Where to find it: Rent on Amazon
Length: 87 minutes
Synopsis: “The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies”
Recommendation rating: 3/5
What I like about it: the punky DIY vibe, the core analogy, Tom Kenny
What I don’t like about it: it’s very unpleasant and falls just short of being much good
Review:
The bitter tone pervading most of this movie comes from writer-director-star Bobcat Goldthwait’s jaded experiences on the stand-up comedy circuit. In this low-budget debut film, he dials up the absurdism by making them into actual clowns but keeping their cliques and status obsession. They all desperately want to host a TV show and get jealous of one another’s bookings at children’s parties. The core analogy works very well, lampooning comics taking their art too seriously and viewing their audience as children, among other targets, in the premise alone. They drink their days away fighting amongst themselves in a cliquey clown bar, only uniting to ridicule and beat up mimes (here playing the part of prop comics, I assume). The plot does not work as well as the premise, feeling formulaic and obligatory. Bobcat’s lifelong friend Tom Kenny is a highlight as the villain of the piece.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): alcoholism, urine, violence