LUCIDMEDIA

Laugh Winter Blahs Away With The World Of Comedy Film Festival

Written by Catherine Kustanczy Wednesday, 25 February 2009 16:17

The World Comedy Film Festival kicks off Friday, and it aims to drive the dreary midwinter blues away. Now in its sixth year, the festival hopes to bring the work of young comedians and aspiring filmmakers to a wider audience through screening a wide variety of comedic styles and providing workshops during the festival’s 4-day run. In its short history, the festival has grown exponentially, and this year received over 500 submissions that were distilled to 77 selections. In addition to Canadian works, the festival will also screen works from the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, France, Israel, Bulgaria, Germany, and the U.S. The festival takes place at Toronto’s Innis Town Hall Theatre from February 27th to March 1st and in addition to films, two seminars, called Film 101 and Funny Business, will be offered.

Screening highlights include the animated features like At Home With Pip and Pog, and episodes from the BBC –produced series Shaun the Sheep. Both come from the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations, the same team behind the mega-hit Wallace and Gromit series, and use the same stop-motion feature to bring cuddly creations to life. One of the Shaun the Sheep episodes, “Off The Baa!” features the flock playing soccer with a lost head of lettuce, while another, “Wash Day”, finds them being unruly with their farmer’s laundry line. Each is cute and colourful, innocuous fun that is nonetheless brilliant in its execution and creativity. The anthropomorphic qualities ascribed to the farm animals –sheep, dog, pigs –is incredible to behold, and each episode is just long enough (at roughly seven minutes each) to show off the creative work of the team.

The Arab/Israeli conflict is given an animated treatment –literally –in Adam Dubin’s What Blows Up Must Come Down, which features the vocal talents of comedians Jackie Mason, Lewis Black, Greg Giraldo and Nick Kroll.What’s interesting is the way the characters mimic competitive models of animation yore –namely the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. And despite appearances, Mordechai Mouse and Jihad Joe (a cat) are definitely not Tom and Jerry. There’s a clever reference to the Danish cartoon controversy as well as mason’s signature one-line zingers. The short ends with a whistle blowing at 5pm as Mordechai and Joe shake hands and walk away, as if they’re done work and the whole episode was mere filmic pretense.

Another highlight is Stan Maynard’s Best Day Ever, written and directed by Canadian David Tamkin. The 32-minute short peeks into the life of Stan Maynard, whose entire life –from image to career to luck with women –is dramatically altered with the help of a “Lifestylist.” Smart, snappy, and well-written, the film balances the comedic with interesting scientific considerations around behaviour modification, examining the addictive quality of experience and the societal message that “just being yourself” isn’t always good enough. Lead Neil Grayston gives a memorable performance, moving as a coolly calculating hipster emanating bravado and confidence, only briefly flipping back to “old Stan”, nerdy and nebbish, awkward and addicted to his new life.

But nerds don’t always lose, or feel the need to cover up their shortcomings. Earano, based on the Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac, is a solid short film that could easily be teased out to a feature. Writer/director/star Luke Matheny plays tutor Earl; with his giant ears, possesses a keen hearing ability. He overhears his beloved, Roxie, a librarian, sighing over finding an ideal lover. Too shy to tell Roxie his true feelings, Earl coaches Ukrainian janitor Pavlo to woo her, using text messages. An accident in the library with one of Earl’s students forces a discovery that makes for a cute ending.  Simply told, and smartly written without being saccharine, Earano definitely has the potential for further development.

The darker reaches of comedy are also explored, with X-Treme Weekend, a short about three friends who go on a camping trip. Danny, Gordon, and Alan hope to get away for a week in the wilds, engaging in swimming, rock-climbing, and other outdoorsy activities, but right from the film’s opening scenes, we get a sense the holiday will lead to disaster. Fussy, childish Danny clashes with uber-masculine cop Gordon (and vice-versa), setting off a series of events that eventually leads to a surprising (if slightly gorey) ending. Filmmaker Mark Harrier has a solid premise that’s been used in the past to great effect (notably in Deliverance, which is mentioned), but Danny’s character is overwritten; his cloying whining becomes tiresome and kills the comedic possibility of further interplay between the three men. What’s more, his phone with its Euro-dance beat –is a continual prop relied on a bit too heavily for effect, and the comedy –dark as it is in places, over-the-top in others –wears thin, revealing a more interesting possibility for a short dramatic thriller instead. Strip away the overwrought comic overtones and X-Treme Weekend could be a substantial work in the macabre humour/thriller genre.

Keeping with dark comedy is Spiros Jacovides’ Dr. Mori’s Teleshopping, which uses the style of a Japanese shopping program to sell the Hara-Kiri Kit. For those unaware, Hara-Kiri is the samurai tradition of ritual suicide. The short skewers ideas around class (since Hara-Kiri , reminds host Dr. Mori, is for those who belonged to the upper class only) and ritual, but more than that, pokes holes in ideas around capitalism and consumerism. The idea that you can literally “buy anything” and that television is the greatest means of delivering what people want is mercilessly lampooned, as the Hara-Kiri machine is set up and demonstrated (somewhat gruesomely) and then shown doubling as a rotating dinner table or ceiling fan. Filmmaker Jacovides has given his audience something to laugh at and think about, even if you won’t quite look at shopping programs the same way again.

That laughing-and-thinking paradigm seems to be a theme with many of the works at this year’s World Comedy Film Festival, and with 77 different works (including shorts) to choose from, there’s sure to be something to tickle everyone’s funny-bone.