The Comedy (2012) User Reviews

Laughing, learning, and squirming at The Comedy

[Xerxes2004 · 7/10 · 8 October 2012]

I saw The Comedy at a packed theater at the Vancouver International Film Festival (2012). The film follows a rich spoiled Brooklyn hipster type played by Tim Heidecker. He and his friends wallow in an excess of alcohol, boredom, and childish antics as they careen from one disruption to another. The character of Swanson pushes every boundary of good taste and civil behavior and will definitely get a reaction out of the audience.

As you watch The Comedy, you will laugh. There are definitely scenes of laugh out loud silliness and gross out humor. But this is not a comedy! The jokes all have a point and it's a point that is most definitely not funny.

Rick Alverson was in attendance and did a Q&A after the show. He said he deliberately wanted to make a film that provoked noting how tired he was of seeing people leave mainstream films like violent action films completely unphased. He only wrote a 20 page script and let the actors improvise extensively. He also simply emailed the actors, including Tim Heidecker, to see if they were interested and they jumped at the opportunity. Alverson thought the discomfort inherent in the comedy of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim would translate well into this dramatic picture and with that he succeeded. You will squirm, guaranteed! Whether or not you will pick up on the deeper commentary, or if there even is a deeper point, depends really on the person.

Not For Everyone

[LeonisDeon · 7/10 · 8 December 2016]

There is something to be said about this film. It is real and uncomfortable, but I believe that there is something deeper going on here.

We watch a bunch of genuinely unpleasant people go from place to place, and in a nutshell that's it. At least on the surface that is.

This is could be a commentary on what freedom can do to someone. Our main character seems to have no real connection with people outside of his small group of friends. He has the possibility to inherit his father's fortune, instead goes from place to place and seems to exists.

The protagonist is a deplorable person, don't get me wrong, but you can connect with him in his longing to have something meaningful to happen. I can see some people not liking the fact that nothing seems to really happen in the film, but because our main character doesn't have anything purposeful happen to him, the film reflects that.

The cinematography in the film has a lot of up close shots allowing us to really read into the emotions of the main character.

One thing I haven't really mentioned is that the dialog is very interesting. It can go from something funny and seemingly lighthearted, but then does a complete 180. There we're several scenes where the humor is really there.

Overall, this film is not for really a wide crowd, but if any of this sounds interesting, I wholly recommend it.

Hard to Watch but Painfully Real

[onionsoup321 · 7/10 · 27 July 2013]

People say the characters are hard to relate to and be empathetic towards which is completely wrong. If you hate the characters you are empathizing with them because they obviously hate themselves even more than you. With that being said it was very hard to watch some scenes and they dragged on too long, but the feeling of pointlessness in life that so many in this generation feel (including me) makes it understandable why the movie is the way it is. The repetitiveness, hopelessness, and boredom of modern life depicted through a 90 minute movie. All of us are looking for happiness but very few actually find it.

Out of touch

[domdel39 · 7/10 · 19 May 2013]

How do you recommend a movie that features a lead character who is an a--hole? Not only that, but he stays an a--hole. No redemption. No heartfelt realization that he has to change his ways and then goes about doing so - hello Scrooge! No scene where he explodes in tears and promises everyone that he loves that he's changed for good. I'm being half serious, but, really, most people go to movies to watch characters they like and root for or people they start off disliking and then, as those characters learn and grow and change, in the end, come to like and come to root for.

Swanson, a rich kid layabout who uses sarcasm as both armour and sword, is thoroughly unlikeable. He's selfish, cruel, condescending, lazy and not funny. Yet, you stay with him. At least I did. You follow him and his equally annoying friends as they hang out and drink beer and talk nonsense and bother people who are clearly just trying to ignore them. You do so because you realize that underneath all of this casual ugliness is a subtext that slowly asserts itself.

Filmmaker Richard Alverson, along with co-writers Robert Donne and Colm O'Leary, have created a profound movie about emotional avoidance that carefully ups the stakes until you truly do feel for Swanson. Strangely enough, the more cruel and vulgar Swanson gets - to a succession of people absolutely undeserving of that cruelty and vulgarity - the more it leads you closer to the heart of the character rather than further away. It is not that you grow to like him, but, you grow to understand him and, in doing so, begin to understand the true tragedy of this broken human being.

Take the opening scene - Swanson sits sipping scotch and tearing through one crispy chocolate cookie after another as, just a few feet away, his father, hooked up to an I.V., lies dying in his bed. A male nurse enters and Swanson starts laying into him. Attempting to embarrass the man by mocking the unpleasantness of his job and specifically as it relates to his father, Swanson fails. The male nurse says a lot by saying nothing - just staring at Swanson with contempt.

