Act One

My first exposure to the works of Allen C. Gardner was with his latest offering: the horror-comedy Cold Feet (2020). I watched that as a festival screener and appreciated how he and his producing-directing partner, Brad Ellis, worked their low-budget in crafting an engaging film. . . .

Now, I've gone back to the beginning to watch their earlier works. In this, their first joint-project, Ellis-Gardner do it right -- with Gardner writing what he knows (the frustrations of being an aspiring screenwriter) with Ellis working around the sets-locations he knows he can get to shoot their scenes (effectively, with skill).

One of my all-time favorite, repeat viewing films is Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation (2002); it is no accident we see that theatrical one-sheet on the wall of Kevin Hansen's (Gardner) apartment.

The set up, here, is that Hansen scored a big pay day with his disaster-parody blockbuster that got turned into a straight action piece. The film bombs, but the studio still believes in Hansen. So they pressure him to come up with a comedy script.

At the urging of his agent to "write what he knows," slowly, Hansen does just that: his personal life works its way into the script and plays out in real time, on screen (only not as kinetic as a Kaufman flick).

So, while it's not shot in grainy black and white like Kevin Smith's debut, Clerks, what we have is more Chasing Amy: a charming, mature film filled with sincerity about the ups and downs of show business. It's a wonderful throwback to those '90s indies by Miramax and Fox Searchlight, such as the million-dollar budgeted Kicking and Screaming (1995), that came to mind as I watched Act One.

A great movie in the spirit of the early Kevin Smith works. This film's main attraction is the brilliantly written and flawlessly performed dialog. The movie's plot is easily related to, and the cast is perfect for their roles. One of the few original comedies to emerge in a decade. The writer, cast, and crew of this film are part of a group that's been making movies for almost a decade now. This film represents their first main-stream endeavor. Their other films are along the same lines as far as quality , but run the gambit as far as subject matter and genre. This particular film is a refreshing change from the comedy-a-minute carbon-copy films that Hollywood usually turns out. Some of the humor and subject matter will find an audience with viewers in their 20's more so than older viewers.