Underplayed Gems

The Comedy (2012)

The Comedy poster
Directed by
Rick Alverson
Genre
drama film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 33m
Rated
NR
Rating
5.8 of 10 from 71 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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How it feels

A wealthy man in his 30s drifts through life in Brooklyn, engaging in ironic and cruel behavior with his friends. The film critiques a culture built on sarcasm and detachment.

slow-burnunsettlingbleakcerebralsatiricalprovocativehollowdeadpan

What happens

The Comedy is a 2012 American drama film co-written, co-edited, and directed by Rick Alverson, and starring Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, and Gregg Turkington. The film was executive produced by David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Darius Van Arman, and Larry Fessenden. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and screened within such festivals as Maryland Film Festival 2012. The film was distributed by Tribeca Film and theatrically released on November 9, 2012. It went nationwide on demand starting October 24, 2012. Despite the title and use of comedians as actors, Sundance festival chief programmer Trevor Groth says that the film is not a comedy, but instead "a provocation, a critique of a culture based at its core around irony and sarcasm and about ultimately how hollow that is." The film was deliberately leaked onto various torrent websites, though the file only shows the first ten minutes before abruptly cutting to Heidecker sitting silently on a boat behind a scrolling anti-piracy statement. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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