A simple scene, yet with complicated implications. Swanson's cruel attempt at mocking the male nurse actually tells us more about him than it does about his target. This is a stock scene, yet, what Alverson, Heidecker and company do here is play with our familiarity of the way this scene usually unfolds. As an audience member, we know this scene before a word is spoken. The shots reveal all - dying dad, son, nurse. Yet, what you get in THE COMEDY is a scene so far from what is expected that it, at first, throws you. As you slowly adjust to not getting what you expect, you realize that what you are getting is something far more interesting - an addition by subtraction experience. The subtraction is any dialogue or action dealing with the reality at hand - the father is dying - and the addition is what we the audience add in way of interpreting what Swanson - the son - is really trying to say. Of course, I can't be sure what was intended by the filmmakers and every audience member's interpretation would probably vary, yet still something universally understandable is communicated - emotional avoidance.

Swanson's target is the male nurse, but, when you look at the scene more closely, it could just as easily be himself. Just think of it - a male nurse is caring for his father. He's doing all those unpleasant tasks that you, as a son, would be doing if not for him. Why would you have any anger towards this man? The only answers I could come up with pointed at Swanson's unresolved emotional issues with his father and his own shortcomings as a human being.

I wondered, does Swanson feel guilty for never having cared for his father in his time of need? Also, I wondered, does the pain of Swanson's emotional distance from his father run so deep that the mere presence of another man caring for him arouses a kind of emotional jealousy? I use the word jealousy because Swanson, as the full film will show, exhibits such a firm indifference to the emotions of everyone around him that to see one human being caring for another human being must cause him fits. That male nurse's whole career centres around having the capacity to feel for another human being. This is one fundamental characteristic that Swanson does not possess. He just doesn't give a s***. That must sting.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that this film, The Comedy, made so many unusual and interesting choices in scenes that it forced me to engage with it in a way that I just don't when watching more conventional films. And, look, I know you might think I'm just trying to fill in blanks and giving the film more credit than it deserves, but, you'd be wrong. Listen to the accompanying commentary track, which features Alverson and Heidecker, and you'll quickly realize that these guys had a lot on their minds when they were making this unusual and challenging film.

So hats off to THE COMEDY, a strange and ultimately deep moving film.

The Future of Comedy?

[ghost_dog86 · 9/10 · 12 November 2012]

Suffice to say, "The Comedy" is not a comedy (even though it does contain laughs) nor is it necessarily about comedians. Spearheaded by a shockingly inspired performance from Tim Heidecker, what Rick Alverson's quietly brilliant film is, is in fact about pointlessness, indifference and mocking sincerity. Sounds riveting right? Well, it is…in a very experimental way. "The Comedy" is deep and poignant and fascinatingly layered with subtle jabs at society, as well as those who have so much in life, that they have become bored with everyday existence.

Opening with a sequence involving male nudity that is so awkward it may cause some viewers to say to themselves "what did I get myself into?", "The Comedy" follows a man named Swanson (Heidecker) who is seemingly unfazed by his father's impending death. Instead of a real job, he spends his days hanging out with his buddies, engrossed in inane verbal and physical (and sometimes sociopathic) games of one-upmanship. From impersonating store clerks and gardeners, to making the most inappropriate jokes during the most depressing and even life threatening moments, to degrading others in public in order to fulfill some kind of personal enjoyment, as this film progresses the activities of each of these men (including Swanson) become progressively offensive in order to maintain a sort of continuous high. And while this could be the plot to any crude Danny McBride piece of trash, it is Alverson's ultra serious tone, along with the fact that he throws these would be offensive but clownish comedic characters into a real world where people die, have disorders and are struggling to feed their families, which allows "The Comedy" to rise above the "crudeness for the sake of being crude" films of today.

As much as I enjoyed "The Comedy", this is one movie that will assuredly come under heavy scrutiny from a majority (that's right, I said majority) of movie going audiences, because, for one, while there is a subtle story arc here, this film is not pushed along by heavy conflict. And secondly, many unfamiliar with Heidecker's form of comedy will undoubtedly be turned off by the amount of absurdist drama which is played out by a group, whom on the surface seem too spoiled and flippant to care about. In short, even those who loved the terribly long "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" or are fans of their show and have been eagerly awaiting more of the same skit driven comedy, may find "The Comedy" a bit too tonally heavy or obscure to take (and that is truly saying something).

Side Note: Some have said that the Tim Hiedecker's style of comedy is a form of avant-garde comedy or apart of the anti-comedy movement. Meaning, that much of his shtick consists of making his audiences (television or otherwise) highly uncomfortable, to the point where they either laugh at his awkwardness or dismiss his actions as strange. And while Hiedecker's awkward style of comedy is featured prominently here, his performance is anything but comedic. In fact, he gives a quite emotionally dramatic performance in a movie that, if it were a straight forward comedy, would have seen Zach Galifianakis in the starring role. Thankfully, this is not the case because Hiedecker's performance is absolutely magnificent (and dare I say award worthy?) in this role that was obviously tailored specifically for him.

