Sundance ‘12: The Comedy review
The film with the unfortunate distinction of being the very worst film I saw at Sundance this year was “The Comedy,” a supposed satire of aging hipsters starring Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim of “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job” and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. Only intermittently funny apparently by design, the film is a series of loosely connected skits featuring Heidecker as a trust fund kid now nearing his 40’s. He drinks, hangs out with his buddies and drifts in and out of various situations, provoking others to amuse himself. Whether pretending he’s a landscaper, offering a cab driver hundreds of dollars do drive his cab or applying for a job as a dishwasher, Heidecker seemingly improvises through each scene giving rise to some off the cuff hilarious moments but they’re not consistent and have nothing to build on. The audience afterwards questioned what the differences were between him and his character to which Heidecker responded, “I’m an actor.” To his credit but the film’s detriment, he is so convincing in the part - rattling off horrible offensive things to nearly everyone - you never get the impression the joke is on his character.
If you didn’t know any better (and how would you from the outset) the picture comes across as Heidecker riffing and smartassing his way through the film, drinking and hanging out with his friends. But to hear the filmmakers describe it, the film was supposed to be a skewering not glamorizing the Williamsburg overgrown hipsters it’s depicting. The line between truth and takeoff becomes too blurry and instead of coming off as an indictment of this culture of empty sarcasm, it just looks like the director gathered up some of his hip friends and asked them to fuck around. And they did and he certainly has cool friends - it was kinda great seeing LCD’s James Murphy onscreen - but seems to miss its own point and at feature length, the proceedings become tedious. Though shot quite nicely by DP Mark Schwartzbard and well acted by the cast, co-writer/director Rick Alverson’s shapeless film doesn’t illuminate, instead comes across as VICE Magazine the movie.
