Tragedy In The Comedy

Over this past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to watch Tim Heidecker's new film, The Comedy. As a devoted fan of everything Tim Heidecker does I was incredibly excited to see this film, going so far as to attempt to bring this film to Cinemapolis for a screening. That attempt ended in failure after we were unable to get 70 people to reserve tickets online for said film. I scoured the internet for early reviews of this film and when I saw that it was the film with "the most walk-outs ever" at Sundance I knew that this was the movie I was waiting for. The trailer The Comedy: Trailer let me know that this film was not going to attempt to dumb down its message to appeal to a wider audience, this film is for people who understand the character that is Tim Heidecker, a man who is always "on". The protagonist of this movie, Swanson, is one of the most unlikable and morally repulsive characters I have ever seen. He is the bottom of the barrel of humanity. He embodies "Brooklyn Hipsters", this is not an easy film to watch. You will feel unclean at moments, you will cringe and be physically repulsed. The beauty in that is; every emotion you feel, every single cringe, gasp and revulsion is done on purpose. Director Rick Alverson has crafted a world that you know exists, but that world is one that you never want to be a part of.


Story Behind the Scene


Critical reviews have made it a point to say that this film goes nowhere, those critics are missing the entire point of the film. This is a generational statement disguised as a character study. In following Swanson around in his miserable world we are let in on a cultural movement; apathy. Out of touch white men who never had to work for themselves, never had to strain to achieve something, never had to try, have blossomed into a demographic.

My favorite scene in the film is the final one. Swanson is playing in the waves and sand with a young boy on the beach. The closing shot embodies the problem with all those aging white hipsters, they are children who never had to grow up, and probably never will.

This is a film that deserves to be watched several times, and I am going to do just that.