Casting
Me... (Indiepix
DVD)/Chonda Pierce: Girl
Talk (Image DVD)/Kristina
Wong: Wong Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest
(Cinema Libre DVD/all 2013)
Picture:
C Sound: C/C+/C+ Extras: C-/C/B- Main Programs: D/C/B-
Now
for a diverse new set of comedies that are not for laughs and for
various reasons...
Quinton
Lavery's Casting Me...
is a British production about a slacker (and worse) trying to get
into the movies, but having a tough time doing it. With a hideously
awful script by the would-be director, we suffer through 97 minutes
of this goofy waste of time watching a goofy guy (Paul Snodgras as
Paul)
being as anti-social, repulsive and idiotic as possible, never funny,
always embarrassing and totally pointless. No one of sound mid would
want to be near this individual on a good say let alone see him on
any screen, big or small, so all we get is a self-amused, borderline
smug mess you should avoid like the Bird flu.
Despite
how weak it all is, extras include a feature length audio commentary
track, teasers, trailer, Making Of featurette and two behind the
scenes featurettes.
Chonda
Pierce: Girl Talk has the
unknown in most places, but allegedly popular in the South stand-up
talent singing about Jesus, making comments that Democrats are going
to hell and gets all nice about things when she tells her jokes, even
implying in an extra that she is the second coming of Minnie Pearl!
When
left wing comics go overboard, I call them on it and I will do the
same here as Ms. Pierce tries to inoculate her hateful cheap shots as
comedy. She can actually be funny and if you edited out her many low
points, there is some watchable material here, but nothing is
outright funny unless you are part of the far Right. And we are sick
and tired of hearing that these things are
a satire every time
someone criticizes them. This is a one-joke (read anti-liberal,
anti-atheist) rant for 76 long minutes spoken softly, but she carries
a big baseball bat and worse, so beware.
Four
additional stand up comedy clips are the only extras.
Finally
we have Kristina Wong:
Wong Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest,
a brave stand-up show which is comical, but has to be darkly so since
it deals with suicide, racism, sexism, self-destruction, societal
stereotypes and much more in 80 impressive minutes that shows how to
make political points without being a phony or sneak about them.
Miss Wong pulls no punches exploring all this, plus rollback politics
by default and her ironic humor and clever way of getting her points
across so matter-of-factly will remind you of Lily Tomlin at her
best. Hope they work together sometime soon.
Wong
is hopefully a star on the rise and we look forward to more of her
important work.
Extras
include a DigiPak with a feature length audio commentary track Wong
and Director Michael Closson, an Original Theatrical Trailer, new
trailer for her next stand up release, Behind The Scenes + Making Of,
skit about her yearn for yarn and information on how to deal with
depression in real life.
All
three DVDs offer anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image transfers
that are softer than I would have liked, but Wong tends to be a
little more consistent throughout comparatively speaking. Chonda
has a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but it is really no better than
the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix on Wong
and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mix on Casting
is the sonic dud here with location audio issues, sloppy sound and
sound that is practically monophonic as well as having some
distortion issues.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
