With how much I never managed to get into shows like Girls
(or really anything to do with Lena Dunham), and how this ‘indie
comedy-drama-romance-thing about twenty-somethings trying to find their place
in the world’ mumblecore premise is pretty old hat by this point, I wasn’t
really expecting much out of this one at first. And after a weird case of
mistaken identity, a fit of inactivity, an expired screener link, and wanting
to override missing a FilmInk screening by doing all the work I could in one
day (this and the previous two reviews were written concurrently), I found
myself sitting down to watch this. And hot damn, am I glad I did.
In the interest of fairness, I’ll get into the technical
side of things first because this is the kind of feature that's very
low-budget and it kind of shows in the end product. Jay Grant’s cinematography
is fine as far as visual definition, but the single-camera setup definitely
holds the product back a bit. The scenes, both on their own and when put
together, can be a little plain, and the editing can get pretty jarring in the
one-angle shots. Same with the echo-y sound mixing and a few conspicuously
mirrored shots.
But honestly, with a film this indie, all of that
ends up adding to the charm of the whole thing. It’s rough, but it’s the kind
of rough largely born from technical limitations, and since most of this film
hinges on the dialogue and acting, it’s not really that big of a deal. Or, at
the very least, said dialogue and acting are that damn good that it fails to be
a big enough deal to hinder my enjoyment.
Between this and On The Fringe (a TV series that Lucy
Coleman also wrote and directed, which is available for free on YouTube so you literally have no excuse not to watch this thing, please go do so),
Coleman has a real knack for grounded comedy and challenging what
should or shouldn’t be joked about. Regardless of anything else, the idea of a
vulva collage made up to look like Tony Abbott is just objectively hilarious,
so don’t think this pulls punches anywhere.
All of the writing feels lived-in, with that surreal
specificity that usually precedes the paradoxical cries of “you couldn’t make
this shit up!”, and the acting follows suit. Musical comedian Sarah Gaul in the
lead role of Loz, a struggling playwright, nails all of her dialogue,
channelling the right amount of self-awareness, realism, and the ennui that
lives on the line between young adulthood and full-on adulthood, to make for a
rather fantastic central role. Whether she’s called on to be funny,
exasperated, or just plain cute opposite Marshall Campbell’s Dave, it always
lands on solid ground.
And on that last note, while there’s definitely bits of
rom-com stuff to be found here (and extremely refreshing rom-com stuff at that;
this is serious ‘new lane’ shit), it’s ultimately not entirely dominated by
that. It’s largely about just trying to get a hold on one’s life, and in that
vein, it gets pretty damn raw and even depressing in just how much it puts out
there. That ‘lived-in’ aspect of the writing doesn’t just apply to the comedy;
it applies to the deeper bouts of self-loathing and frustrating listlessness
too.
It feels familiar in the moods it aims for, but it feels
quite unfamiliar in how honest it gets and how deep it cuts. I mean,
maybe it’s because I’m also in my mid-20s and struggling with the prospect of
being a professional writer, but I feel this shit, wonky production
values or no. And considering how much On The Fringe expands on the more ‘what
is funny?’ side of things, even getting into legit psycho-horror territory at
times… fuck yeah, I’m supporting this! It’s a really damn cool local indie
flick, easily one of the giggliest sits I’ve had in a very long time,
and I genuinely hope Lucy Coleman gets a chance to deliver more material like
this.
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