Final Thought: I will reiterate, and I can't say this enough, how "The Comedy" is not for everybody; especially if you are expecting a comedy. To some audiences this is all going to seem as an exercise in pathetic nature and nonsensical mannerisms, but rest assured that there is something happening here on a very highly conceptual level that is not only meant to make viewers uncomfortable, and cringe and laugh at the most inappropriate things, as well as think these characters are pathetic while at the same time feel sorry for them, but is also a subtly laced work of a very skilled writer, whose entire point seems to be an analysis/criticism of the reaction of "normal people" to those who wish to push the limits of comedy. Not since Lars von Trier's "The Idiots" have I witnessed a movie that was this skillfully successful in demonstrating the complex struggles of a generation built on a doctrine of nihilistic irreverence. In short, if you chose to see "The Comedy", you will either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it.

Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland

A Bizarre Look at Some Truly Awful People

[framptonhollis · 7/10 · 15 February 2016]

"The Comedy" is filmmaking at its most uncomfortable and disturbing. With its truly despicable characters, dark humor, and discomforting atmosphere, "The Comedy" is a film that has me physically cringing throughout.

The film is circles around an unlikable and practically lifeless hipster (played by comedian Tim Heidecker) and follows him around as he lives his boring, useless life. He hangs out with friends, goes to parties, goes into taxi cabs and basically tortures the drivers (not literally, but figuratively), and visits his father in the hospital.

Whenever he does anything, he does it pretty obnoxiously. The movie is just him being a truly despicable person for 90 minutes, and it is really fascinating.

At times, it's really hilarious (in a twisted way), and at others it's just downright disturbing and unsettling. Watch it at your own risk!

Despicable Meh

[ThurstonHunger · 4/10 · 6 August 2017]

Well I think I boosted it up a point since I did not recognize Neil Hamburger without his KISS make-up.

Time will tell if this is a pivotal film, an antidote for comedy or at least a gag-suppressant for Charles Douglass Disease. If George Costanza was a form of "cringe humor" and Louis CK multiplied that while adding an element of verite, then Heidecker's unprincipled principles take 'em both to a quantum apotheosis.

Or maybe, it was just too much time and videotape on the hands of some guys? At one point, the idea that this was a film version of why domesticated animals cannot be released into the wild. Or some fun-house mirror of class politics. But then somebody threw up. I don't think it was me.

Also, I tried listening to the director/star commentary but bailed. So maybe a missed an epiphany there.

My Take on The Comedy

[nickvillaire · 9/10 · 25 October 2012]

I'm a big fan of Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, and that is essentially why I wanted to see this, but this film is another animal. There's the humor that fans of Tim & Eric are used to scattered here and there throughout the film but I think it mainly works to compliment the mood of the entire piece. Be warned, this is not a regular film, if that's what you desire than that's just fine, see something else. The Comedy is that piece of art on the wall, when you see it for the first time, that makes you think of how you act and who you are and what you're doing. It's that thing that someone said to you that stuck in your head and brought up memories you'd forgotten about and lies that you've told yourself. But this is just how I felt, reviews are flawed because they can only tell you how that particular person felt about that particular thing. You may see it and just see one big, boring piece of crud. I'm not going to say that I think the movie was trying to say one thing or another because I believe any good art isn't clearly defined or pinned down. All I know is that it affected me. I really do hope more people see it because I believe we need something like this to level out everything else that's thrown at us. Give it a chance.

The characters are certainly unlikable, but the film is still interesting

[zetes · 7/10 · 21 April 2013]

35 year-old hipster Tim Heidecker faces his father's impending death with the same attitude he faces the rest of his life: with ironic detachment. Heidecker, along with his buddies (who include Heidecker's comic partner Eric Wareheim as well as LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy) spend their days sitting around cracking jokes, getting wasted on PBR and screwing around with other people they meet. They are, to be short, completely insufferable and most people will want to slap them in mere seconds. I think, though, that this is a good snapshot of the times, and it's surprisingly poignant (the maudlin score perhaps underlines that too much). Heidecker gives a fantastic performance, doing a lot of acting with his face. It can be funny, but it's not really a comedy, per se. "The Comedy" in Heidecker's mind is life itself, and, frankly, that's just no way to go through life.

Waste of time

[tobyric · 1/10 · 28 October 2012]

I gave this movie a chance and watched the whole thing even though half way I was getting very impatient and annoyed by my decision. Apparently, the director's idea was to provoke... in my case, the only feeling the movie left me with was wishing I had not wasted my time watching it. This movie is not a comedy nor a well crafted drama; a list of pointless misogynistic or racist jokes do not make a movie. It reminded me of "In the company of men" and "The idiots" (and some references to a Ruiz film), but these movies were created by talented directors and had an interesting plot. I think the actor playing the main character does a great job. But then again, the characters played by him and some of his friends are so annoying to watch, that something gets lost in translation. In sum, don't pay to watch this movie!

