A bunch of twentysomething white guys hang out all night trying to get laid. Not the most original concept, perhaps, but director Doug Liman and writer/star Jon Favreau's treatment makes it almost meaningful, with an exactingly detailed milieu and argot, a sense of humor ranging from wry to deranged, and characters that are endearing and infuriating but always ring true. No more so than Mike (Favreau), an aspiring comic who in his move from Queens to LA lost his girlfriend and most of his self-esteem.

To help him out, his oddball friends gear him up in retro '50s attire and take him to Vegas or local spots featuring swing music, martinis, and other bohemian thrills from the Eisenhower era. True love strikes again, of course, in the form of a pretty woman who's as funny as his male friends, but not before the film languidly unwinds a night full of inspired misadventures and good-natured absurdities. Fresh, zesty, if unfortunately titled, Swingers rocks. At the Nickelodeon and the Kendall Square.