The start of the Andrew Bujalski film Results, starring Cobie Smulders, (playing a character quite different than Robin Scherbatsky and Maria Hill), Guy Pearce, (sporting his natural Australian accent for the first time in what seems like forever), and the hilariously unkempt and red faced Kevin Corrigan is a joy to behold. It is so dangerous and uncaring and just freewheeling, a chance to see something unlike anything else in cinemas this year.

Though the Results taper off somewhat towards the end, it is clear that mumblecore and low-fi master Bujalski has not fallen into the mainstream, but simply dipped his toes, in creating this low and high hybrid about both the highs and lows of joining a gym.

Smulders and Pearce are two gym employees, Trevor and Kat, at Trevor’s gym, though the hunt for a new space is a running joke throughout the film. Both Pearce and Smulders appear to fit in as trainers immediately, and with Pearce’s background in bodybuilding, he seems like a natural fit to help to carry the film. Smulders is also up for the task, as mentioned before this part is different from her usual role. Then when Corrigan enters the scene, a mysterious figure and a hot mess all at the same time, the unpredictably of watching unlikeable characters do unspeakable things makes the viewer almost giddy with glee.

Therefore, it is something of a disappointment when things go relatively predictable, though both Pearce and Smulders, Smulders in particular, get in some great side bits, especially one about an egg white omelette.

By the time a gone to seed Giovanni Ribisi appears as a lawyer, or a completely transformed Anthony Michael Hall as Grigory, a fitness guru, (it is still difficult to believe that this role was portrayed by Hall), the filmmaker seems to relish his roots of a sort of weirdness inhabiting Austin city limits.

But then the movie switches back to being a three hander, and the rhythm flows quite naturally, and by that it is actually UNnatuarually, and the director has a way of not overplaying a scene and cutting at just the right time, (and where other directors may belabour the point).

Best of all, the colour is so vibrant, from the gym uniforms, to the desert like setting, to Corrigan’s bloated face, and the music is handled just right, (and with one hilarious scene in particular), that the willingness to deviate from the fitness plan may be almost entirely forgivable.

[star v=35]

Results is playing exclusively at the Carlton Cinema.