User reviews

"The Funny Fat Guy" tells the story of a fat guy who is funny and an aspiring standup comedian. The funny fat guy named Charlie McStean, (the role played by Sandy Danto) was once a funny comedian but now his career is on the verge of downfall. He is a struggling standup comedian who finds solace only in drugs and fast food instead of making people laugh which he used to crave once a lot. While the movie funny fat guy revolves around the world of a standup comedian in L.A, the writer Nick Snowden hasn't offered much to laugh about in his script. He provides an extremely honest and realistic story which is painful to watch at times. He explores the darkest side of a comedian who used to make people laugh with his jokes and funny gestures but now his only comrade is alcoholic and drugs. It was great to see an actor of Sandy Danto's caliber, a graduate from Indiana University, whose performance is so achingly beautiful and realistic that you both laugh on him and empathize with him. He is a kind of a person that you keep on cheering for him for no obvious reason. His acting definitely needs applause. The funny fat guy is a low budget film of only $15k and was shot only for 20 days. Despite this fact, the film still managed to pay SAG-ULB rates. The movie has only 17 members and to my amazement, all of them are standup comedians and they still managed to give energy and sense of urgency to the movie. Besides Danto's super performance, there are other supporting characters as well such as Trevor Lee as Taylor, who is Charlie's best friend and is climbing the ladder of success in his career, thus leaving Charlie behind. This is the main theme of the movie as Charlie realized his friend's success and his downfall; he is consumed more and more by alcohol and drugs to cope with his dwindling career. While they are many moments of laughter in a funny fat guy, the truth is it is a dramatic movie with few intense scenes which lingers in your mind even after you have finished the movie for many days. The climax isn't something unexpected but it is penetrating and bold than most of the nonsense driven out of Hollywood these days. Rest of the supporting cast including, Shelley Dennis whose powerful performance gives the movie an emotional reverberation, and Timothy A.Bennett whose performance as Lou, truly deserves kudos. There is much to love and cheer about the funny fat guy, though the movie has a very low budget, still, those who are familiar with standup comedy can well understand the how honest and spot on this movie is. Funny fat guy captured a top prize at Cupertino's diamond in the Rough film festival. Do watch it if you get a chance and if you wish to know the world, the ups, and downs in the life of a standup comedian.

Funny Fat Guy explores one stand-up comic's tragic downward spiral as he becomes tainted by drug addiction and alcoholism. This film can be seen by many as a breath of fresh air, adding a dimension of realism to the film industry and describing the sad reality of many who become involved with drugs and alcohol, as well as the repercussions on themselves, their relationships, and careers. The plot moved along at a slow enough pace for audiences to keep up and enough happens to evade boredom.

The main character (Charlie McStean- played by Sandy Danto) is the embodiment of being pathetic. This results in excessive viewer sympathy and the slow trek down to the lowest point of his life can only be described as painful to watch, perhaps even a little too repetitious. Each time a ray of hope appears, it is promptly squashed 3 or 4 glasses of beer later. Again, this raises awareness of the tragic reality of an alcoholic. The relationships between characters were underdeveloped, but perhaps that was the point- to demonstrate how alcohol and drugs break down these relationships.

But you may be wondering; 'all this depression needs some kind of positive elements. Right?' Wrong. There isn't much happiness to be found in this film, even the ending is brutal in its nature. This is perhaps where some viewers could find creative differences with this film, but nevertheless, it is devoid of clichés, confronts to the extent of engaging viewers, and portrays its messages.

The production value was moderate in quality, but impressive for a film of this size. The cinematography had its moments, but was a little shaky at times. I was kept engaged as there was always something happening, and like McStean, there was always a thread of hope dangling just out of reach viewers could reach for. It is evident that Director Ryan Penington had a clear vision of the result through the duration of the film. The sound editing was sometimes a little unorganised- some of the dialogue was difficult to discern.

To improve, some more thorough editing should definitely be put in place to fix some of the little things that may bug viewers and decrease ethos of the film, however, overall, the content and themes was very impressive for this type of film, and enjoyment can definitely be sourced from it.