Saturday, August 2, 2025

Now Showing: Punch Buggy

 
Punch Buggy
Genre: Comedy
Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Joshua Collins
Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Kaitlyn Dever, Kyle Allen, Maia Mitchell, Danielle Brooks, Sophia Lillis, Connie Britton, John Carroll Lynch, Zoe Kazan, Tony Revolori

Plot: We hear what appears to be a meeting between a boss and an employee in an office for a restaurant. The boss asks what happened with a recent encounter with a customer. The employee, Logan Hayes (Timothee Chalamet), now we see the camera on him as he explains explains an argument with a customer that led into a physical altercation. The boss makes the decision to terminate Logan’s employment. Logan knew it was coming, so he just nods his head. When the boss asks Logan if he has anything to say, Logan asvises the boss to stop flirting with the 17-year-olds, his final eff-you.

We meet Logan’s sister, Sam (Kaitlyn Dever), an escort, in an apartment kitchen finishing up with a client. She is getting dressed just as Logan walks in. “Ah jeez Sam, on the kitchen table?” Logan asks. Sam says, “Hey, shut up, he has food fetish.” The client is silently shocked at what he sees and hurries out the door. Logan looks at Sam in disbelief, “You know the landlord is going to be pissed when they find out you’ve turned our apartment into a brothel.” Sam says as she cracks open a beer and sits on the sofa. She asks what he’s doing home so early, he gives a brief explanation that he got fired. When Sam mentions he doesn’t seem at all shaken up by it, Logan says he'll find another job. Sam tells him its more than findind another job, but thinking about his future. Logan rolls his eyes, telling her he doesnt need life advice from Debbie Does Dallas.

Sam wakes Logan up as she’s having a nightmare. Logan consoles her. But they don’t know a mysterious woman is at their door. She leaves a baby in her carrier and leaves.
Sam discovers the baby on the porch the next morning and alerts Logan, asking if its a prank from his loser friends. Logan sees a note under the baby’s diaper.
“Logan, I just can’t do this anymore. She is yours, please don’t contact me and make this harder than it needs to be” he shakes his head, “There’s just no way. Is there a way?”

They bring the baby inside, still confused by the situation. Sam take an empty beer bottle, washes it out and pours regular milk in the bottle to feed the baby, who slugs it down. "Oh yeah, she's definitely ours. She can drink me under the table." Logan begins making a phone call.

Ethan’s friend, a newlywed with Claire (Maia Mitchell), picks up the phone, he has it on speaker for Claire to hear. Logan explains his predicament. We get a reenactment of Logan explaining what could have happened. Logan traveled across the country to go to Ethan’s wedding. During a bachelor party, Logan and his friends got wild. They got an idea to crash Claire’s bachelorette party and place a bet among them on how many guests at her party they could sleep with.

In current day, Logan is on the phone with Ethan (Kyle Allen), “So one of those girls I slept with has to be the mother, right?”

“Gosh Logan, I don’t know. We were all pretty crazy that night. I don’t even really keep up with most of those women anyway.”

“How could you invite them to your wedding and not keep up with them?” Logan asks.

“Most of them weren’t even my friends. Just a bunch of people my sister and mom invited. I mean I can probably tell you the last time I heard from them, but no guarantees it’ll solve your problem,” Claire says, and advises Logan to get a paternity test.

In the next scene, Logan, Sam and the baby are at a lab. The lab technician (Tony Revolori) finishes up getting a swab sample from Logan and the baby. “All done. You’ll get your lab results in a few weeks and you’ll know for certain.”

“I don’t have a few weeks, I don’t even have a job. Hell the bio mom is probably already in Maui getting plowed by seven dudes who look like Jason Mamoa.” Logan says.

The tech explains they could try to get the results back faster, depending how things go. Sam asks if there’s a way to know how old the baby is. The tech jokes that they used to cut the baby’s legs off and check the rings, but they don’t let us do that anymore. He laughs at his own joke, notices Logan and Sam are more disturbed than laughing, and he says, “We’ll call you when the results are ready.”