A brilliant film about absolutely nothing

[rajjawa1 · 9/10 · 28 October 2012]

You see them all the time, young adult hipsters doing nothing productive; sitting around drinking fancy coffees, sharing big ideas but taking no actions. So what happens when these ambition-less, wandering people are forced to grow up and confront actual problems, the actual day to day existence that they have always disparaged and looked down upon. This film follows Tim Heidecker's character as he juggles with his haze-ridden, alcohol-filled youth and the oppressive responsibility that looms over him as he just tries to continue his youthful fun at the expense of others. A film about not wanting to grow up but finding out there's a time when adult-hood just takes you and as much as you wish and hope and fight to maintain your existence, you find it disappearing underneath your canvas shoes. A compulsive jokester/liar using his version of truth to have things done his way. A man unable to be serious in a world that values your mask more than yourself but when you can't turn it off, you drive away the people closest to you because even you prefer knowing the impersonal version of self. A child at heart who doesn't have the answers and may never have the answers to a problem that's so hard for many of us. Life.

Not comedy as we know it.

[JohnDeSando · 4 December 2012]

In The Comedy, Swanson (Tim Heidecker) roams his little part of Manhattan looking for meaning largely from outrageous confrontations, be it with fellow slackers, workers at his dad's mansion, or an aimless waitress (Kate Lyn Sheil) with a wicked mouth. Most of his episodes are mired in boredom except occasionally, as in the case of that waitress, who has an epileptic fit while he watches indifferently.

Director Rick Alverson sets the mood in an early scene where Swanson verbally abuses a male nurse about "nurse school" and prolapsed anuses. Swanson is an existential mess, a wandering trust-fund hipster seeking identity in a series of mock-serious escapades that will not allow him to mature or accept normalcy. And as for sincerity, that's not in this slacker's experience, except maybe when he combs his dying father's hair.

He's a hipster gone to pot, so to speak, an outlier whose ironic take on life gets him little reward and only hollow love. But irritating people with irony is something hipsters do, and he does it depressingly well for him and us as well. As a satire of the wealthy class and those scions who grow up uselessly, the film occasionally succeeds.

The Comedy is, as you can tell, not in the least comedic as pop culture requires, but it does display part of the human comedy in an unattractive, almost comatose thirty-something hell bent to gross out the rest of humanity. He succeeds for the limited audiences that will scratch their heads to ask what it's all about (the film and life itself).

Brilliant and very unlikeable

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 20 June 2018]

A comedy is the one thing Rick Alverson's film "The Comedy" isn't or if it thinks it is then it is a very bleak one with perhaps the most dislikeable 'anti-hero' in recent cinema. In "New Jerusalem" Alverson gave us a couple of men, up close and very personal, that we cared about and could empathise with. In "The Comedy" he gives us a man you would want to cross the road to avoid yet confirms his status as possibly the best 'indie' director to have come out of America in the past decade.

There are few film-makers making movies as psychologically astute as Alverson. This is as raw as cinema gets, made without compromise and an almost complete disregard for his audience. "The Comedy" is brilliant cinema but it is also a very difficult and very unpleasant watch. It's certainly not the kind of film that will him friends though it may indeed influence people, particularly young hipsters who want to stand out from the crowd. This certainly stands out from the crowd but like "New Jerusalem" before it, is virtually unknown. See it certainly but if you actually 'like' it as opposed to just admiring it, I would worry.

Funny, tragic and painful, watch The Comedy with caution!

[octopusluke · 5/10 · 5 December 2012]

An uncomfortable mix of anti-PC bullying, laconic social critique and Cassavettes-style realism, Rick Alverson's The Comedy is a challenging movie. An experience of endurance, rather than entertainment, it's basically Jackass with a brain. A real puzzle. I wasn't sure whether I should walk out or give it a standing ovation. Either way, it's a painful ninety minutes.

One half of the creative team behind Adult Swim's flatulent sketch show, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Heidecker's brutal depiction of Swanson encapsulates, and furthermore parodies, the exact audience from which he has become a cult demigod – the trust-funded, apathetic hipster. Instead of the garish surrealism of said TV series, The Comedy is rooted in documentary-like naturalism.

