There hasn't yet been a good name for the sub-genre of films that tell several short, seemingly unrelated stories that eventually interlock to make (or not make) a grand statement about the Human Condition or Life Itself or whatever. The best nickname I've heard is "shred films," which is as good as any. What everyone can probably agree on is that Robert Altman basically invented (or at least perfected) the form in his seminal 1975 work Nashville; his 1993 masterpiece Short Cuts is another go-to reference movie. Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia is another fine example, as is Soderbergh's Traffic.

But for every able director that conquers the format, there are those for whom it is out of reach; for every Magnolia, there's a Playing By Heart or Crash (yeah, I said it), where the need for delicate writing and balance between serendipity and far-fetched coincidence simply sinks the ship. Add to that list writer/director Jason Freeland's Garden Party.

Five primary characters circle each other at a series of (strangely under-populated) parties and bars: aimless waif April (Willa Holland), musician Sammy (Erik Smith), artist Todd (Richard Gunn), real estate agent Sally (Vinessa Shaw), and her gay intern, Nathan (Alexander Cendese). They're a good-looking group of people, and sexuality constantly brews under the surface of the film; Nathan picks up wandering, homeless Sammy, presumably hoping for sex, while Todd is startled to realize that the woman he's been masturbating to on the Internet wants to sell his house.

Their interactions are, for the most part, awkwardly paced and burdened by cumbersome, stilted dialogue; one poor actress actually has to say "I don't know, Todd... Everything around here is so dark, and I'm just looking for some light," and you can't believe someone really put those words together on a page for her. The required crossovers and connections between the unrelated characters are often a bit of a stretch--are we really supposed to believe that a savvy professional like Sally would hire April as an intern simply because she overheard her asking for a job at a coffee shop counter?

There's quite a bit of sex in Garden Party, but the film is something of a tease; most of the action happens off-screen, after a tasteful, TV-style fade to black. I lodge this complaint not as some kind of a pervert, but because the aftermath of these encounters are so clumsily handled (or, most often, ignored entirely). The screenplay bothers to set up sexual situations that are not gratuitous, that actually have some bearing on the forward movement of the story, but if we neither see nor hear about them, how are we to understand what follows? Late in the film, for example, Nathan makes a fumbling but clear pass at Sammy, who appears to engage with him. A few short scenes later, Nathan has an awkward encounter with a man he picks up in a bar, but we have no idea how to interpret what happens between them, because we don't know what really happened between him and Sammy. Similarly, we see the beginning of an elaborate, videotaped sexual role-play between Todd and his admitted "fantasy girl," Sally. But we never really see what happened, and never know what either of them think about the encounter, in spite of the fact that they share several additional scenes.

(And while we're on the subject of unclear storytelling, I've got a shiny silver dollar for anyone who can explain that last scene with April and Todd to me.)

Some of the performances work. Vinessa Shaw (she of the memorable kitchen-table scene in Eyes Wide Shut) is just ridiculously sexy, and makes even her most far-fetched dialogue at least a little believable. Willa Holland has an interesting presence, and Erik Smith is fairly believable, even though his undramatic, one-week-long rise from homeless singer to music superstar is a little hard to swallow. Meanwhile, an actor named Ross Patterson blows in for three scenes and effectively steals the picture (and does so by basically doing a Vince Vaughn impression, but hey, whatever works).

Ultimately, Garden Party can't pull together its handful of interesting scenes and intriguing ideas into a coherent, energetic narrative. You spend an hour and 28 minutes with it, and as the credits roll, you're likely to wonder what the hell that was all about.

Video:

The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen image is good if not great; there's a bit of grain and softness in the occasionally flat picture, probably owing more to the film's low-budget roots than any kind of transfer issues.

The 5.1 audio mix won't give your surround sound much of a workout, as most of the dialogue-heavy track comes from the front and center. Some bursts of (fairly mediocre) music help liven up the soundtrack a bit.

Only one here (aside from Lionsgate's irritating series of trailers for other releases, complete with the expected disabling of the menu button): the original Theatrical Trailer, and whoever cut it appears to have a clearer idea of what the film is about than its director did.

In spite of some erotic moments and a mostly strong cast, Garden Party is a bit of a bore. It plays like a filmed first draft; it might have made for an interesting and memorable indie if the text had made a few more trips out to the woodshed. But in this form, your best bet is probably to Skip It.

Jason lives in New York. He holds an MA in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU.