A bitter, downtrodden comedian, who resembles the real life infamous Neil Hamburger, treks across the southwest performing underwhelming gigs at near-empty venues in hopes of reuniting with his estranged daughter in wholly bizarre black comedy.
A follow-up to the polarizing and provocative PFF selection The Comedy, Entertainment finds writer-director Rick Alverson digging even deeper into the dark corners of what we find funny. Faced with resentment at every gig, our anti-hero, The Comedian (Gregg Turkington), uses lewd, confrontational jokes with deadpan, spit-induced delivery. Donning his cartoonish get-up, including a sweat-drenched comb over, The Comedian traverses America in hopes of finding meaning in the career he has chosen. His life on the road is a lonesome one filled with beautifully composed shots of airplane graveyards and somber hotel rooms. The only sign of solace is through saved voicemails from his unseen daughter. Alverson’s Entertainment is a grim, disturbing, and often hilarious study of not only a unique soul, but of the film audience as well. The film demands active viewers to muse over whether a film’s purpose is to entertain, inspire, challenge, or even provoke a reaction out of audience. Entertainment succeeds in doing all four and then some.
DIRECTOR: Rick Alverson CAST: Gregg Turkington, Michael Cera, John C. Reilly, Tye Sheridan LANGUAGE: English, Spanish COUNTRY: USA YEAR: 2015 LENGTH: 110 min