Aimlessly wandering around his stomping ground of Williamsburg, New York, Swanson spends his days trying to find substance for life – picking up jobs as a dishwasher even though he's loaded, travelling across town via his cosy houseboat, heading into ghettoised bars so that he can rile up/bond with the local "brothers", and chatting to drunk women about how feudalism is great and Hitler misunderstood. Far from just testing the patience and credulity of the characters on screen, Alverson is reaching out to the audience watching The Comedy. Whether the embittered sentiment of the film is ironic, genuine or otherwise is dependent on your own tolerance level and engagement with this truly unsympathetic, crass character.

Uncritically speaking, I found Heidecker's performance mesmerising, but the character unrelenting nasty. In partiocular, there's a bedroom scene late on in the movie which left me feeling abused and nauseous. A powerful reaction to cinema, but certainly not a welcome one!

If you feel compelled to sit through this venomous, albeit fraught comedy, it would make for perfect double bill with the LCD Soundsystem documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits. Not only do both movies feature the humble DFA Records boss James Murphy, they both wryly depict the ennui and societal disconnect of an ageing American subculture.

More reviews at www.366movies.com

THE COMEDY is darkly humorous and oddly cannibalistic.

[DustyKramKram · 6/10 · 28 November 2013]

Tim Heidecker's turn as Swanson in director Rick Alverson's THE COMEDY feels all at once like a departure from his absurdist Adult Swim television series and a role that plays to the very thing that makes his and his partner Eric Wareheim's unique brand of comedy work. The film is as black as any dark comedy I've ever seen, and watching it feels something like a test of fortitude at times.

Swanson spends his days and nights riding around on his boat, hanging out with his friends, drinking at parties, and indulging in various means of wasting time, all with a disdain for everyone and everything around him. An honest word from his mouth is a rare thing, and Heidecker's performance conveys a prevalent layer of sarcasm with deft cadence and body language. He is the definition of jaded, and the film paints hims as a very sad and lonely portrait of a modern young man. He seeks respite from his depression in vitriolic interactions with people who don't understand him. The ones he considers friends are those who are his cynical equals, and even those characters are bullied for breaking the group's synergy of darkly humorous, ironic rhetoric. Those on the outside of this vicious clique react to his antics in largely the same way — by ignoring him.

Swanson's family life is something of a mess. His father is dying, his brother is "on his way to the loony bin," and he has some type of a sexual relationship with his sister-in-law, although this is hardly fleshed out in the narrative. The film spends far more time jumping from scene to scene of Swanson's increasingly reckless flights of mischief. His lack of concern for those around him and his general ignorance of danger suggest something closer and closer to sociopathy as the film progresses.

The climax of the film comes in a character moment between Swanson and a girl he works with as a dish washer in a small restaurant, a job he doesn't need but appears to do for the ironic time waste that it is. The girl proves herself to be Swanson's discontented equal over a couple of scenes of irreverent and occasionally depraved discourse. While getting high and preparing to become intimate on his boat, the girl begins to have what appears to be a seizure. Swanson doesn't react. He stares at the half-undressed girl as she thrashes and gasps, mostly out of frame. The difficultly of this is knowing that these two characters lack any kind of perceivable honesty. Conflicting thoughts race through the mind watching this uncomfortably long moment play out. Perhaps she's faking it, or at least he thinks she is, or she's not and he's really this far gone. The scene brilliantly divorces the audience from any empathetic feelings they may have had for his character, and in a strange way, gives clarity and a sense of finality to his hopelessness. Finally, we feel about him the way he feels about himself.

The Comedy's indie film aesthetic and narrative sensibilities feel a little cannibalistic considering its character depictions. Swanson and his ilk are 'hipsters' by the contemporary definition of the word. The film goes to great pains to illustrate this. V-neck T-shirts, plaid garments, fixed-gear bicycles, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and a reference to Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood are all present and accounted for. These elements fail at illustrating the emotionally empty Swanson and his small group of friends and only serve to indict a subculture with its most prominent stereotypes. To use a strangely apt analogy, like one of Tyler Perry's Madea comedies, the film seems to undermine itself by supporting potentially harmful generalizations of the very group it appears to be speaking to. In a particularly contradictory scene, Heidecker's character is further vilified as he generalizes a group of black men to their faces. The movie hates its characters and by association seems to hate 'hipsters' — whatever that means.

In an act of mercy on the audience, THE COMEDY closes with what is probably Swanson's only honest moment, a short scene of Heidecker's character playing in the ocean with a small boy. It's sweet and real and lends some hope to a man who feels hopeless before cutting to black.

Re-posted from my blog at http://dk421.wordpress.com

The Melancholia That is Freedom.

