An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn

Bizarre comedy from writer-director Jim Hosking has Lulu (Aubrey Plaza) stuck in a loveless marriage with beverage-store manager Shane Danger (Emile Hirsch). When Shane steals some money from a vegan health food store, troubleshooter Colin (Jemaine Clement) is hired to get the money back. This leads to Lulu going on the run with Colin, and the two ending up in a hotel where a one-night-only performance by Beverly Luff Linn (Craig Robinson) is scheduled to take place soon. As Colin grows to love Lulu, he discovers that she has a past with the mysterious Luff Lynn.

Filmmaker Jim Hosking was responsible for the extremely strange 2016 offering The Greasy Strangler. This follow-up ditches most of the sickening gross-out gags, but it retains the "intentionally-bad" aesthetic. The acting is purposefully amateurish, and the dialogue is stilted and absurd. The audience is kept in the dark about what kind of performance the enigmatic Luff Linn will display, and the revelation is as off-center as the rest of the film. This is the kind of out-there comedy that very few people will click with, but if you do, you'll like this one quite a bit. Not everything works, but enough did for me to keep me chuckling throughout, with a handful of laugh-out-loud moments.

I've wondered over the past few days whether this film is awful, or possibly my favourite film of the last 5 years. I'm leaning towards the latter.

//Revelation Film Festival Review//

An absurdist comedy from the mind behind The Greasy Strangler, Jim Hoskings' sophomore effort is the cinematic equivalent of a joke without a punchline. It sits on the screen awkwardly and bereft of purpose, moving from one stilted scene to the next. While it would be easy to dismiss the film early on, Hosking proves himself in complete control over his style as he revels in the awkwardness to increasingly effective result.

The story follows a woman (played by Aubrey Plaza) stuck in a disagreeable marriage. After a botched murder attempt on her husband she decides to run away with a hitman to an old motel where an old flame of hers, Beverley Luff Linn, is performing for "one magical night only". So ensues a number of bizarre occurrences, many of which defy explanation, leading up to the special night.

Craig Robinson is the standout as the titular Luff Linn, a mysterious performer who communicates in a series of grunts to comical effect. The film is certainly one of the stranger films showing at the Revelation Film Festival and it won't be for everyone but attune to its wavelength and there are laughs to be found in the inanity.

I just drank a bottle of wine and watched this movie. It was dumb and I really liked it.

An Evening with Beverly Luff Lunn is a strange movie with disjointed dialogue, weird acting with some strange but great cinematography that's just incredibly fun to watch. The movie has a simple plot and has many elements that are similar to a parody of a Wes Anderson movie but it's just something unique and interesting in its weirdness that doesn't try to be pretentious whilst doing so.

It's just one of those films that won't be in my top 5 of 2018 but I definitely don't regret watching. It's very stylish and weird as you would expect if you watched or even heard about The Greasy Strangler. The director has a unique vision and sense of style in the way that he makes his films that isn't remarkable but it's hard to look away from. Which, whilst disconnected and strange throughout most of the film actually has a touching ending.

Tired of waiting for the next live-action Wes Anderson or Edgar Wright film, want something that feels simple but weird and crazy at the same time then this will be for you. It's a great film to watch if you want a few laughs or just to watch something totally out there. A very good film will rewatch again, I'm going to give it a read the review/10.