Logan, Sam and the baby get settled into the car. “So what are we going to do?” Sam asks. “Well, there’s no way we can afford plane tickets all over the world to find this one bitch.”

“So road trip?” Sam asks. Logan nods, “Road trip.”

They shop for supplies to get them started. In a voice over, Logan is explaining that it won’t be an easy trip, (we see the cashier tell Logan and Sam they don’t have enough money, so they decide to leave a few items, including a new baby bottle) we definitely don’t have a lot of money, but.. Sam interrupts in her own voice over “I can help, I’ll be known as the traveling escort.. (we see Sam putting together formula and putting it in the beer bottle for the baby to drink from)

(Mad Caddies: 10 West plays)
We see the car(a 64 VW Beetle) heading out, with the baby on the roof, they stop the car and scramble to get her inside the car.
“Punchbuggy Blue!” Sam laughs and punches Logan and looks down at her phone, taking a swig from a beer. “You know if a cop pulls me over and sees that, I’m fucked.” Sam just shrugs and says, “So, don’t get pulled over.”

“Nibbles,” Sam says. “What?” Logan asks. “That’s her name, Nibbles.” “Like the Hamster you had when you were 5?” Logan says, “we shouldn’t be naming her. She’s going back to her mama and we will wash our hands of this mess, no questions asked."

“We should still name her something. Its gotta suck to go through life being called “hey...you.”

“Fine, her name is Nibbles,” Logan says as he pulls the car up in front of a trailer house, located in Alabama. “Suspect #1, Tilly Johnson,” Logan says to Sam.

As they approach the front door, we see the yard is scattered with an assortment of kids toys scattered all over the lawn. We hear the hollering and playful screaming of kids inside, with Tilly (Danielle Brooks) yelling at them to shut up. Logan knocks on the door, “Oh great, now yall gone and got the police up here.” She opens the door.

Tilly has 6 kids ranging from the age of 3-12. All of them boys. Tilly says each one is named after their own fathers so she can keep track of which one belongs to which dad. Logan and Tilly discuss the crazy wedding party and she says she definitely recalls sleeping with Logan as part of his bet, but she says the baby couldn’t possibly be hers because she had her tubes tied after Earl(father of the 3 year old) was born.

Defeated but determined, Logan and Sam head back out with the baby. Tilly calls out to Logan, “Anytime you want to go for round 2, come on out here again Logan. My tubes are tied, but my legs sure aren’t!”

It is later at night, Logan pulls the car up to a rundown shady roach motel. after they check in with a disinterested clerk, they get to their room and find the room only has one bed and a squishy floor. Logan puts “Nibbles” in a makeshift bed, a dresser drawer.

“I get the bed, I’m the girl,” Sam says. “That doesn’t make any kind of sense at all. I’m older, I get the bed.” Logan says.

A rat runs across Sam’s foot, she lets out a yelp and jumps on the bed. “Dude a fucking rat just ran across my foot! I am NOT sleeping on that floor.” “Alright, we used to share baths as kids, we can share a bed. Just sleep on opposite ends,” Logan says.

In the middle of the night, Logan wakes up with Sam’s toes digging into his nostrils. “Sam, your feet are all over me!” “Your feet smell like butt,” Sam retorts. “No way I’m going to get any sleep tonight and drive all day tomorrow..” Logan says. They hear through thin walls a couple are having sex. Logan and Sam laugh, but the noises get interrupted by an argument, followed by gun shots.

The door to their room opens, a drunk hotel guests stumbles in the room, flips the lights on and sees a terrified Sam and Logan. “Oh shit, wrong room. Sorry kids.”

In the morning, they walk to the car’s parking spot and realize the car is missing. Logan thinks it got stolen, but Sam points out the Tow-Away sign.