[DamnYouGoogle · 9/10 · 2 December 2012]

Outside melancholia I don't see be using many 5 dollar words to describe The Comedy. Born from the depths of a generation sans responsibility The Comedy is a sad portrayal of those privileged yet initiated in the world today. Essentially the hollow existence of a rich man (by way of proxy) is exposed as a numbing unnerving process in which a sad person seeks to feel alive through a series of ironic and annoying events that can only be described as "real life trolling". The acting is subtle and upsetting as you watch the life of a 4 grown men whittled away seemingly at their own discretion and it becomes even more upsetting when you realize these men do these things on their spare time as well leaving you wondering if the main character, wonderfully played by Tim Heidecker is searching for a deeper meaning in all this non-sense or simply killing time in between breathing.

The most striking and obvious theme of the movie is hit dead on, as no matter how much "fun" the characters are portrayed as having a deep seeded loneliness constantly lingers on the screen. Even as Heidecker's character forms relationship or merely interacts with a stranger you can feel the unhappiness he extrudes.

One thing about The Comedy that is for sure, is that while it may make you chuckle and even get a gut laugh is far from a comedy. No, The Comedy is ironic portrait of how ironic it is that a life fueled by irony is without a doubt sincerely unfulfilled.

If you are looking for the laugh riot of the year I suggest you pass on The Comedy. If you are looking for a serious film on flippant lives it might be the best of 2012.

You have two options: reasonable facsimile of wit *or* annihilation of mankind

[abandonsorder · 7/10 · 21 February 2014]

I felt the reckless misanthropes in this production were being jabbed with spears by the Green Slime Invaders of Omega Seven - "say something moderately droll and audacious! attempt valiantly yet express stridently! increase your snark!" "The Comedy" is the ideal movie for the cheerfully suicidal and a lovely caress of the external occipital protuberance of anyone who actually expected...well, ANYTHING from this movie.

Steve Brule should have been hurled into the mixture. Yes, a gratuitous 'Adult Swim' reference has egg-splatted the review. The producers of this movie are firmly attuned to the beat of this mild, self-aware experiment of gymnastic warfare called daily livin'. It's a gas. Start the car and let go.

Filmmaking like this shouldn't be encouraged.

[Hellmant · 4/10 · 1 February 2013]

'THE COMEDY': Two Stars (Out of Five)

Tim Heidecker (of the cult classic 'Adult Swim' sketch comedy show 'TIM AND ERIC'S AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB!') stars in this dark comedy-drama about a narcissistic sociopath who deals with his father's coming death while goofing around with his friends and aimlessly looking for trouble to get into. Basically Heidecker plays the same character he always does and his buddy Eric Wareheim (also of 'TIM AND ERIC'S AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB!') plays his buddy (once again) in the film. The film also co-stars James Murphy, Gregg Turkington and Jeffrey Jensen. Rick Alverson directed and co-wrote the movie (along with Robert Donne and Colm O'Leary) and he says he cast Heidecker and Wareheim in the film after watching their show because of their "signature use of excessive awkwardness". I'm not a fan of Tim or Eric (or anything they do) but I do think they have talent, I just think they misuse it. I keep giving them another chance to impress me though (because I know they have the skills to). Here they definitely disappoint once again.

Heidecker plays a guy from Williamsburg named Swanson who spends most of his time hanging out with his equally lazy friends, lead by Van Arman (Eric Wareheim). His dad is dying and he's about to inherit his estate but Swanson is apathetic about this as well. He hits on girls, uses them and abuses them and spends the rest of his time roaming the streets looking for trouble to get into and drinking excessively. We watch as he finds more and more innocent people to harass and exploit.

The film was shot in 15 days using a screenplay treatment just 18 to 20 pages long (so most all of the dialogue was improvised). It's supposed to be a critique of our culture and how self-loathing and sarcastic we all are. I don't buy that though. I think that's just an excuse to make a mean-spirited and hateful film (like all of Heidecker's work). I don't think people in general are all that malicious and bitter but I do think people like the filmmakers probably are. They might really be nice and likable guys in real life but I don't understand why they constantly try to make 'so-called' art that's so ugly and hateful. The first ten minutes of the film was leaked to torrent websites with a anti-piracy plea at the end of the video. The film then went on to become the most pirated independent movie of the year. I think this is great. No one should pay to see this movie. It does have a few good laughs and is worth seeing out of morbid curiosity (I suppose) but filmmaking like this shouldn't be encouraged.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ4Gr6CX0-g

I give it 6 bags of popcorn and 3 soda bottles.

[danvxlhydra · 10/10 · 11 July 2016]

This movie is quite possibly the best example of ultra-dry humour ever. Every serious person in this movie is you, or specially, anyone watching it and trying placing meaning or context. There is so much forth-wall stuff here - When Tim/Swanson is giving a scathing monologue, he's trying to make you laugh at the sheer facetiousness of the scene. The bit with him playing with the girls eyelid is especially funny - the actress is waiting for him to say his line. The joke is she' doesn't know Tim is messing with her.

