Entertainment

[cronopio 2]

new film by Rick Alverson, it's a Neil Hamburger film, even if the character is called 'The Comedian'

looks good:




i liked The Comedy a lot . i thought it was more like Lars Von Trier's earlier films than just a lame commentary on hipsters in williamsburg.

[Garam]

This film is available now. Watched the first half hour but turned it off because my viewing situation wasn't great (on a cramped bus). What I saw was very Antonioni-i.

I thought The Comedy was great. Closest thing to a successful Bret Easton Ellis adaptation. Cracker of a soundtrack too.

[Reel]

It's on Netflix. Not as succesful as 'The Comedy' for me, but it hits a lot of great somber notes and is wonderfully shot. What I liked the most was it's portrayal of life on the road for a comedian. We have TOO MANY of these films where the entire trajectory of a comic's career is shown in 90 minutes. From bombing to killing and 'finding their groove' while getting all sorts of wisdom espoused on them from different quirky characters in between.  This one turns that concept on it's head, because the picture it paints of a traveling entertainer is SO bleak. The few actually funny moments come out of his performances, but a huge part of that is in the audiences indifference to him. The character never 'arrives' at anything, through all of his ordeals his affect stays pretty much the same, which is practically void of expression. It's a strange film and there are many bizarre encounters, but they don't do any service to a plot. I don't fault it for that, because it feels extremely personal and Turkington's whole physicality is always suggesting there's more going on beneath the surface than he wants ANYONE to be to privy to. I think Alverson's approach is to treat the character as a kind of blank slate we can project our own assumptions onto about "what he's really like." What's for certain is that unlike 'The Comedy', this guy really is a good person, but life just keeps flinging shit at him. Despite the wretchedness of Neil Hamburger and continued distaste the audience shows for him, everything in his personal life shows him to be an honorable and caring guy. He just can't seem to get a break

[N]

Loved this movie. Glad you guys are watching it. Nice write-up Reelist, honestly my favorite film from whatever year it was released. Gregg Turkington proves to be a genuinely amazing actor.