Film Review Week - Day 2

This weekend just gone saw the London Sundance Film Festival at the Picturehouse Central near Piccadilly. I only really spotted this on Saturday so, as a Picturehouse member, decided to use up a few on my free membership screenings to go and spend the lovely sunny Sunday in a darkened (gloriously air-conditioned) room watching a selection of images on a flickering screen. One of the films wasn’t strictly part of the festival so I’ll talk about that with another film as it’s more thematically pleasing (yes, I’m not above a spot of review-based pretension). 

First up was a talk by American stand up comedian Bo Burnham (probably most recognised over here for his portrayal of one of the stand up comedians in The Big Sick). I enjoy listening comedians talking about their craft (as previously mentioned here); I think partly because they talk for a living so tend to make engaging interviewees. He started out as a YouTube star around 12 years ago before breaking into the mainstream American comedy scene and had some interesting musings on the current state and impact of social media. What I hadn’t realised was that he was also talking about a film showing at the festival that he had written and directed (Eighth Grade). Unfortunately, I hadn’t booked to see that one which is a shame as it sounded pretty interesting from the discussion around it. The main event, however, was this…

An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn
Dir. Jim Hoskings
In A Nutshell:- Nope, no nutshell for this one

This was very much my sort of film. An oddball, highly stylised film peopled by a cast of known comedians (including Aubrey Plaza, Jemaine Clement, Matt Berry and Craig Robinson) and bizarre character actors, it’s a tricky one to describe. Strange hairstyles, weird 60s-70s-80s mish-mash clothing, mannered speech patterns, a robbery, grunting, wig-based disguises, cheesy onion rings, a magical evening, extended over-the-top coughing and tartan are all elements mashed together in this strange comedy which could well possibly be described as a romantic comedy but only in the loosest and oddest possible sense. I would try and describe it in a bit more detail but I genuinely don’t think I can. I suspect that trying to detail the plot would make the film seem more conventional and mundane than it is. It’s the sort of film that may well exist in its own genre.

Is this film for everyone? No, definitely not. I strongly suspect that this film will have a Marmite effect on many people but I absolutely loved it and found myself laughing quite a bit. It’s certainly the unique vision of a possibly deranged director (while the film is set in America, he is very much English - he came out for a Q&A at the end). Would I recommend it? I would but don’t blame me if your response is, “What the hell did you just make me watch?” At the moment, it doesn’t have a confirmed UK release date - when it does, I strongly suspect I may be going to watch this one again.