Punching the Clown

Here's a good one for you, if you want something new. Punching the Clown. Yes, the title means what you think it means, but that's not what the film is about... Well, yes, it IS about a clown of sorts (a comic) that rolls with the punches... but nothing immature here. Trust me, I know immature!

Anyway, I loved it. My favorite characters apart from Henry Phillips were his useless but loving manager (Ellen Ratner, she reminded me of my mom... Bonus: she does the commentary track with the director and the star. There are some very funny deleted scenes too.), his amazing failed actor brother (Matt Walker) and the extremely realistic record company guy (Guilford Adams). There are plenty of other great characters. Most of them are surprisingly true to life.

Without giving too much away, it's about a singer/comic who decides to move to LA because his luck dried up singing at one too many pizza joints on the road. In Hollywood, he gets a record deal a little too quickly, and then... life happens. The plot is fun (though not 100% fresh) but the way it plays out is about as fresh as anything I've seen on a screen, big or small. Henry's songs are hilarious, which is refreshing. Kind of like a young Tom Waits.

The movie is expertly directed, avoiding cliché's, keeping the story moving the entire time. It will suck you in. It won the audience award at the Slamdance film festival and a bunch of other awards, and I can see why. It's got a high rating (rotten tomatoes). It's got my vote too.

I decided to give this film a whirl since it is streaming now on Netflix and it was the funnest time I have had watching a film in a while. We were laughing through so much of this movie. It is a very clever movie and so much of it rings true (if you are living in Los Angeles at least) This film does not really have a dull moment in it, and I enjoyed the pace as the movie moves along pretty quickly. I really became a fan of Henrys during this film as his comedy routines/songs in the movie were hilarious.There is a scene involving a Bagel misunderstanding that just killed me and it was the most clever scene i have seen in a long while. I really appreciated this movie and will watch it again definitely. I recommend watching this film to any and all fans of the comedy genre and then go tell a friend to do the same.

I didn't realize how ready I was for something fresh until I laughed and smiled for 90 minutes watching this amazing low-budget comedy.

I went to see the movie in New York after getting a tweet from Sarah Silverman saying she loved it and that everyone should go see it. I saw that she actually called it "the funniest movie about comedy I've seen so far." My expectations were really high after that endorsement, but I quickly understood what she meant: it's better, or at least funnier, than any film I've seen on the subject of comedy, stand-up, the music business or even Hollywood image making. I was simply blown away. Not so much by the cinematography or the general look of it (which is fine, that's not the point of the movie), but by the amazingly witty situations and the funny dialog which is razor sharp, yet, at the same time, very laid-back and realistic. The plot is very original in the genre, even if the story is kind of a classic. Classic in a good sense. In fact, part of it seems completely real, but not in a mockumentary way. In a very good way.

And I'm forgetting to state the obvious: Henry Phillips is hilarious. His songs are beautiful and funny as hell. The film is so well balanced and intelligently structured that by the end of it I felt like I'd just witnessed something unique: a comical tragedy about a tragically comic man. I wanted more. I bought Phillips's last two CDs. He's no fluke. His music is as brilliant as the movie.

I expected to like this, but my wife and I loved it. There are laughs from the opening scene all the way through the credits. There are also a lot of weird but believable characters and situations throughout the movie that I imagine accurately reflect the life of a struggling musician, comedian, or artist. We also met Mr. Phillips after the movie was shown and he is as laid back and funny off the cuff as he is in the movie. He handled some really oddball questions from the audience very smoothly and had us laughing as much then as during the movie. Seems like a nice guy. It appears that a creative bunch of friends made this movie, which may be why it seemed so unique and refreshing - it was not a typical Hollywood movie because you didn't see the humor or strange situations coming from a mile away. I can see why it won several awards. Highly recommended because it really adds up to a lot more than we expected going in.

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.