The Comedy

People say the characters are hard to relate to and be empathetic towards which is completely wrong. If you hate the characters you are empathizing with them because they obviously hate themselves even more than you. With that being said it was very hard to watch some scenes and they dragged on too long, but the feeling of pointlessness in life that so many in this generation feel (including me) makes it understandable why the movie is the way it is. The repetitiveness, hopelessness, and boredom of modern life depicted through a 90 minute movie. All of us are looking for happiness but very few actually find it.

Outside melancholia I don't see be using many 5 dollar words to describe The Comedy. Born from the depths of a generation sans responsibility The Comedy is a sad portrayal of those privileged yet initiated in the world today. Essentially the hollow existence of a rich man (by way of proxy) is exposed as a numbing unnerving process in which a sad person seeks to feel alive through a series of ironic and annoying events that can only be described as "real life trolling". The acting is subtle and upsetting as you watch the life of a 4 grown men whittled away seemingly at their own discretion and it becomes even more upsetting when you realize these men do these things on their spare time as well leaving you wondering if the main character, wonderfully played by Tim Heidecker is searching for a deeper meaning in all this non-sense or simply killing time in between breathing.

The most striking and obvious theme of the movie is hit dead on, as no matter how much "fun" the characters are portrayed as having a deep seeded loneliness constantly lingers on the screen. Even as Heidecker's character forms relationship or merely interacts with a stranger you can feel the unhappiness he extrudes.

One thing about The Comedy that is for sure, is that while it may make you chuckle and even get a gut laugh is far from a comedy. No, The Comedy is ironic portrait of how ironic it is that a life fueled by irony is without a doubt sincerely unfulfilled.

If you are looking for the laugh riot of the year I suggest you pass on The Comedy. If you are looking for a serious film on flippant lives it might be the best of 2012.

I saw The Comedy at a packed theater at the Vancouver International Film Festival (2012). The film follows a rich spoiled Brooklyn hipster type played by Tim Heidecker. He and his friends wallow in an excess of alcohol, boredom, and childish antics as they careen from one disruption to another. The character of Swanson pushes every boundary of good taste and civil behavior and will definitely get a reaction out of the audience.

As you watch The Comedy, you will laugh. There are definitely scenes of laugh out loud silliness and gross out humor. But this is not a comedy! The jokes all have a point and it's a point that is most definitely not funny.

Rick Alverson was in attendance and did a Q&A after the show. He said he deliberately wanted to make a film that provoked noting how tired he was of seeing people leave mainstream films like violent action films completely unphased. He only wrote a 20 page script and let the actors improvise extensively. He also simply emailed the actors, including Tim Heidecker, to see if they were interested and they jumped at the opportunity. Alverson thought the discomfort inherent in the comedy of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim would translate well into this dramatic picture and with that he succeeded. You will squirm, guaranteed! Whether or not you will pick up on the deeper commentary, or if there even is a deeper point, depends really on the person.

I'm a big fan of Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, and that is essentially why I wanted to see this, but this film is another animal. There's the humor that fans of Tim & Eric are used to scattered here and there throughout the film but I think it mainly works to compliment the mood of the entire piece. Be warned, this is not a regular film, if that's what you desire than that's just fine, see something else. The Comedy is that piece of art on the wall, when you see it for the first time, that makes you think of how you act and who you are and what you're doing. It's that thing that someone said to you that stuck in your head and brought up memories you'd forgotten about and lies that you've told yourself. But this is just how I felt, reviews are flawed because they can only tell you how that particular person felt about that particular thing. You may see it and just see one big, boring piece of crud. I'm not going to say that I think the movie was trying to say one thing or another because I believe any good art isn't clearly defined or pinned down. All I know is that it affected me. I really do hope more people see it because I believe we need something like this to level out everything else that's thrown at us. Give it a chance.

There is something to be said about this film. It is real and uncomfortable, but I believe that there is something deeper going on here.

We watch a bunch of genuinely unpleasant people go from place to place, and in a nutshell that's it. At least on the surface that is.

This is could be a commentary on what freedom can do to someone. Our main character seems to have no real connection with people outside of his small group of friends. He has the possibility to inherit his father's fortune, instead goes from place to place and seems to exists.

The protagonist is a deplorable person, don't get me wrong, but you can connect with him in his longing to have something meaningful to happen. I can see some people not liking the fact that nothing seems to really happen in the film, but because our main character doesn't have anything purposeful happen to him, the film reflects that.

The cinematography in the film has a lot of up close shots allowing us to really read into the emotions of the main character.

One thing I haven't really mentioned is that the dialog is very interesting. It can go from something funny and seemingly lighthearted, but then does a complete 180. There we're several scenes where the humor is really there.

Overall, this film is not for really a wide crowd, but if any of this sounds interesting, I wholly recommend it.