The movie is trolling you with it's seriousness, it makes some actual poignant statements but there's no vast message being made here. Even the end of the film, which makes a beautiful point about the importance of relationships over the vast heartless intellectualism and cynicism of nihilistic "hipsters", only actually serves to make you think there's some moral statement, when actually all this is is classic Tim and Eric humour taken to it's art house-y extreme. It's a meta- comedy of anti-comedy. If you're not laughing, you lose!

Current US Gross $ 9,000

[dv-65 · 3/10 · 28 March 2013]

You may like it, but you'll be on your own. This is some lazy, aimless, but most of all, boring film making. Working from a treatment and not a script meant that it was largely improvised and like any improv... sometimes it's interesting and sometimes it's just actors self-consciously searching for things to say. In this case they always try and find something potentially offensive , then kick it around until it's long past examination. Initially I genuinely I thought they were some group bond by their autism or something. I'm sure it was great fun to make, they used real alcohol in boozing scenes and real black guys to offend in the bar scene .Check the trivia notes. It's likely you'll have to watch it on DVD or TiVo, unless you have a very open-minded movie theatre near you which doesn't mind losing money. Because of this there are parts you will fast forward. Once they set up in a scene, that's it, that's all you're gonna get. Spoiler.. Man looking a girl in bed... that's it, three minutes... watch it fast , or watch it slow.. I broke at the 30 minute mark...see how far you can get !

And what the hell is LCD Soundsystem doing there anyway ?

Written by David Tuck : Edited by Nicole I. Ashland

No Pain, No Gain

[davesoutee · 8/10 · 16 January 2013]

The Comedy isn't funny. It isn't meant to be funny. The Comedy is actually a little disturbing, and I have been somewhat haunted by it since seeing it last week.

I don't think the Comedy is just an indictment on "hipsters" as a lot of critics have said, but more broadly directed at any people with tendencies toward cynicism, sarcasm and despair.... and heavy drinking. I could relate to a certain degree, and I've been a little more self-aware of these things since seeing the film. I did not enjoy watching The Comedy, but I do (highly) recommend it.

*As a side note, to address the misogyny remarks I've seen around the web: The only way this movie could possibly be perceived as misogynistic (or offensive in any way) is if the viewer makes the mistake of thinking they're supposed to like these characters. They are clearly meant to be loathed by us.

It's as if there was no-no plan, just no-no plan

[StevePulaski · 5/10 · 31 October 2012]

Perhaps after Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie left me in shock and dismay and The Comedy left me with an unmoved, lukewarm feeling, I must accept that the humor and stylistic intentions of anti-humor comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim is just not for me. But I simply can't do that. I want to like their humor and their avant-garde style because I believe their aptitude for deadpanning humor and their incredibly sophisticated productions prove that their talent for filmmaking in a variety of fields is deep inside them. Rarely do I watch a film that I'm not fond of, yet still think, "there's something here, and while I'm unable to completely enjoy it, it's too blunt for me to ignore." Re-reading my review of Billion Dollar Movie, a film I awarded a mere one star to back in March, while recognizing that Tim and Eric's Adult Swim program, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, has most likely garnered a dedicated cult following because of its "inane dialog and anti-humor setup," I neglected to say that I still believe there is something reminiscent of talent in that film. I see more of it in The Comedy, the latest from the two men who, from what I assume, will try and dab into the film industry after concluding their popular program.

We are greeted with Swanson (Tim Heidecker), a roughly middle-aged man, disillusioned and unhappy about everything in life for reasons I, and perhaps he, can not even explain. He wallows in not a puddle or a sea, but an ocean of self-loathing, as he continues to waste time with his friends, mainly aging hipsters (one of whom, played by Eric Wareheim), and even after inheriting the desirable amount of money from his father, Swanson remains depressed and uninterested throughout life.

Does this sound like an interesting film? I believe it could be, if it were taken with direction and clarity. What I believe The Comedy tries to do is give people a taste of what it is like for some wealthier people who have it all; money, no worries, and no inhibitions, yet they feel incomplete, robbed of something, whether it be connection or humanity, which makes them unable to form any remote feeling of happiness in their everyday life. The problem here lies in the film's lack of ambition, and its inert attitude towards its premise and direction. To drum up an interesting premise just to utilize it as a cop out to have it labeled "a film about nothing" is a little disheartening to the viewer and the audience, don't you think? Heidecker's performance is a strangely gifted one; he embodies his character convincingly, despite the fact he isn't given much to really do. His sulky, indifferent attitude is effective and his constantly careless appearance adds to his character's reputability. But what sealed the deal for me as to why this film falls flatter than one would believe is its excessive use of dirty-minded, filthy dialog which requires not a mouthful of soap, but a full-on deep-cleaning of the mouth as soon as possible. From reading my reviews, take The Hangover and Ted for example, you should be able to understand that vulgarity is not usually an issue for me. A raunchy comedy, bring it on, I can handle it. But for a film that comes across as a man alienated by a fast-paced, dictated society, whose only life goals seem to be to get from point-A to point-B in one piece, to have lengthy monologues on feces under ones finger nails, injury by anal regurgitation, and "dirty homeless semen" is foul, grotesque, and reprehensible in this context.

