ENTERTAINMENT isn't -- unless you're on that very special Rick Alverson wavelength

When TrustMovies sat down to view ENTERTAINMENT, the latest film from Rick Alverson, he vaguely recalled the filmmaker's name. After watching Entertainment, he looked up Alverson and realized that, sure enough, he'd seen the filmmaker's earlier work, The Comedy (TM's review of which can be found here). In the annals of filmmaking, I suspect that Mr. Alverson, shown below, may rate as one of the oddest ever to see his films obtain theatrical release: the least desirous (and perhaps the least able) of giving audiences anything like what they are used to (and most probably both expect and want to be) seeing and hearing.

This writer/director (his co-writers here are his star, Gregg Turkington, and Tim Heidecker, who starred in The Comedy) has again come up with a character and situation, the likes of which you'll have never encountered in your wildest dreams: a stand-up comic whose routine barely qualifies as funny and whose audience is made up of outliers from prisoners to the denizens of comedy clubs in deserted areas which civilization seems to have bypassed completely.

The Comedian, for that is how he is billed (played by Turkington, below), tells jokes in an angry fashion, and when he is heckled by those in his audience, which occurs with some regularity, lashes out at them fiercely.

His act is preceded by that of a young man (Tye Sheridan, below, of Mud and Joe) who wears a semi-clown costume and whose "comedy" consists solely of bouncing up and down. Whether the filmmaker means us to take this as the level to which our current "entertainment" has fallen, or maybe to understand that this is the best that outlying audiences would deserve, I can't say.

Either way, unless Mr. Alverson is trying to prove himself a modern-day Samuel Beckett, his film makes little sense on any kind of literal level. As it proceeds, the comedian makes regular phones call to his daughter, all unanswered, and so he leaves short, longing messages. But as there is no back-story, we're only left to wonder about all this, which in any case seems designed to give us a reason a care about our our poor, nutty protagonist. But the comedian hates his audience (Alverson must, as well), and of course he also hates himself.

Subsidiary characters include John C. Reilly (above) as some kind of cousin/friend, who gives the comedian advice; Michael Cera, sporting very short hair, as a rest-stop hitch-hiker; and Lotte Verbeek as a :Chromotherapist, giving a lecture on color; plus a few more well-known indie performers.

Repetitive beyond understanding, as well as perhaps the indie endurance test of all time, Entertainment proves a vision of hell for the performers, their audience -- and us, the real audience here. Offering ultra-widescreen vistas (of little that proves interesting), the movie builds (I use that word loosely) to a climax involving the opportunity to do his stand-up act at the estate of an important Hollywood big boy. What happens is... oh, but why spoil it for you?

The IMDB credits list 30 producers on this film, which may be -- short of Kickstarter-funded movies -- some sort of record. I think it may have been since viewing Gus van Sant's Gerry that I've seen a film this wayward and pointless. But if you prize something slow and different above all else, Entertainment may prove to be yours -- in spades.

The movie -- from Magnolia Pictures and running 110 very long minutes -- opens tomorrow, Friday, November 13, in New York City at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and in Toronto at the Carlton Cinema. In the weeks to come it will hit a number of other major cities across the country. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates with cities and theaters listed.

Rick Alverson’s hip drip,THE COMEDY, opens for a week's run at BAMcinématek

Self-hate as entertainment? Interesting concept, problematic execution. The rich sure as hell are different from you and me, as Rick Alverson proves in his oh-so-ironically-titled new movie, THE COMEDY. If our non-hero, Swanson (is he part of that old "chicken" dynasty?), played by Tim Heidecker, were not an heir to what appears to be quite a fortune, he couldn't possibly live the kind of life we see here. At least this movie -- unlike so many that offer up weird characters about whom we spend most of our time wondering how in hell they support themselves -- gives us a guy who, as unappealing as he is, seems remotely real.

