LolliLove

2004, Year of Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles, Sideways, Harry Potter 3 or whatever, but I never heard of this. LolliLove sounded a little odd at first, not gonna lie. When I saw it was a satire and it starred Jenna Fischer and James Gunn, two of some of my favorite filmmakers, I was sold.

Now, Amazon Prime is doing 7 day trials, and this movie was on there. It's on Vudu and Tubi for free as of 4/20/2020, so anyone with internet has no excuse to not go check it out, Right now, Stop reading this review, Just watch it.

So, I decided to check it out, It was 6:45 AM, I needed to get to sleep so I could get back to writing when I woke up. It was only 64 mins, so I decided to check it out.

From the beginning, There's narration from someone who I'm willing to bet was just a friend of the Gunns (at the time at least, considering now Fischer and Gunn are divorced) and after he helped write Jenna write it, he said "I WANT TO BE THE NARRATOR!" Jenna and James probably looked at him like he was nuts, but they needed a narrator, so there we go. We got whoever Peter Alton is. The narration isn't bad, although I still think it'd possibly be better without it. HOWEVER, Due to this being a satire, I can understand why so I can't be too angry at it considering I probably would've wrote narration for a satirical documentary if I was the writer.

We immediately, after some amazing shots of California, get straight into the Gunns talking about their marriage (they're divorced). They do share chemistry for sure, They work as a couple in the film about as well you'd expect from a real-life couple, What I'm saying is, They work. Gunn and Fischer are both extremely likable, despite how many lines of Gunn's tend to be offensive (I was not offended because honestly who cares) and Fischer's lines tend to sound somewhat selfish. However, Their acting is so excellent that we can't help but like them.

Immediately, Once they begin the charity work, The hilarity begins. Fischer begins calling probably every single company in California (although I'm going to guess the calls were staged). It's hilarious to see this woman scream curse words at random Company peeps and Gunn seeming to fail at almost everything he attempts to do. Gunn becomes obsessed with the drawings. He urinates on paper, He screams at the paper, It's awesome to see Gunn play this ridiculous version of himself.

Eventually, After Fischer continues to be hilarious and Gunn feel like a crazy slasher killer about his drawings, Someone named Larry Fitzgibbon, a company person, gives them a chance. They begin their presentation, and this is where a subplot about their marriage comes in. After the presentation, Larry seems as if he's going to give them the money-- BEFORE he wants to see the lollipops.

This is where that marriage plot begins to kick in, Gunn blames Fischer for the lack of lollipops and then they improvise something. However, Gunn takes all the credit, and as they leave, They speak to a woman who wants to volunteer. Gunn then calls her beautiful (THE woman who wants to Volunteer, by the way), which causes Fischer to give her infamous death stare for anyone familar with her filmography/her role in The Office (US). Then once they're about to get in their car, They break. Fischer goes nuts and screams curse words once more (and it's still funny and awesome to see this actress going nuts to her husband who's playing a self-obsessed/selfish character). Her husband in this film is portrayed as kinda your average self-obsessed character, He even plays GTA instead of helping her with the lollipop artwork!

There's also a lot of cameos by actors and actresses like Judy Greer (who per usual feels like she's bored out of her mind), Jason Segel, and Linda Cardellini, who were dating according to the narrator. There's a funny scene involving Fischer, Gunn, Segel, and Cardellini where the Gunns ask for over 250,000$ for this "LolliLove" charity, in which Segel and Cardellini deliver surprisingly good performances for the cameo roles they have. They pretty much shut the Gunns down as soon as they ask for it.

This kinda begins the characters' downward slope, but I've already explained what went down from there.

Overall, I won't get in to what happens after all the events I mentioned because that is where this film gets better (although it was excellent to begin with) and even somewhat shocking (Lloyd Kaufman has a freaking cameo man!). Overall, Just see it, It's an excellent satire that makes you curious about what would happen next? Due to Fischer and Gunn's divorce, I'd love to see a sequel with Jenna Fischer and Lee Kirk, her now-husband, trying something bigger and better, They have two kids, so maybe that could make a sequel much more interesting! Oh well, It'll probably never happen unless an actual studio asked her to make it, but oh well.

We can at least hope for it to one day happen.

One day.

One day.

This movie is mockumentary at its finest - never so outlandish that it's implausible, yet significantly funnier and wittier than what happens in day to day life.

