• watch porn
• smoke pot
• smoke cigarettes
• have sex
• stage Christmas
• dance
• spit blood
• have sex again
• change into a bunch of “funny” costumes
• speak in “funny” invented languages
That more or less doubles as a plot summary for the no-budget comedy (drama?). Matt D’Elia serves as writer (improviser?), director and center as Jimmy, a Jesus-looking man who lives with a fatal disease which require him to take a litany of prescription (?) medications.
As the film begins, he suddenly declares to straight-laced roomie James (Brendan Fletcher, Freddy vs. Jason) that he’s no longer sick and wants to party. Bam, their two beautiful friends show up (Tekken‘s Mircea Monroe and A Good Old Fashioned Orgy‘s Angela Sarafyan) and all of the above happens, with Jimmy oversharing and annoying all the while.
If Jimmy’s behavior is troubling to James, imagine how I felt. I say “imagine,” because I’m hoping to spare you the pain of sitting through this tiresome BS. Once more, a well-cut trailer has tricked me into watching another heap of pretentious mumblecore.
How pretentious? Well, you may have notices the similarities in the male characters’ names, Jimmy and James. This nonsense goes a step further with the girls, Blonde Angela and Not Blonde Angela.
I liked Cold Weather and Tiny Furniture, so I can’t say all mumblecore is bad — just most of it. American Animal is among the most off-putting: instantly repellent. In real life, I wouldn’t be able to stand to be around Jimmy for one minute, so why spend 95? —Rod Lott
Hey! Read This:
• A Good Old Fashioned Orgy DVD review
• Tekken Blu-ray review
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2012.