I checked this movie out because it has Annie Hamilton as a co-star and it's one of her biggest film roles thus far. She is an up-and-coming actress who I've found myself completely mystified by through her Instagram posts alone (it's mostly all the trollish emotional breakdowns on top of her being stunningly beautiful that really gets me) - interesting new era we live in where you can be drawn to check out films strictly through Instagram crushes, but, hey, this movie was really unique so I'm happy it's a thing.
I had no idea what to expect with DRIB and that was fun. It's kind of breaks a lot of rules throughout and that adds to its singular charm. The first 10 minutes take on a full-on documentary style to introduce you to a real life, infamous internet figure, Amir Asgharnejad, whom I had never heard of - but they do a great job of making him immediately intriguing. You learn that this film will be a retelling of something he went through in reality, starring him, which provides even more intrigue and subtle LOL's from the start. When the retelling begins, it gets off to a rough start - a lot of the humor doesn't hit well or naturally, and you get a whole lot of Brett Gelman really quick, playing the exact same character he always does in everything, an obnoxious jerk with really bad vibes. I'm not a huge fan of his presence in film & TV, but he is definitely very fitting for this character.
After 20 or 30 minutes, the movie seems to start to find itself and rockets into some pretty unpredictable directions - the movie is pretty all over the place, but in a good way in this case. Everything from the photography styles, to the humor, to where the "story" goes, and also the way the fictional retelling sometimes gets interrupted by the filmmakers to go back into documentary style info out of nowhere (all of a sudden it's like you're watching the movie with director commentary on, except it's part of the actual movie). It's also got the guy with the deformed face from Under The Skin, and his self-exploitive, satirical role is quite memorable as well.
In the end, there were definitely a few scenes that were the standouts. A specific one - a photoshoot with Amir and some body builders really stole the entire show - extremely effective with its tension and awkwardness. Impressive. Then, of course, Annie Hamilton's scenes - her presence is electric, she's an absolute clown and even when she's not saying anything I crack up just looking at her MF facial expressions. By the end, Amir proves to be just as dynamic and mysterious a human being as he is introduced to be in the beginning - you never know what you're gonna get out of that guy, and that's part of what makes this movie and his story worth the time.
This is no masterpiece but it's a really unique, fun experiment that I would say to give a chance if you're into ambitious movies. It's free on Tubi right now.
