Clea DuVall’s Directorial Debut ‘The Intervention’ Brings Together So Many Of Our Faves: BUST Review

by Erika W. Smith

Clea DuVall’s directorial debut, The Intervention, brings together so many of our favorite actors for a break-up-and-make-up dramedy.

The film centers on four dysfunctional couples on a weekend trip: DuVall (who also wrote the film) and Natasha Lyonne (a former BUST cover gal) play a couple who might be moving a little too fast — or a little too slow, depending on which one of them you ask. Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter play an engaged couple who seems picture-perfect, until you realize that they keep rescheduling the wedding and no one wants to talk about why. Alia Shawkat (also a former BUST cover gal) and Ben Schwartz play a just-met, May-December couple who are definitely rushing into things. And Cobie Smulders and Vincent Piazza play a married couple that fights constantly. 

The Intervention film

It’s the married couple that’s the catalyst for the film’s action: These friends are all gathered together on a weekend getaway so that the others can spring a surprise divorce intervention on them. Needless to say, they’re not too happy about it — the intervention sets off a whole lot of drama between all the friends and couples. I won’t give it all away, but I’ll tell you that there’s more than one intervention in the film.

The Intervention manages to make you laugh at all the couples’ dysfunction, as well as see the sweet side of all these relationships — even if they’re not all forever couples, we manage to see why all of them got together in the first place. The women of the film are also definitely the focus, and seem to span genres — Lynskey and Smulders have the most dramatic roles, Shawkat’s is purely comedic, and Lyonne’s and DuVall’s are somewhere in between. We hope this is the first of many films for DuVall as a director — and we wouldn’t complain if Natasha Lyonne or Alia Shawkat showed up in a few more of them, too.

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Founded in 1993, BUST is the inclusive feminist lifestyle trailblazer offering a unique mix of humor, female-focused entertainment, uncensored personal stories, and candid reporting that tells the truth about women’s lives.

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