Swingers (1996)

‘There’s nothing wrong with letting the girls know that you’re money and that you want to party.’
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Heather Graham, Jon Favreau
Defining moment: The scene where poor, hapless Jon Favreau attempts to leave an answerphone message for a girl he likes and gets all tied up in knots...
Cast your mind back, way back to the days when critics would ritually employ the term ‘bequiffed stringbean quipster’ to describe Vince Vaughn, and you’re slap bang in the middle of ‘Swingers’ territory. Definitely one of the stronger titles in the cloying late-’90s wave of post-Tarantino, cine-literate genre flicks, this sweet ’n’ loose, Jon Favreau-penned buddy comedy managed to add a bit of heart and soul to the nose-tapping, movie-referencing shenanigans. Favreau and his limelight-stealing crony Vaughn are the slick-haired minnows in the shark pool of LA’s dating scene, and their comic search for some old-school action takes them on a eventful twilight tour of long-forgotten hostelries and nightspots. The fluid, naturalistic patter between the two leads is what makes the film: you might even see it as the missing link between John Cassavetes, Mumblecore and an X-rated Rat Pack Christmas special. David Jenkins