Written by Robert Criss, Photo courtesy of Savannah Film Festival
Question: When was the last time you saw a movie that was funny all the way through? Was it so-bad-it-was-good or so-bad-it-needed-to-be-something-else-besides-bad to justify its ticket price?
Films like “Bridesmaids,” “The Hangover” and “Superbad” are nearing a decade old, with TV cuts souring the magic of their theatrical releases. Films with fully-realized comedic worlds, sardonic universes of their own are a thing of the past. Frankly, my patience has worn thin with Ferris Bueller-style 4th wall breaks and Hollywood’s big decade off when it comes to truly hilarious material. Your parents were excited about the “Roseanne” reboot, do you want to know why? They can’t remember the last time they laughed either.
Adam McKay believes a coke-fueled editing process would have you in stitches, Ridley Scott would have you believe “The Martian” was a comedy, and Edgar Wright is the fast-paced filmmaking savior that comes every three years if you’re a good boy or girl. My magic 8 ball says, “Don’t count on it,” after censoring its racial epithets.
Directing duo and stars of “Greener Grass,” Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe go back to the drawing board. Using the elements of improvisational comedy from their work at The UCB Theater (Upright Citizens Brigade) and honing the comic commandments of escalation, they take the suburban psychological thriller to new depths, fracking for renewable resources in an industry where the well’s run dry. What’s that Lassie? Timmy fell down a well? What’s that boy? The well’s run dry? Yes, we knew that. Run along now.
A simple formula that by increasing the JPM (jokes per minute) will increase the LPM (laughs per minute) and will ultimately STM (save the marriage) quantifies this film way above others.
Adult characters have braces, drive golf carts instead of cars, tote children like accessories, raise pets like children, uncomfortable mouth twitches and more; Painstaking details that play like sight gags that last the entirety of the film, creating a sense of chaos possible only with our understanding of a complete world around them. It has a versatile sense of humor, a great script padded with a tasteful amount of slapstick instead of the other way around. If you fear that the film will rely heavily on awkward comedy like I did, it does not (doesn’t) so fear not (fearn’t).
