention of a waitress, whom he later brings onto his boat. When Swanson awkwardly fails to make a move, the woman suffers a seizure, and he watches without offering help, his interest lingering in an unsettling, almost detached way. One night, Swanson’s friend Van shows a slideshow from his childhood that mixes vintage pornographic images as a running gag. While there are moments that draw a few laughs, the group gradually falls silent, all of them seemingly united in apathy.

In the final sequence, Swanson goes to the beach and spends time playing in the water with a young child, an activity that appears to give him a rare, genuine moment of simple happiness amid the film’s broader tones of detachment and social critique.