VHYes

If I had a complaint about this movie it would be that it had too much packed into such a short film. I am very greedy with a 10 star rating, but this movie really cooked my noodle a bit. I felt something inside me while watching this; I don't know if it was the hi resolution retro quality, the familiarity in the programming, or the bursts of hitting all the channels at the right time. If you have given this movie a low star, please rewatch it and think of another movie that comes close to the genre this director has created. The closest I can think is paranormal activity. To put it concisely, an unusually warm candid experience.

Directed by Jack Henry Robbins. He is the son of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.

VHYes is some ways wants to be a nostalgic smorgasboard of late night 1980s television as well showing how camcorders became the precursor of found footage movies.

It is Christmas Day 1987. 12 year old Ralph gets a camcorder as a present and mistakenly uses his parents wedding video tape to record life as he sees it as well as various things on the television.

So you see snippets of shopping channels, learn how to paint shows and even some risque stuff.

It is meant to be an affectionate parody and comes across as zapping through the tv channels at great speed.

However this kind of spoofing was done better in something like Kentucky Fried Movie. Here as I am not American some of it just went over my head. Even If I was American, I doubt I would still find it funny.

When you watch a movie and you can't stop thinking about it for days after, you know you have watched a good movie. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for even a second, because this movie moved quickly and kept your attention the entire time. I recognized some of the show segments as if I had seen them before. It reminded me of watching strange late night tv while I was half asleep at hotels. The ending was unpredictable and gave me something to think about. Overall, I really enjoyed it.

What a strange yet delightfully engaging movie. Stumble across it during a slow day at work and paused it halfway so we could finish it the next day.

We watched the Alan Resnick stuff on youtube, (Alantutorials, Unedited footage of a bear) and went down the rabbit hole watching too many cooks and all these old adultswim vids.... This reminded me of those vids. Was right up my ally.

And if you enjoyed this movie for what it was, take a look at the vids I mentioned as they are great. (watch alantutorial in chronological order)

'VHYes' first came onto my radar last year when it received a lot of positive feedback at Fantastic Fest. It didn't sound particularly like my type of movie, so it took me a while to get arounds to seeing it. I only had time for a short runtime film tonight and at only 72 minutes 'VHYes' fit the bill perfectly. I will always be a person who enjoys a film with more of a narrative, but I was certainly able to appreciate 'VHYes' for what it was. There is some very clever and well edited humour in this film.

Considering the amount of ideas this film tries out its actually quite astonishing how many of them work. Some don't, but that is okay because they never last particularly long. The biggest stand out for me was Kerri Kenney. She was hilarious. Also her 'Reno 911' cast mate Thomas Lennon was in fine form. They're so great in off-beat comedies.

I think the short runtime was a good decision for the film. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I probably would have started to get sick of it pretty quickly had it run much longer. There are some fun cameos to look out for too, so keep your eyes open.