A very unfunny family history is spun into brilliant comedy from co-directors Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. They begin with a doozy of a premise and keep pushing. When it all comes together, it feels like a wallop, but it’s largely packaged as a deadpan farce about a group therapy session. Bev is a dazed man with a father in prison and an inability to be touched by women. He attends a trust seminar in Tampa at the behest of his unstable mother and he’s able to share that his father is a murderer. As the 3-day seminar goes on and Bev tries to grapple with his family trauma amongst a group of participants whose issues aren’t nearly as traumatic, we keep learning more about his father and the story keeps getting worse. The dynamite ensemble cast is full of comedians and performers who mine for laughs where there should be none. It’s a magic trick in tone. The lead is played by Brennan Lee Mulligan in an astounding feat. Co-directors Burch and Mechanik, who previously made "All You Can Eat" (which we screened in 2014) have a genius eye for digging deep into strange holes of human behavior. In the previous short, a reality TV crew has a troubling response after hearing about a mass shooting. -KA. Directed, Edited, Produced by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik. Written by Samy Burch. Starring Brennan Lee Mulligan. With Max Jenkins, Nicole Spiezio, Joe Pera, John Early, Jordan Byron Kinley, Kira Pearson.
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