Review of The Comedy (2012) by Aphmetacritic — 04 Jan 2015

A week before watching The Comedy I watched Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation, a film in which the character Charlie Kaufman struggles to write a screenplay about an eccentric and fairly unlikeable man. No plot, no character development, no overcoming obstacles, and a main character the audience is likely to hate. Who would watch such a film? Would it even be considered a "proper" film, he wonders. "No! What a terrible idea for a movie!" everyone tells him and so, ultimately, Adaptation turns into your standard Hollywood movie, complete with car chases, gun fights, and people being eaten by alligators.

It got me wondering "Could such a film be made? Has anyone made a film like that?" Turns out, they did and it's called the Comedy. If anything, it's a brave film for daring to go against all the Screenwriting 101 conventions, all the rules everyone insists writers stick to. It's a subtle film, a dark film, and the kind of movie you need to watch in its entirety and then, when it's over, sit there and wonder "what the hell did I just watch?" And then a day or two later you find yourself thinking about it again. *That*, for me, is an indication that I've watched a pretty brilliant film.