Director: Tom Shkolnik
Starring: Edward Hogg, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Elisa Lasowski
Running Time: 80 Mins
Synopsis: Ed (Hogg) is in his early thirties, stuck in a dead-end job, and dreams of being a stand-up comedian. Sadly, he’s starting to realise that he isn’t that good at it. To complicate matters further, he’s started a relationship with a boy called Nathan (Stewart-Jarrett), despite having feelings for his flatmate and friend Elisa (Lasowski).
Be warned: THE COMEDIAN is not a comedy. Not in the slightest. Anyone expecting something in the vein of Martin Scorsese’s classic THE KING OF COMEDY will be sorely disappointed. In equal measure, anyone expecting an entertaining 80 minutes will also be sorely disappointed.
THE COMEDIAN is a film with a point to make. Unfortunately, it doesn’t know what that point is. Is it a film about the lack of fulfilment? Is it one about mundane lives and our need to change them? Is it about homophobia? Or is it actually about stand-up comedy and the depressing lives that result from a need to be funny all the time? Whatever point it is, it doesn’t matter, because it’s lost in the overlong and draining narrative that director and screenwriter Tom Shkolnik has cooked up with his cast of actors.
‘Too many cooks’ syndrome may well be the reason the film ultimately fails to go anywhere. Improvised by Shkolnik and the cast, scenes are long and empty, with little to nothing actually happening, whilst the dialogue is awkward and drawn out. The improvised sections stand out like a sore thumb, thus denying the film any chance of drawing its audience into the narrative. Scenes go on for what seems like forever, and yet never seem to add anything of value to the narrative or the characters within it.
Edward Hogg does his best with the material he has, especially during the scant moments of stand-up performance, but it’s not enough to make us like or empathise with his character. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett stands out amongst the cast as Ed’s sensitive lover, giving a good performance that’s a far cry from his performance in MISFITS, but like the film’s lead, he’s lumbered with material that only makes use of the bare minimum he has to offer.
Overlong, unfocused, and uninvolving, THE COMEDIAN is a hard film to like or even understand. A tighter script, less muddled improvisation, and more emphasis on the actual stand-up comedy element would have perhaps given the film some much-needed focus. Bereft of such though, it’s a mess, and without doubt, one of the most disappointing film’s at this year’s London Film Festival.
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