The Comedy

In all honesty I hate this film. I hate the characters. I hate the story. I hate the dialogue, the costumes...everything. I hate the fact they wasted great music and overlayed it in various scenes that showed the pointless and hollow lives of the privileged hipsters. There is absolutely nothing here, for no one learns any lessons, no one evolves, no one seeks redemption for bad actions and no one really strives to be a better and interesting person. This is why it is such a brutally brilliant film.

There is nothing like this film, and it's amazing that it is fronted primarily by two guys who did weird postmodern TV shows on Cartoon Network and a indie singer who did not become "famous" until he and his band retired (of course they made an eventual comeback, for people actually wanted to hear LCD Soundsystem for some reason). The story on the surface seems like a stunning indictment on trust fund hipsters, but it ultimately is a deconstruction of what happens to people when they lack ambition, desire and heart due to the mundanity of their comforting and unsatisfied lives.

Eric Heidecker is Swanson, an overbearing hipster who is on the verge of inheriting his dying father's fortune. While he grapples with the situation, it is clear he has no clue what to do with his life. He provokes and taunts people to ferry reactions out of them, with one might surmising he is doing it in hopes of getting seriously injured or even killed. Anything to feel something beyond apathy. At least that is what it seems like when he enters the African American bar and openly talks about gentrifying the neighborhood and insulting the other patrons. Of course, it could be ignorance considering Swanson might believe that since he likes hip-hop music and other forms of minority culture, that he somehow has the right to speak in such generalities. Trust me, I wanted the men at the bar to pummel him but then again, it would have been dishonest.

I think this is what makes this film so unsettling. While we hope Swanson and his friends eventually grow up and continue their life journey, they just continue to be awful human beings. Before the social media world gave such bad behavior a monetary feed, being this type of person was unexpected. Now it has sadly grown into a norm.

Like I said before, I hated Swanson and ultimately wished he had an end like Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant, but that would not have been a sincere outcome. You can't feel any sympathy for the characters and this is what is so provocative about this film. Considering Heidecker's career this is a wild subversion on his filmography, and it seemed perfectly tailored for someone like him. It will be years before I want to see this again, but damn this is provocative.

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.

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.

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.

Suffice to say, "The Comedy" is not a comedy (even though it does contain laughs) nor is it necessarily about comedians. Spearheaded by a shockingly inspired performance from Tim Heidecker, what Rick Alverson's quietly brilliant film is, is in fact about pointlessness, indifference and mocking sincerity. Sounds riveting right? Well, it is…in a very experimental way. "The Comedy" is deep and poignant and fascinatingly layered with subtle jabs at society, as well as those who have so much in life, that they have become bored with everyday existence.

Opening with a sequence involving male nudity that is so awkward it may cause some viewers to say to themselves "what did I get myself into?", "The Comedy" follows a man named Swanson (Heidecker) who is seemingly unfazed by his father's impending death. Instead of a real job, he spends his days hanging out with his buddies, engrossed in inane verbal and physical (and sometimes sociopathic) games of one-upmanship. From impersonating store clerks and gardeners, to making the most inappropriate jokes during the most depressing and even life threatening moments, to degrading others in public in order to fulfill some kind of personal enjoyment, as this film progresses the activities of each of these men (including Swanson) become progressively offensive in order to maintain a sort of continuous high. And while this could be the plot to any crude Danny McBride piece of trash, it is Alverson's ultra serious tone, along with the fact that he throws these would be offensive but clownish comedic characters into a real world where people die, have disorders and are struggling to feed their families, which allows "The Comedy" to rise above the "crudeness for the sake of being crude" films of today.

As much as I enjoyed "The Comedy", this is one movie that will assuredly come under heavy scrutiny from a majority (that's right, I said majority) of movie going audiences, because, for one, while there is a subtle story arc here, this film is not pushed along by heavy conflict. And secondly, many unfamiliar with Heidecker's form of comedy will undoubtedly be turned off by the amount of absurdist drama which is played out by a group, whom on the surface seem too spoiled and flippant to care about. In short, even those who loved the terribly long "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" or are fans of their show and have been eagerly awaiting more of the same skit driven comedy, may find "The Comedy" a bit too tonally heavy or obscure to take (and that is truly saying something).

Side Note: Some have said that the Tim Hiedecker's style of comedy is a form of avant-garde comedy or apart of the anti-comedy movement. Meaning, that much of his shtick consists of making his audiences (television or otherwise) highly uncomfortable, to the point where they either laugh at his awkwardness or dismiss his actions as strange. And while Hiedecker's awkward style of comedy is featured prominently here, his performance is anything but comedic. In fact, he gives a quite emotionally dramatic performance in a movie that, if it were a straight forward comedy, would have seen Zach Galifianakis in the starring role. Thankfully, this is not the case because Hiedecker's performance is absolutely magnificent (and dare I say award worthy?) in this role that was obviously tailored specifically for him.

Final Thought: I will reiterate, and I can't say this enough, how "The Comedy" is not for everybody; especially if you are expecting a comedy. To some audiences this is all going to seem as an exercise in pathetic nature and nonsensical mannerisms, but rest assured that there is something happening here on a very highly conceptual level that is not only meant to make viewers uncomfortable, and cringe and laugh at the most inappropriate things, as well as think these characters are pathetic while at the same time feel sorry for them, but is also a subtly laced work of a very skilled writer, whose entire point seems to be an analysis/criticism of the reaction of "normal people" to those who wish to push the limits of comedy. Not since Lars von Trier's "The Idiots" have I witnessed a movie that was this skillfully successful in demonstrating the complex struggles of a generation built on a doctrine of nihilistic irreverence. In short, if you chose to see "The Comedy", you will either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it.

Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland