Rent An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)

Amusing, but not great - An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn review by LC

I watched this on the back of the directors other movie; "The Greasy Strangler", which is highly recommended for those nostalgic of the trash cinema of John Walters. Sadly this film doesn't live up to the previous experience. It's dotted with some good oddball seedy characters, but the plot is too thin, and the payoff of the final performance is, although bizarre, disappointing.

Being Absurd Can Be a Good Thing Sometimes.... - An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn review by Strovey

From the man you brought you The Greasy Strangler, which you either hated or loved apparently, [I have not seen it], here is another equally divisive film.

Right from the get-go we have to An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is going to make some people very angry, very bored and they will hate it. I understand why that would be because Jim Hosking’s film is most definitely a specific taste, and I would say after ten minutes you are either going to continue watching or turn it off and get on with something else.

The story is almost inconsequential and slight, but to Hoskings and writer David Wike’s credit there is a story that progresses and if you invest you do want to see what happens.

Overall though An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is an absurdist comedy first and foremost. Everything you see on the screen is a deliberate, conscious effort to deconstruct acting and filmmaking. Lines by talented actors are delivered stilted with no nuance, background characters deliver their lines out of context, bellowing for instance, grimacing, it is all for want of a better word ‘weird’. But, and here is the rub, it does drag you in, some styles like this can push the viewer away, and I will admit I can be repelled by this type of film, but Hosking had enough film-making skill and a good enough cast to draw me in.

One look at the top-billing and anyone with an average film knowledge would know what they were in for. Aubrey Plaza and Jemaine Clement were made for this film and just turned up on the first day of filming without being asked, Matt Berry, again perfect for this type of role and drop in Craig Robinson and Emile Hirsch and you are ready to roll. Hirsch is stand-out as an alternate universe Jack Black entirely unrecognisable as the handsome actor you are normally used to.

Add to the mix the locations, bright colour palette, costumes and hair all following the same erratic and winding path and you somehow get a film that drags you in and wraps you up in a world that we know does not exist but does at the same time. It should not work but it does.

The music, all synths and electric as with other aspects of the film should not work but somehow it does, it is vivid and at times clashing but somehow it fits.

The absurdist comedy and set pieces in general work and the misses are few and far between so that film zip along with too much slack which truth be told is a pleasant thing in any type of film these days.

An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is an extremely peculiar film but is engagingly entertaining like the strange kid at school who was never quite in line with anyone else but still interesting. All the main actors play to their quirky onscreen personas which fits what you see perfectly and although I have criticised Aubrey Plaza for not expanding on this in so many films her she almost plays the straight role and I found her dancing at the end strangely alluring.

This film is weird, daft, funny and odd but never, ever boring, even if you hate it I feel the makers will believe it has worked. As Andy Kaufman said, ‘At least you felt something’.

Worth a go if you're ok with oddness - An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn review by MB

If you like Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), then there's plenty in this film for you to enjoy. Both are on great form, with Clement's character not dissimilar to the one he played in the excellent Eagle vs Shark.

The story is minimal, but that's not the point. The focus is on the left-field comedy, which is seldom laugh-out-loud, but more a kind of celebration of oddness, social awkwardness and the bizarre. I think what saves the style of comedy is that we are not being asked to laugh at people because they are 'weird', rather I sense in the film a compassion for the oddness that is in all of us. In a way, every character in the film is a variation of Napolean Dynamite.

Having said all that, the story is intriguing enough and it builds to a final showcase that had me laughing my socks off - so it was all worth it.