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6.7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Let's Do Things remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old-school slapstick and don’t mind a plot that feels like it was scribbled on a napkin, you might get a kick out of Let's Do Things. It’s for the folks who enjoy watching performers try to salvage a thin script with nothing but their facial expressions. If you need a tight story or a movie that respects your time, skip this one. Honestly, it’s a bit of a train wreck, but the kind of wreck you can’t look away from.
Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd are the main draw here, and thank goodness for that. They have this odd chemistry where they seem constantly exhausted by the men they’re stuck with. You can practically see Zasu thinking about her grocery list in the middle of a scene. It’s weirdly relatable.
The whole movie centers on this night out, and it’s mostly just people bumping into furniture and saying things that aren’t quite funny but aren't quite tragic either. The two guys they’re with are just… a lot. They aren’t charming, they aren’t clever, they’re just loud. Watching them try to pick up women is like watching a dog try to chase a car that’s parked.
There’s a specific bit in the club where a waiter keeps getting pushed around, and the timing is just a hair off. You can see the actor waiting for his cue. It reminded me a bit of the frantic pacing in Battleship Potemkin, though obviously, with way fewer revolution-level stakes and way more bad tuxedos.
It’s not as heavy as The Scar of Shame, obviously. It’s barely a movie, really. It’s more like a series of sketches that were loosely taped together by H.M. Walker. Sometimes you just need to watch people fail at flirting for twenty minutes, I guess. 🥂