Ebony & Ivory

OK, "Ebony & Ivory" is... really strange. I'm not really sure if I enjoyed it, but it's a... mostly interesting experience. Well, the writer and director, Jim Hosking, also wrote and directed "The Greasy Strangler", which is another weird film. I think "Ebony & Ivory" manages to be even weirder, which is quite an accomplishment.

This film is about two weirdos who are Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder... I think. It takes place in the 1980s. Even though Stevie is blind, he manages to row a boat by himself to the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland to basically hang out and smoke weed with Paul. They barely talk about collaborating on a song. They just... I dunno, talk and behave weirdly. There are no other people in the film. It has a lot of repetitive dialogue and noises. It's actually kind of insane just how much they say the same things again and again. I understand if people don't like this film. While the repetition did bother me a bit, I pretty much went with it. I just accepted that this is the kind of film this is.

Are the actors' voices dubbed? They don't sound like they're speaking in their normal voices. I'm not sure. Again, it only bothered me a bit. Paul is played by Sky Elobar and Stevie is played by Gil Gex. Both actors are in "The Greasy Strangler". I think they did a good job in "Ebony & Ivory". They seem to be playing real famous musicians, but their performances probably aren't accurate. Well, I wasn't expecting their performances to *be* accurate.

I didn't find the film to be annoying. I was actually frequently laughing. The cinematography and the music are good. As for the editing, it's mostly fine. I would've maybe removed at least a bit of the repetition, but that's just me. I'm still not sure if I enjoyed the film because it's just *too* bizarre. Can you imagine watching it while on drugs? That would be crazy. Well, anyway, I certainly don't regret watching it. I wouldn't recommend it to my family members, but if you're someone who watches strange comedies like "The Greasy Strangler" or "Vampire's Kiss", then check it out.

Not quite to the level of masterpiece as the director's previous work The Greasy Strangler, it is nevertheless a truly surreal experience all the same.

About a 1/3 of the way through I realized that this has to be a parody of Robert Eggers The Lighthouse: The ridiculous exaggerated accents, the homo-eroticism, the long drawn out scenes. Maybe the Stevie character just reminded me of Willem Dafoe's character but the idea wouldn't leave my brain and only enhanced the experience.

Film critics have voted Citizen Kane as the best film in the world for several years. I saw it for the first time when I was 13, that time I didn't understand why it was considered a masterpiece. Later, when I saw it again, I was already over twenty and I began to understand the genius of the film better. Film had changed with my own development and growth. That won't be the case for Jim Hosking's Ebony and Ivory. It will stay in history as his worst work.

The film's story was inspired by the meeting between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder in Scotland sometime in the early 80s. They composed and performed a joint song called: "Ebony and Ivory". In the film, two men (McCartney and Wonder) meet in the Scottish countryside and hang out in a Scottish cottage eating veggie nuggets, veggie sausages, square veggie rolls and veggie pipes, and drinking whiskey and smoking weed. There is almost no plot in the film. The film consists of Hosking's typical dialogues and repetition, which when used well is a powerful tool, but when used poorly, it's just tiring gimmicks. In the film, Gil Gex, who plays Stevie Wonder, makes about a minute long vocalization, while the audience sees a close-up of his face and yellowed teeth. Naturally, there is also a naked scene in the film, where men with 30 cm "parts" run naked along the cottage road to the beach, swim in the sea and do gymnastics for a while before running back to the Scottish cottage...

The premise of the film was promising. I had imagined that I would see some kind of version of the music composition work, maybe going through prejudices, thoughts about the anti-racism contained in the song and maybe "fish out of water" experiences when two famous music legends are in a foreign environment. However, the film didn't even have supporting characters - unless you count the two sheep - that would have brought more interesting comedic moments to the film. The director relies on the familiar originalities from his previous films and the charisma of the two actors. However, an entertaining or thought-provoking film cannot be assembled with these components.

Jim Hosking previously directed two interesting comedies - The Greasy Strangler (2016) and An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018). They have eccentric characters, a fair amount of potty humor and strange ideas. Among them, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is my favorite.

I'm one of the producers of this unique film so take this rating onboard with that information.

All I'd like to say that in this cookie-cutter, no-risk cinematic landscape, I am happy that a new Jim (The Greasy Strangler) Hosking film even exists.

This is a pure artistic vision, untouched by the usual meddling fingers of assorted movie flotsam & jetsam. Too often a vision gets clouded by various forms of interference along it's way to an eventual audience. It's a miracle to get through unscathed.

Everyone involved in this production, cast, crew, backers believed in our key creative and backed him to the hilt.