I say remotely because of one enormous problem that Alverson's movie encounters (the director is shown at right) but doesn't even try to surmount: the lack of consequences to the actions -- every single one of them if I am not mistaken -- taken by his Mr. Swanson, who spends nearly the entire film acting the hipster swine that he evidently wants to be. Yet never has hip seemed closer to drip. The Comedy begins with a scene of drunk, overweight and rather sleazy-looking men having "fun." Further written description will simply beggar belief: You need to see this one to believe it. Turns out this is a kind of "men's group," probably organized and funded by Swanson (unless all these guys are heirs of some sort) whose purpose is to make fun of existing culture -- from the workplace to religion, sex, famly, love, and rock-n'-roll (the music here seems as dank & joyless as the fellows we must watch).

As Swanson's provocations toward work, religion, family and the rest push that envelope further and further, we wait for the reprisal that surely, in any real world, must come -- those consequences mentioned earlier. So nasty, ugly and stupid are this man's words and deeds (much more of the former) that surely someone will soon flatten him with a punch to face and then to the gut. Or call the police. Or pull out the gun (that more and more Americans seem unable to live without) and fire away. Yet those consequences never arrive, for Mr Alverson consistently cuts away from the action prior to their arrival, and so the movie loses much of its credibility, despite some excellent work from Mr. Heidecker in the central role.

We learn almost nothing about any character except Swanson (and come to think of it, we learn damn little about him, only of his wealth and his bad behavior) -- everyone else is interchangeable -- except one young woman, a waitress in a restaurant where Swanson has obtained a job (as a dishwasher, of course: Oh, the irony!). In the film's best scene -- because, finally, our guy gets as good as he gives, and for a few moments the playing field seems leveled -- our dishwasher and waitress have a verbal go-round that results in a "date."  On that date something happens that, again, demands consequences -- or at least some kind of continuation so that we may see what happens and how Swanson handles this. Sorry. No can do.

This constant refusal to risk -- not closure, but simply taking a scene to its demanded end -- robs the character, the movie, us viewers and, yes, Mr. Alverson, of the opportunity to learn and grow a little. When, at last (at the finale, of course) that chance for growth comes -- via a cute little child. Please! -- the stab at redemption (more like re-dumb-tion) can't help but smack of sentimentality. If Swanson had to watch this scene, rather than play it, he'd have some nasty stuff to say, before laughing himself sick.

If men behaving badly is your thing, goodness knows the movie takes this to new heights (or depths). The film is a constant put-on, perfect for intellectual S&M. But if you are searching for something different (as we sophisticated movie-goers always are), by all means take a look, and make of it what you will.

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After seeing the film and composing this review, I then read the writer/director's "statement" about his movie. I think I understand what Alverson is saying and trying to achieve, and I applaud his motives and his goal, even if I don't believe that he has come very near it. In that Director's Statement, he says, "...my interest was to link the audience and the protagonist through their mutual desire for emotional animation and sensitization. For me the audience, the viewer, and Swanson are in the same predicament, are driven by the same conflicting set of desires. I am ultimately interested in the denial of those hopes, for the resolve of his animation (emotional or physical) or the satisfaction and relief of his salvation. I think that middle ground {the italics are TrustMovies'} is the state in which we most often live and one from which the audience and Swanson both desire to flee, one that is denied its due in entertainment and even the grand drama of many of the arts."

OK: fair enough. Alverson has taken us from that middle ground. But unfortunately he had not given us a believable reality to replace it. Actions like those shown here have consequences, I suggest -- both in the middle ground and elsewhere.

In any case, The Comedy begins its week-long run here in the NYC environs at BAMcinématek this Friday, November 16. In the Los Angeles area, it is current playing at CineFamily and will move this Friday, 11/16, to the Downtown Independent theater.  Other dates/cities in and during which the film will be offered include November 23 (San Francisco and Chicago); November 27 (Duluth); November 29 (Albuquerque); November 30 (Denver, Austin, Phoenix and Columbus; December 7 (Seattle, Tuscon and Boston); December 9 (Bloomington -- and back to Williamsburg, Brooklyn!) For us couch potatoes, the movie made its VOD debut this past October 24 and will continue there for awhile, I should imagine.