Along with lawyers, used car salesmen have a bad rep for being sleazy scammers and the brunt of much disrespect and bad punchlines. The perception, justified or not, is that they’re driven by sales, stoop to ridiculous lows and have a bag of tricks so deep that it would make an old-time carnie jealous. These ideas have been perpetrated on screen and on television in the last year as well in The Goods with Jeremy Piven and in the background of HBO’s hilarious Eastbound and Down so it doesn’t look like it’s going to be changing anytime soon.
Further standing behind the claim that clunker peddlers are legalized conmen comes the Canadian indie Slightly Used. Directed by Blake Van de Graff (Sidekick), Slightly Used is a funny, albeit very light, look at the used car lot. With a feel that blends Kevin Smith’s Clerks and the Canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys, Slightly Used is a character-driven film that is has minimal plot to maximize the joke opportunities. Although sometimes a little too cartoonish, the cast is an enjoyable lot with plenty going on to drive the film forward.
The foundation of Brice’s (Neil Green, who also wrote the film’s story and co-produced) identity comes from the numerous pictures of him hanging on his car dealership’s wall. For the past year he’s been the perennial ‘Hotshot of the Month,’ the pinnacle of sales. Smooth, cocky and the type that some look up to, Brice seems to have a lot going for him, at least in his mind. But when newcomer Jordan (Robin Frigeri) steps onto the lot, Brice’s reign of sales supremacy comes to an end. This sets the stage for a sales standoff where the almost likeable Brice attempts to take back his spot on the wall from his sleazebag coworker. Toss in the other employees and denizens of the dealership and Slightly Used has an oddball lot of characters and subplots.
Slightly Used is driven by its slick writing and dialogue. Although somewhat crude at times, it carries tremendous honesty and has a slick flow. This bodes well for the film as it isn’t necessarily driven by a lot of action. Rather it’s largely a set of situations framed around the loose plot of the sales competition. This allows for scenes to play out as connected vignettes centered around the many characters at the car lot, much like Clerks does with the convenience store. When Slightly Used comes together as a whole it still plays into the idea that car salesmen aren’t the most honest people in the world but they’re still human. And it’s that idea of personality that makes something interesting.
Slightly Used doesn’t try to be the most enlightening film out there, but it’s not mindless either. Some of the situations felt a little too familiar for my liking, but the majority felt fresh in their own way. The crude feel might also be off-putting to some but it’s not nearly as crude as Clerks or Trailer Park Boys.
This is a fun, fast-moving film that offers many laughs and some memorable characters. It’s somewhat different in tone to Van de Graff’s Sidekick, but again the director proves that he’s tuned into his characters and their importance in connecting with his audience.
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