They have to take a walk to the tow-yard, the release fee is an amount neither Logan or Sam could afford. Logan gets a call from Ethan and Claire, Logan steps outside with “Nibbles” in her carrier. Sam turns to the attendant, “We can’t afford that. I don’t have the steadiest of paychecks and he just lost his job,” Sam explains. The tow-attendant mimes playing a violin, “not my problem, babe," he says.

While Logan is on the phone, he notices graffiti written on his car: Heil Hitler. Logan tries to wipe it off, but it's dried on the car by that point.

In the shop, Sam, reluctantly suggests, “Maybe we can work something out?” He looks her down, and tells her to step into his office. Before she goes, she looks back towards Logan, whose trying hard to scrub the writing off. Sam walks into the office, rolling her eyes.

In the next scene, just as Logan hangs up the phone, Sam stomps out of the entrance, sits in the passenger seat and slams the door. Logan looks back at the attendant, he seems happy and says, “You’re good to go. Stop parking in tow-away zones.”

Logan, concerned, asks Sam what happened, but she refuses to answer and tells him to drive. Logan begins to pull away with baby on roof, "Baby" Sam says. "Damn it," Logan stops the car.

As Sam is still stewing over what she had to do, Logan reaches over to comfort her as she leans on his shoulder. Drivers on the road are honking and flipping them off. When Sam asks what that's about, he says "cuz we have Heil Hitler written on our car."

They pull into the driveway of a seemingly normal house inside a gated community. They approach the door and knock, the door opens. When they enter the house, Logan calls out for a girl by the name of Stacy Dawson (Sophia Lillis). “Stacy? Are you home?” They walk into a room and see an entire shrine for Logan. Pictures all over the wall, a mural of shirtless Logan, letters that she never sent to him. A calendar with Logan’s birth-date circled. “This is giving me some crazy serial killer vibes,” Sam says. “Yeah, lets get the hell out,” Logan says before Stacy jumps on him from behind “You’ve returned to me, my love!” “Ack, get her off, get her off!” Logan falls over and Stacy curls up to a corner of a wall. “Whose the baby?” Stacy asks. “I was hoping you would be able to answer that. She showed up on our doorstep earlier this week and we’re trying to find her mother to send her back. Since we kinda had a history, we thought maybe she’d be yours?” Logan asks. “Impossible,” Stacy says, “I would never give something of yours away, especially your baby.” Stacy pulls out a box and opens the lid, its a used condom, Sam and Logan look away in horror, “Besides, we used protection. But if you’re offering, I’m free tomorrow night.”

“Sure, how about Ruby Tuesday 7:30pm?”Logan asks. Stacy smiles, “I’ll be there at 5:30. Don’t be late!”

Logan, Sam and “Nibbles” saddles up in the car, Stacy is following Logan and Sam out, telling a story of a dinner date she made up in her head. “So we’re stuck here til 7:30pm tomorrow?” Sam asks. “Are you insane? I had to agree to something so she wouldn’t eat us alive. We’re getting the hell out of Texas.”

We have a little montage of Logan and Sam driving along the road to their next locations(Sufjan Stevens: Come on Feel the Illonis). They stop at some roadside attractions, take pictures. Scenic views of the country as the car drives on.
We see they stop and ask locals from different areas, some women that he hooked up with at the party, but no time in the film to explain each one if they know anything about the baby, they all seem to shake their heads.
We get some shots of Logan waiting at spots for Sam to come back from her traveling escort jobs, usually hotels and rest areas. Some shots in the montage show the baby and Sam bonding and she is still drinking her formula out of the beer bottle, Logan still not fully on board with the baby, choose not to bond too much with her. The montage ends as Logan pulls the car over on the side of the road, overheated. They are stuck in a desert.

Sam is undressed to her bra and panties, as both a way to keep cool and to flag down any help while waving a sign on the side of the road. Logan tries to pour coolant in the reservoir, but it leaks out.

