Lovelife

A Phoenix pick

Not that we need another comedy about the love woes of twentysomethings, but despite its generic title Jon Harmon Feldman's debut, Lovelife, injects the genre with some revitalizing wit, passion, and vitriol. This last comes in the form of Alan (Matthew Letscher), a pompous, egomaniacal writing professor and would-be lothario who subjects his students to readings of short stories with titles like "Watching Myself." Although living with low-self-esteem queen Molly (Sherilyn Fenn), Alan takes a shine to the glacial Zoey (Carla Gugino), a bright graduate student and the current squeeze of Danny (Jon Tenney), a genial underachiever who has a way with a one-liner but not much of a handle on the books. Meanwhile, Amy (Saffron Burrows) and Tim (Peter Krause) cope with their lack of companionship through, respectively, social ineptitude and voyeurism.

Although not much more ambitious than an above-average sit-com (Feldman was a producer and writer for The Wonder Years), Lovelife has some great performances (Bruce Davison as an aging swain is touching) and some intensely emotional scenes (a drunken Alan hitting on an undergraduate is a daring, un-PC moment). In short, it offers more of love and life than most of the romantic comedies that have made it to the cinemas this summer. Screens at the Kendall Square Thursday at 5:30, 7:45, and 10 p.m. and Friday at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m.

-- Peter Keough

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