A very unfunny family history is spun into brilliant comedy from co-directors Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. They begin with a doozy of a premise and keep pushing. When it all comes together, it feels like a wallop, but it’s largely packaged as a deadpan farce about a group therapy session. Bev is a dazed man with a father in prison and an inability to be touched by women. He attends a trust seminar in Tampa at the behest of his unstable mother and he’s able to share that his father is a murderer. As the 3-day seminar goes on and Bev tries to grapple with his family trauma amongst a group of participants whose issues aren’t nearly as traumatic, we keep learning more about his father and the story keeps getting worse. The dynamite ensemble cast is full of comedians and performers who mine for laughs where there should be none. It’s a magic trick in tone. The lead is played by Brennan Lee Mulligan in an astounding feat. Co-directors Burch and Mechanik, who previously made "All You Can Eat" (which we screened in 2014) have a genius eye for digging deep into strange holes of human behavior. In the previous short, a reality TV crew has a troubling response after hearing about a mass shooting. -KA. Directed, Edited, Produced by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik. Written by Samy Burch. Starring Brennan Lee Mulligan. With Max Jenkins, Nicole Spiezio, Joe Pera, John Early, Jordan Byron Kinley, Kira Pearson.
Up Next in NoBudge A - Z | Best of "B"
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Birthday
Two grown men compete to be the most childish at a friend’s birthday party. Director Tynan Delong, known for his gloriously adolescent dispatches from Brooklyn apartments, has crafted his most adolescent yet, aimed directly at the stupid teenage boy in all of us. (If you don’t have that side, I w...
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Blissful Banquet
A goofy buddy comedy with a language of its own, uniquely disarming and oddly hilarious. As an expression of their friendship, two young roommates — Ronnie and Darnell — meet in their living room one night a week to give each other a hug. So explains Darnell via his “little radio show” recorded i...
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Bye Bye Body
When Nina fails to meet her goal in the final week of weight loss camp, she considers drastic alternatives. “Bye Bye Body,” directed by Charlotte Benbeniste, is a tender snapshot about body image and self-esteem delivered with wonderfully natural performances and lovely 35mm images. At a weigh-in...