VHYes

What a strange yet delightfully engaging movie. Stumble across it during a slow day at work and paused it halfway so we could finish it the next day.

We watched the Alan Resnick stuff on youtube, (Alantutorials, Unedited footage of a bear) and went down the rabbit hole watching too many cooks and all these old adultswim vids.... This reminded me of those vids. Was right up my ally.

And if you enjoyed this movie for what it was, take a look at the vids I mentioned as they are great. (watch alantutorial in chronological order)

I came to find out it's just a patchwork of the filmmaker's short films, which I think is slightly lazy.

Annoying anachronistic detail: One vignette features a painting of Dennis Rodman in his red #91 jersey. This film is supposed to be take place in 1987. Dennis Rodman wasn't even playing for the Bulls as #91 until 1995. Again, pretty lazy filmmaking in my opinion.

As a fan of vintage video technology, especially VHS, and the culture VHS birthed in the 80's, I found this film rather insulting.

This should have been hilarious. With all the people in this that are hilarious on their own, I have no idea why this is the outcome when you combine them.

I can't really call this a movie, in the common sense. Sure you'll see some semi-recognizable faces who have held smaller parts across many comedy shows and movies, most notably a few cast members from Reno 911, but there is not a straight forward narrative here. Instead we have more of an anthology of faux-public access and infomercial skits (think Tim & Eric Awesome Show) specifically created and filmed deliberately in amateur style under the pretense that a young boy recorded these bits of cheesy TV over a VHS tape that was originally once reserved for his parents' 1987 wedding footage. You'll see classic clips of horribly acted 80's porn (the story scenes), exaggerated jazzercize infomercials, the blue vertically scrolling preview channel, absurd advertisements, boring public access programs about rock bands and conspiracies, knock-off Antiques Roadshow and HSN bits, and peppered in between all of this you have quick shots of the kid's parents' wedding video and times where him and his friend were messing with the camcorder during sleepovers. Everything is pretty convincing here and as an 80s/90s kid myself, I appreciate the authenticity. This is a love letter to a certain kind of person, of a certain age, with a certain sense of humor. If you get it, you really get it. If you don't, then you just weren't the target audience. This film is like one endless inside-joke, and it's absolutely brilliant for what it is.

A unique film for a unique personality/ sense of humour. If you're into this kind of thing you'll love it.