marcusglot

I saw the movie on DVD and was hooked immediately. The story is excellent. The dialog is better written than any film I've seen this year, including my favorite "The Social Network" which was too esoteric at times. Punching the Clown is a real treat. Henry Phillips (I had never heard of him, even though he's been on late night TV) is a phenomenal storyteller and singer. The movie is a good showcase of Phillips's music and stand-up show (he plays himself), but it's also much more than that. The first scene constitutes the funniest 2 or 3 minutes I've ever seen on the subject of censorship and, in a way, it just gets better from there. The characters are wonderfully true to life: the unsuccessful manager (Ellen Ratner, a supporting actor on Seinfeld) who takes Henry under her wing and sees neither how damaging her tactics are nor how Henry's success is unrelated to her efforts, the struggling actor brother (Matthew Walker) who is just a well of bitterness, the late night public radio DJ (Wade Kelley) who manages to squeeze some truth out of a comic and doesn't really care if no one is listening to his show, and so many other characters, all new faces... The film is a musical performance film and every song in it is incredibly witty and surprising. One of the songs, a ballad about bullies and nerds in school is a comical gem that anyone who struggled through high school in this country will appreciate and probably start humming on their way to work. Other songs, about relationships, life on the road, life in LA, are as beautiful as any great pop song from the 70s, but with such outlandish and clever lyrics that you just want to bring your neighbors or co-workers in to share a great laugh after a hard day's work. Some of the scenes look a little grainy and indie-like, but it doesn't keep Punching the Clown from being the best comedy I've seen in at least a few years.