'Entertainment' A Review

Entertainment is an existential dark comedy about stand-up comedian Neil Hamburger(Gregg Turkington, billed simply as The Comedian) and his low profile tour of the southern California desert. The film opens on a show in a prison with Eddie(Tye Sheridan) opening for Hamburger with a clowning act. Hamburger in a dated tuxedo and plastered hair delivers his particular brand of stilted confrontational one-liners to the prisoners, easily the most receptive audience he plays to over the course of the film. What follows is a succession of increasing failures at progressively questionable venues, his performances are juxtaposed with long shots of Hamburger traversing the eerie landscape as well as surreal dream-like encounters.

Turkington as an incarnation of his long time stage persona Hamburger is incredibly emotional, desperate, and confused with eroding endurance. He navigates this pathetic tour with a sense of doom and finality that is compelling but ultimately unfulfilled. There is a parade of brief and fascinating interactions with individuals we are not sure are real but nothing actually happens. The film feels as if it is building towards something but ends on an ellipsis rather than a period.

The beautiful landscape pairs well with an almost supernatural score. The images and cuts are, at times, so muddled they evoke a drug trip or a dream. But the pace is so sedate this questioning of reality is never capitalized on or fully realized. After initial promise it becomes boring, the basic idea is simply repeated without any narrative or cinematic change.

A great performance and an interesting idea that don't evolve past the conceptual.

Rent It.

Anti-Comedy 3

10,000 years ago off the coast of TurkeyTown there was a city made of snacks. in SnackCity there was a mayor. his name was Stromboli.  he had a wife Nilla made out Vanilla Wafers, a daughter Ding-Dong made of chocolate cake and vanilla creme, and a son Sun Chip. they lived in a house of Dunkaroos. everyday Stromboli drove his Snowball car to Peppermint Bark city hall, stamped Fruit Roll-Up bills, shat out chunks of Turkish Delight into the Jolly Rancher toilet plopping in the cleaning Koolaid, and conversed at length with all the Sour Patch Kid aldermen.

one day LicoriceMan, a political terrorist and self loathing homo-snackian, slipped a poisoned MilkDud into Stromboli's morning Cherry Shasta. upon arriving home for lunch Stromboli was possessed by an undeniable grumble down in his tumtum. he ate his wife, his daughter, his son, his house, his neighbors, their houses, his aldermen, his constituents, all their houses, the roads, buses and trains, the sidewalks, the parks, city buildings, everything until there was one big hole where SnackCity use to be that looked like a big puckered butthole. an hour later he threw it all up, after a while all that puke clotted became Hurl Huts forming VomitVillage. Stromboli was elected mayor.

Anti-Comedy 2

there was a stupid man who had a stupid job. i won't say what he did cause its fucking stupid. he sat at his dumb desk and ate cool ranch Doritos all day. he went poop in the morning and in the afternoon. just to get away from his dumbass desk and his supercool Doritos.  every morning he slipped on a banana peel and went splat thats how stupid this fucking clod was. every lunch he ate Doritos until he was all sicky in his tummytum. in the afternoon he rolled around full of Dorito mush in his dumbdumb swivel chair. sometimes he'd lean back until he fell over, idiot. Like a cow he kept Dorito cud in his mouth, gumming all day on the coolest of the ranchys. yumyumyumyum. one day his stupid hulkingass linebacker boss called this fucking moron into his office.  they grunted at each other, drooled, looked at paper, sputtered, and shook hands. it was a good meeting. on the way back to his dumbass desk and his coolranchy splattered rollychair he put a bag of butteryass popcorn in the microwave and set it for 25 minutes. guy was fucking dense. the bag caught fire and the whole foolish fucking office burnt down and everyones stupid asses died.

whose hungry?

Anti-Comedy

im a poo poo train conductor and i live in a garbage house. my house is made of diapers that all the little babies poo poo and pee pee in. its stinky! every morning i roll out of all the used poo poo and pee pee diapers and go down to the poo poo train station for a long day of work on the fart furnace. i eat beans all day and fart all kinds of farts in the fart furnace to make the train go. the stinkiest farts make the train go the fastest. ppppppffffffff, luuuuuurrrrrp, bammmmmmffff, blooooooouuuurrrrrrpppp, ppplllllurrrrrb. those are the farts i fart into the fart furnace all day long. sometimes when im on my lunch break i still have to fart so i run to the end of the train and fart off the caboose to speed up the train. like a rocket! the train is all made of poop so everyone who rides it is stinky all day long.

poopoopeepee stinkstankstunk.