Concerning other pictures centered on societal disconnect and the complete satirizing of modern life, for example, the beloved Taxi Driver or a more recent film, The Details, The Comedy trips on its own shoelaces by emphasizing on things it should be tuning out and mistaking a meandering narrative for ninety minutes of depth. Inhabited by a decent chunk of capable performances, especially by its lead, and competent direction by Rick Alverson, yet ultimately kicked to the ground by petty little things, it's almost as if there was no-no plan, just no-no plan.

Starring: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, and Gregg Turkington. Directed by: Rick Alverson.

Enraging, infuriating, maddening....

[Agent10 · 8/10 · 26 March 2022]

In all honesty I hate this film. I hate the characters. I hate the story. I hate the dialogue, the costumes...everything. I hate the fact they wasted great music and overlayed it in various scenes that showed the pointless and hollow lives of the privileged hipsters. There is absolutely nothing here, for no one learns any lessons, no one evolves, no one seeks redemption for bad actions and no one really strives to be a better and interesting person. This is why it is such a brutally brilliant film.

There is nothing like this film, and it's amazing that it is fronted primarily by two guys who did weird postmodern TV shows on Cartoon Network and a indie singer who did not become "famous" until he and his band retired (of course they made an eventual comeback, for people actually wanted to hear LCD Soundsystem for some reason). The story on the surface seems like a stunning indictment on trust fund hipsters, but it ultimately is a deconstruction of what happens to people when they lack ambition, desire and heart due to the mundanity of their comforting and unsatisfied lives.

Eric Heidecker is Swanson, an overbearing hipster who is on the verge of inheriting his dying father's fortune. While he grapples with the situation, it is clear he has no clue what to do with his life. He provokes and taunts people to ferry reactions out of them, with one might surmising he is doing it in hopes of getting seriously injured or even killed. Anything to feel something beyond apathy. At least that is what it seems like when he enters the African American bar and openly talks about gentrifying the neighborhood and insulting the other patrons. Of course, it could be ignorance considering Swanson might believe that since he likes hip-hop music and other forms of minority culture, that he somehow has the right to speak in such generalities. Trust me, I wanted the men at the bar to pummel him but then again, it would have been dishonest.

I think this is what makes this film so unsettling. While we hope Swanson and his friends eventually grow up and continue their life journey, they just continue to be awful human beings. Before the social media world gave such bad behavior a monetary feed, being this type of person was unexpected. Now it has sadly grown into a norm.

Like I said before, I hated Swanson and ultimately wished he had an end like Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant, but that would not have been a sincere outcome. You can't feel any sympathy for the characters and this is what is so provocative about this film. Considering Heidecker's career this is a wild subversion on his filmography, and it seemed perfectly tailored for someone like him. It will be years before I want to see this again, but damn this is provocative.

Hate me, hate me, please, hate me

[schrifthsteller · 3/10 · 13 February 2017]

„Hate me, hate me, please, hate me" - it seems like this is the deep and desperate longing of this film and its sick minded ADD protagonist. At least this is my conclusion after bravely having sit through one obviously evil action after the other without leaving the theater, at the end having an overdose of looking at these emotionless faces so obsessively observed throughout the film as if they were a metaphor for the whole tragedy of the human experience. Come on!

Maybe Swanson, that's the guys' name, can be described as a mixture of Philip Seymour Hoffman 's charming resignation shortly before having killed himself of an heroin overdose, Woody Allen having lost even the last bits of hopes about the human nature and the infantile anti-humor of Sacha Baron Cohen and his excessive focus on everything vulgar.

For me this in its essence a childish provocation of an explicitly religious nature. Maybe God will come back if we just make Him hate us in the most disgusting ways we think of. If He hates us and shows us his hate, at least this means that He exists and cares about us. Come on!

The most creative premise, (probable Spoiler)

[john-novaphoto-kirby · 8/10 · 31 October 2012]

To have Heidecker be a "victim" of his own comedic stylings is genius. This movie has stuck with me for days, reason being the character is so surprisingly believable. SPOILER, this is not a comedy, but rather a very adept insight into what happens when a dissolutioned character adopts "blasphemous" comedy in every moment and is indifferent to it's hits and misses. There are a few good laughs, and it is particularly engaging if you have a fondness for indoctrinated Williamsburg kids who live on boats. Amazing Direction and Cinematography. The entire cast gives true humble performances, and Kate Lyn Sheil delivers a heart stopping scene. i believe in this film.