''The D Train'' (also known as ''Bad Bromance'') is a 2015

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film written and directed by Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel in their directorial debuts, and stars

Jack Black Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...

and

James Marsden James Paul Marsden (born September 18, 1973) is an American actor. He began his acting career guest starring in the television shows '' Saved by the Bell: The New Class'' (1993), '' Touched by an Angel'' (1995), and '' Party of Five'' (1995). Ma ...

. The film premiered at the 11th Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2015, and was released in the United States on May 8, 2015, by

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

Premise

Dan Landsman is the self-proclaimed chairman of his Pittsburgh high school's alumni committee. While planning the twenty-year reunion, Dan has the idea of convincing Oliver Lawless, the most popular guy in his graduating class (and now a TV-commercial celebrity) to return, thinking that this will make people want to attend.

Cast

as Daniel Gregory Landsman (aka The D Train) *

as Oliver Lawless * Kathryn Hahn as Stacey Landsman *

Jeffrey Tambor Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American retired actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank ...

as Bill Shurmur * Russell Posner as Zach Landsman * Kyle Bornheimer as Randy * Mike White as Jerry *

Henry Zebrowski Henry Thomas Zebrowski Jr. (born May 1, 1984) is an American actor, podcast host, and comedian, known for his work on the Adult Swim series '' Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell'', the film The Wolf of Wall Street, the NBC series '' Heroes Reborn ...

as Craig * Denise Williamson as Alyssa * Donna Duplantier as Taj * Han Soto as Dale *

Dermot Mulroney Dermot Patrick Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles in a wide variety of genres, including romantic comedy, western, and drama films. After making his film debut in ''Sunset'' (1988), Mulro ...

as himself

Production

On February 10, 2014, it was announced that

and

would star in a comedy film, directing debut of Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, which Black's Electric Dynamite produced with Mike White's RipCord Productions and Ben Latham-Jones and Barnaby Thompson of

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...

Filming

According to a casting call, the shooting was set to begin on March 17, 2014, in Metairie,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Later on March 19,

was spotted during the filming of ''The D Train'' in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Due to Black's schedule, the film was shot in just 21 days.

Music

In October 2014, Andrew Dost was hired to compose the music for the film. A Pittsburgh sports radio segment playing when Dan arrives at a sports bar includes an audio cameo by John-Paul "JP" Flaim, Eric "EB" Bickel, Johnny "Cakes" Auville and Jason "Lurch" Bishop, the titular hosts of '' The Sports Junkies'' in Washington. The Junkies also released audio of them reading their lines in studio.

Release

''The D Train'' premiered at the

2015 Sundance Film Festival The 2015 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 22 to February 1, 2015. ''What Happened, Miss Simone?'', a biographical documentary film about American singer Nina Simone, opened the festival. Comedy-drama film '' Grandma'', directed by ...

on January 23, 2015. Shortly after,

acquired U.S. distribution rights for $3 million in a bidding war against studios including

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

Fox Searchlight Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...

, Broad Green Pictures and

Alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

. The film was released theatrically in the United States on May 8, 2015, by

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $447,524 from 1,009 theaters ($444 per theater), which is the 15th worst opening for a wide release film of all time. In its second weekend, the film was pulled from 847 screens, and its weekend-to-weekend gross fell 96.5%, as it only earned $15,714 ($97 per theater). As of November 10, 2015, the film had grossed $771,317.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has a rating of 54% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The site's consensus reads, "''The D Train'' offers Jack Black a too-rare opportunity to showcase his range, but its story and characters are too sloppily conceived to hold together as a film." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

'' described the film as "cute, breezy fun".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D Train 2015 films 2015 black comedy films American buddy comedy films British buddy comedy films American black comedy films British black comedy films American LGBTQ-related films British LGBTQ-related films Films shot in Louisiana Films shot in New Orleans Ealing Studios films Films set in Pittsburgh Films about class reunions Films about alcoholism 2015 directorial debut films 2015 independent films 2015 LGBTQ-related films 2010s English-language films 2010s buddy comedy films 2010s American films 2010s British films English-language black comedy films English-language independent films English-language buddy comedy films