The movie as a whole centers around the trials and tribulations of a would-be Hollywood power couple as they struggle to start a nonprofit organization to help the homeless, with only their naivety, narcissism, and good intentions to guide them. Jenna, the self-proclaimed "Martha Stewart" of fund raising, and her obsessive-compulsive egomaniac "artist" husband James are looking to help the homeless thru "inspirational" art wrapped around lollipops but just can't seem to get the idea off of the ground, whether it be a lack of support from others or an internal tiff or two in their marriage. Absolute hilarity ensues as they work to conquer both. It's not that they don't know that there are problems in the world - it's that, being of well means, they have no idea how to approach the problems at hand. They always innocently see the world through the eyes of the well privileged and are left wondering why nothing seems to go right.

Their naivety is, more than hilarious, touching. As narcissistic as their idea of inspiring the homeless is, you want very much for them to succeed, because in a less-than-perfect world where nobody helps the homeless at all, you at the very least appreciate the seemingly sincere (though misguided) efforts of these two, and you want not to ruin the dreams of those so innocent.

The movie on a whole is a bit rough around the edges - many parts were improvised, and this shows through on a few of the more inconsistent scenes. It sometimes helps scenes to come across as more natural, but more often than not it feels like somebody forgot a line and was trying to cover up. Still, on a whole, this movie is hilarious, touching, and very much worth your time should you come upon it at your local video rental store.

Knowing that this movie was made with such a tiny budget really is amazing. The idea is just genius: a yuppie couple decide to give out lollipops covered in "designer wrappers" hoping to inspire the homeless to get jobs, stop doing drugs, or even stop blowing up planes (with James' characters Mustafa and Osama bin Awesome). Of course, their idea is met with a lot of skepticism as well as downright anger, but Jenna and James fight through this negativity and get to live out their "dream." And fail. It's not politically correct, and it's not glossy or perfect, but goddamnit, that's the way movies should be! See this movie!

I love it, it's all they ever needed. All the cold, lonely nights, and the begging for change. Not to mention the drugs and alcohol. All that crummy luck had a solution all along, just staring us right in the face. Lollipops!! Of course, why didn't I think of that?

Jenna Fischer directs herself, as well as her husband, James Gunn as "superficial, clueless versions of themselves" in the smartest Troma comedy of the decade, or probably ever, Lollilove. Certainly more original than it may, at first, seem , Lollilove is a mockumentary about an incredibly self involved, yuppie couple,"James and Jenna". Jenna, an ex-model, is looking to get her name back out there, just a little notoriety. Maybe all these celebrities who start charities (only for the good of their careers) are on to something. Then again, all that stuff sounds kind of hard. After loads of soul searching, Jenna figures out a way to impress everybody without putting herself out too much. With the help of her husband, James "wrote Tromeo & Juliet" Gunn, Jenna buys tons of lollipops to hand out to the homeless, so they can realize that they matter. James is even using his "artwork" to design the wrappers, with positive slogans, and everything. So, those filthy bums can finally realize how special they really are. it's gonna be sweet!!

Wait, what? The company which makes these lollipops are now threatening legal action against the Gunns? Don't they know poor Jenna is only trying to be famous? I told you this charity stuff was hard.

Don't ever say (hot) women can't be funny. Jenna Fischer obviously knows what's funny, and it shows in some of her priceless facial expressions. And James Gunn is equally hilarious as a smug, germ-phobic jackass who is just a little too pleased with himself. These two really make this type of comedy work (the censors were actually a nice touch), which is not the usual type of comedy that the Troma team goes for, but somehow, that works as well, just an all around swell hour of entertainment. For more in hilarious mockumentaries (with food in the title) check out the more mean-spirited, Dirty Cop No Donut. Lollilove is mostly for those who appreciate edgy satire, but, especially recommended to those who just plain love to laugh. 8/10

This film really makes one appreciate just how brilliant Christpher Guest's mockumentaries are. It also makes one realize that a TV show like The Office is much harder to make than it might appear.

All that naturalistic mockumentary acting looks so easy, but if this film, Lollilove, proves anything it is that mockumentaries can be very hard to make.

There aren't any glaring mistakes in the film's production, but rather none of the elements of the film are done to the level that needs to be done to make these films work. The acting is just a tad overdone, the writing is slightly implausible, and the camera-work is amateur. All those small mistakes add up to bring the entire thing down to the level of mediocrity.

To be fair, the film seems like more of a casual side project than an attempt at film-making history. It seems that the actors obviously knew the film was kind of a lark and not something that should be taken very seriously. In fact, low budget films like this almost never get put out on DVD, so it is pretty interesting from that standpoint.

Even if you are a die hard fan of the genre, though, I would say that you could miss this film without any regret at all.