Rating: C
Dir: Dallas Ryan
Star: Chloe Brewer, Dallas Ryan, Ryan Vania, Steve Bilecz
Comedy is perhaps the most subjective of genres. We can more or less come to an approximate agreement on what constitutes, say, good action. But humour? That’s completely in the eye of the beholder. What makes you laugh can be completely different from what makes me laugh, and that’s okay. Unless you don’t find Fawlty Towers funny, of course, and then we can’t be friends. But comedy films are not typically ones I can watch repeatedly, and there are very few located entirely in that genre I would list among my favourites: Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a rare exception. Things like horror-comedy, however, are a different kettle of amusing fish.
This is not technically a horror-comedy. However, it is a comedy by a director with whose horror work I am more familiar, most recently Bluetooth Speaker. It’s apparently based off a TV program, The Chloe, Dallas, and Ryan Show, and is a loose – very loose – anthology of sketches. These are performed by the three leads, while a viewer (Bilecz) acts like a Greek chorus, passing commentary on the action. Or just eating snacks. I’ve often said that the only thing consistent about anthologies is their inconsistency. That goes twice as much in the comedy genre, where as discussed above, one man’s trash is another’s treasure. There are parts here where I genuinely LOL’d. There were also parts where I wondered how much longer was left.
If there’s a connecting thread, it’s vaguely the search by a trio of employees at the titular eating establishment for Fester Hopperfoot’s gold. But this was one of the parts that didn’t make much impact. What I did enjoy was the campaign speeches given by three characters competing for the position of LA mayor, featuring deadpan pronouncements on providing cocaine to babies, and whether this should be injected or snorted. Or whether alternatives would be better. “Everything is getting so advanced. The only way we’re going to keep up is with superhumanoids. The way to do that is with methamphetamines.” I also liked the detective interviewed about missing Tupperware, making the reporter get teary-eyed (top): “I’m sorry. Just thinking about the Tupperware, being out there. It might be lidless.” If you get the joke, this could be for you.
She’s played by Brewer, and I felt her performances were generally the best, with a natural sense for comedic timing. I’m not sure how much of this was scripted, and how much is improvised: it feels casual enough that I’m inclined to lean towards the latter. This runs not much more than a hour long, between the opening and closing credits – and less, if you exclude the final few minutes. I recommend you do, since these are just low-grade visual effects laid over footage, to unclear purpose. I see Ryan also has The Sketch Comedy Movie on Tubi – it starts similarly, with Brewer discussing the arming of small children. I may have to check it out. Probably not this week though.