Logan snaps, questioning why Nibbles’ mother would just leave a baby, calling out her irresponsibility. Sam calls out Logan’s hypocrisy. He tells Sam to take Nibbles to the next town with an Uber. Sam says her name is Mr. Cheddars now, and they have no phone signal.

A rusty looking truck happens to be approaching. Logan and Sam flag it down. The driver happens to be a slightly older gentleman whose used to city-folk getting stuck in his desert. When he hears of their desperation and sees the baby, he agrees to help fix up their car.
While he pulls his tools out of his tailbed, Sam tells him they don’t have much money to give, but she will offer him favors. He turns her down, saying his payment is seeing them off on their journey, Logan sees a star of david hanging from the trucker's rearview mirror and tries his best to cover the graffiti with his arms and body.

Later on, the car pulls into a hotel with a bar nearby. After a disagreement with the bartender about bringing a baby into the bar with them, the bartender gives in. After she gets some drinks in her, Sam goes on a venting rant of her own, calling herself a fuck up and blaming herself for everything wrong in her life. Logan knows better than to say anything other than just listen to her. After the bar, Sam can hardly keep herself standing, so Logan burst into the hotel room, he is helping support Sam with one arm while carrying the baby carrier in the other arm. He sets Sam down on the bed to sleep it off, turning his attention to “Mr. Cheddars” she gets restless and fussy, so Logan picks her up and holds her, trying to figure out what she could want from him. “Ah, stinky diaper.” as he starts to change the baby, he tells her he’s sorry for what hes doing, sending her back to her mother, justifying it by saying “look at your Aunt, she is a mess. And I am a mess.” he picks the baby up and carries her, gently bouncing her to get her to relax. “All I do is make messes, so… I can’t make a mess out of you.”

They are on the road to the next mother suspect, but Logan announces he has to take a shit, so he pulls over to a rest area. Sam hangs back with Mr. Cheddars napping in the backseat. While Logan races to the restroom with a fierce butt-clench, Sam spots a guy staring at her. She waves him over and asks if he wants a little fun. Logan is on the toilet and gets the call from the lab tech, saying he is the father with his Maury Povich impersonation.

We see Sam is engaged in intercourse in the passenger seat with the guy at the rest stop while Mr. Cheddars is on the roof. When they finish, she asks for money, the rest stop guy is pissed, saying he didn’t know she was a hooker. She gets some money out of him.

Logan makes his way to the car and gets in just as the rest stop guy walks away, defeated. “What did you do, fall in?” Sam asks. She sees Logan looks like he has a lot on his mind, “What’s wrong?” she asks. “Nothing, lets just get Mr. Cheddars to her mom.”
Logan pulls out of the parking spot, people at the rest stop try to wave them down about Mr. Cheddars on the roof.

On the road, Logan still sits in reserved thoughts. Sam hits him with another punchbuggy. “Can we maybe play another game?” he asks. Sam tries to play I-Spy to figure out whats bothering him. Logan suggests the name game to avoid talking about anything.

The scene transitions to a really nice mansion they pull up to in a car in Minnesota. “This has definitely gotta be her, Connie Hargrove (Connie Britton). Rich bitch doesn’t want to waste her money on a baby, so she pawns her off on the unsuspecting father, living in the lap of luxury.” Logan says. When they get to the door, they’re greeted by Connie Hargrove and her husband, Roger (John Carroll Lynch), both in their 50s.

They allow them to come in and hang out. Sam is smitten with the place, she had never been in such a beautiful house in her life, they seem ready to move in now. The Hargroves charm the siblings with wine and charades. When Logan and Sam go to bed, they find out the Hargroves are Swingers(Connie tries to seduce Logan, Roger tries to seduce Sam). (No use for a Name: Soulmate starts) The siblings race out of the house so fast, they are a few miles away when they realize they left Mr. Cheddars.
They’re at the door again, Roger answers, this time with more hostility in his demeanor. They ask for the baby back and he gives her back to them, telling them they should be ashamed of how they acted.

