BALTIMORONS: An Intelligent, Unconventional Rom-Com
Written by Steph Cannon 12.15.2025
What if one night could change the course of your life? This is the question Jay Duplass’ new rom-com The Baltimorons asks of its viewers, and in turn it doles out a charming, albeit unconventional love story.
The film opens with its darkest scene, as a man stumbles up his attic stairs, drunk out of his mind, and unsuccessfully attempts to kill himself. We’re then thrust into the present day, where he’s alive and well, and on his way to his fiance’s family’s house in Baltimore on Christmas Eve. Cliff (played by Michael Strassner, who also co-wrote the movie) is doing much better now - he’s even six months sober, a milestone he celebrates with fiancé Brittany (Olivia Luccardi) while en route to their destination.
During the drive, we learn that Cliff is a former improv comedian, but the combination of that hobby, alongside alcohol, is a no-go, which is greatly emphasized by Brittany’s badgering that he can’t attend a local show that night. By the time they arrive at her parent’s house they’re both clearly annoyed, and Cliff doesn’t even make it into the house before a freak accident causes him to have a dental emergency.
Unfortunately, it’s Christmas Eve, and he's having difficulty getting a hold of a dentist. As he frantically drives through the city, bleeding and in pain, he finally reaches one, and heads over immediately. This is when we meet Didi (Liz Larsen), who ushers him into her locked office and orders him into the chair.
From here, it’s a sequence of comedic events involving Cliff’s nervous energy, Didi’s irritation, and more context into what’s going on in Didi’s life that led her to accept a patient on Christmas Eve. The short answer is that her ex-husband remarried that day, and her adult daughter said she’d be attending their celebration dinner that night.
Clearly upset and with nowhere else to be, Didi fixes Cliff up and swiftly sends him on his way, stating she’ll need to see him again on Monday to finish the job. Sadly for Cliff, his car has been towed, and he lingers on the street until Didi notices and takes pity on him, offering to drive him to the tow yard.
Thus begins a series of random adventures that continually push Didi and Cliff together. First, it’s attempting to break his car out of the closed tow yard (it’s a holiday, after all), followed by a thread of annoyed texts from Brittany regarding Cliff’s prolonged absence that make it clear the couple are not on good terms.
Resigned to being alone for the holiday, Cliff decides to leave Didi to be on her own, but fate has other plans. The remainder of the movie focuses on this unlikely pair wandering aimlessly through the streets of Baltimore, getting to know one another. Initially, they seem to have nothing in common. Didi is much older, and much more resigned to the state of her life. Cliff, however, is goofy and aloof, but ultimately sheds that exterior to reveal he’s much more driven and caring than he first appeared to be.
Baltimorons is not the typical, conventional romance. There’s the obvious age difference, made more unusual by the fact that Didi is the one who is older, as well as their demographic discrepancy (she’s a successful dentist, he’s a recovering alcoholic who isn’t quite sure what he wants to do with his life).
Yet somehow, this budding relationship works. There’s indisputable chemistry between these two that feels natural and authentic. Didi is like that family member you see at Christmas who’s the first to grab a drink and make a cringy joke, while Cliff resembles that oddball co-worker who tries his best to fit in but ends up too annoying and loud.
During their eventful night together, these two reveal the deep struggles they’re individually facing, which neither shows an aversion to. Instead, it’s simply true kindness that flows believably into genuine affection.
On paper, this may seem nefarious or unnatural. The beauty of The Baltimorons is that it’s anything but that. These are two real people who are both at crossroads in their lives. The question is whether they continue on their downtrodden paths, or take a chance on something intimate and ripe with potential.
Duplass takes the script in a direction that’s a departure from his other feature length films, but shows that he has depth and understanding of a more slice of life storytelling venture. Strassner is refreshingly relatable and believable as the flawed, but likable, Cliff, while Larsen shines as Didi, who tries hard to appear rough around the edges, but is anything but.
In a time when romantic comedies tend to showcase their stars as young, attractive people who seemingly have their lives together, this is a refreshing, surprisingly heartwarming tale of two misfits who find each other in the strangest of circumstances.
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