The ride back to the next stop is a little awkward. “This is such a waste of time. Lets face it Logan, you’re stuck with Princess Unicorn Bubbles Snap for the rest of your life.” Sam says. Logan raises an eyebrow and looks at her. “What the heck is a Princess Unicorn whosafer?” Logan asks. “That’s her name now. I like it, has that celebrity baby ring to it.” “We can't keep changing her name, she's not a goldfish." Logan says.

As it gets late at night, Logan is looking tired, but carrying on down a long stretch of road surrounded by cornfields. Sam passed out. She begins to shift around uncomfortably, she screams out loud, waking the baby, she reaches for the steering wheel just as a semi truck is in the oncoming lane. Logan and Sam fight for the steering wheel and Logan ends up dodging the truck and stopping just before the car hits the line of cornstalks. He shouts at her, telling her shes psychotic. Sam runs into the cornfield. Logan is caught between tending to the baby and going after Sam, he decides try to find her in the sea of cornstalks, when he does, shes on the ground shaking.
We get a flashback with Sam’s voiceover, explaining that Logan got into a fight with their stepdad and left, never to return home. Mom lost herself in depression and him? In my dreams I can feel the weight of himself on top of me, the stench of his breath. Sam breaks down. Logan says he's sorry, but she sits in silence. Logan tells her, "Let's just forget this shit and go home." she agrees.

With Sam and the baby back to sleep, Logan has a vision of a woman he met at a bar the same day as Ethan and Claire’s wedding. She was having a bad night after being dumped at the alter. He smoothed talked her into hooking up with her, never to see her again.

Logan hits the brakes at an intersection. He turns the car around toward Chicago, Illonis, where the wedding took place.

The car stops at the house of a woman by the name of Meghan Cooper (Zoe Kazan). “Alright Princess Unicorn Bubble Snap, looks like you’re home," Logan says.
The house seems lifeless and empty. “Should we at least talk to her?” Sam asks. "No, just leave her," Logan says, "like she did to us." "But I want to know why," Sam says.

She knocks on the door. Its unlocked, so they let themselves inside.
They find Meghan slumped over a desk, a bottle of pills next to her. The baby coos in delight of seeing her mother again. They find a journal nearby. A suicide note. Her voice is heard over a story she is telling about the dark places she was in, how she felt pregnant and alone when Logan ghosted her. She tried to do the mother thing despite it all, but it was just too much to handle. She had no family support, After her own research, she found Logan and did what she felt like she needed to do. “Now I’m alone again, but this time, I’m at peace.”

Logan and Sam let it sink in, the baby senses something is wrong with her mother and fusses. They take her back to the car, Logan on the phone asking police for a wellness check on his friend, knowing they'd find her.

The ride home is silent and awkward. Logan stops the car on the side of the road and gets out. Sam sets the carrier on the roof and find Logan, head in his hands, sitting against a guardrail. “You’re not the fuckup, Sam. I’m the fuckup. Between you and Meghan and the baby… I’m the fuckup.”

Sam sits with him, holding him in her arms.
"Let's get out of here," Logan says.

As they buckle themselves up in their seats, Logan says he's found the perfect name for the baby: Margaret Sophia. Sam, with nonchalance, says "I guess it's ok."
*Feel the Pain by Dinosaur Jr. Starts*
Logan starts up the car and they drive, still with the baby on the roof. they pass a red VW beetle. “Punchbuggy Red.” Sam says. “Punchbuggy black,” Logan says, as they pass a black VW beetle.

Mid credits: Stacy is still waiting for Logan at Ruby Tuesday.

The rest of the credits roll, Rise Against: Audience of One

Post credits: Sam rapid fires bad name ideas, Logan shooting them down.


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