Cucalorus Response


Nicholas MeyerFST 201Cucalorus Responses


The Kevin Situation: 
The first screening I viewed was a short film called "The Kevin Situation" which follows a conversation between four roommates about how they plan to kill their fifth roommates. This 5 minute short was a dark, and somewhat awkward comedy, most of which is simply a conversation between four of the roommates. While I really liked the short's premise and tone, I think it could've worked better in a format longer than 5 minutes. The idea of four roommates killing their fifth roommate is a fairly broad premise and limiting it to a single conversation around a dinner table was a waste of a genuinely funny premise. The main problem with The Kevin Situation isn't the small scale for the large premise, but the weird inconsistent sense of humor. While the short is clearly going for a dark, semi-awkward style of humor, mainly relying on the character's banter and interpersonal dynamics as the source of humor. While several jokes do land pretty well, many of them just contribute to an awkward and uncomfortable mood that makes the short somewhat unpleasant to watch. It doesn't help that the characters are all one note, essentially just there to make a specific type of joke. While I didn't expect the short to have fully fleshed out or developed characters, especially for such a short time span, I expected the characters to be more than just comedic archetypes meant to fulfill a quota, as each character could simply be described as "the stupid one" "the weird one" or "the mean one". While I've been fairly critical, I do ultimately think The Kevin Situation was fairly solid. It was well shot and edited, and I can easily see how someone could enjoy it. However, it was trying to appeal to a sense of comedy that is based on how awkward and uncomfortable they can make the situation, which I have personally never really been a fan of.


A Bad Idea Gone Wrong
The feature film screening I attended was for the film "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong". I didn't know much about the movie going into it, just the very brief premise description written on one of the cucalorus flyers. So going in, I was apprehensive about it, but within the first scene of the movie, I knew I was going to enjoy it. The film follows two best friends who plan to burglarize an empty house in a gated community. The two then get trapped inside the house with a house sitter when one of them accidentally arms the house's security system. I found the premise of the movie to be very unique and provided the entire film with an abundant of funny moments and situations. What I liked most about it was that it felt grounded in reality. While the premise and characters are both fairly ludicrous, they feel real enough that nothing in the film felt unbelievable or ridiculous. While it could have easily devolved into a silly buddy comedy, "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong" grounds itself with a solid emotional core about loss and moving on that I can't go into details on without spoiling a big part of the movie. It isn't a particularly unique or original twist but exists to give the characters additional motivation, as well as giving them some heart, making them more empathetic. My only real problem with the movie was its pacing. The first two acts moved at a decent pace, but the last act felt like it dragged on for too long. Maybe it was because my parking meter was about to expire, but the last act felt like it was running on fumes, compared to the momentum of the first two acts. From a story structure point of view, I don't know what I would have cut, or how I would have it restructured, but the last act just felt like it dragged on. Despite some pacing problems, I really enjoyed A Bad Idea Gone Wrong, as it's original premise and unique character made for a lot of funnier moments and situations that kept me entertained and luaghing throughout the entire movie.

 


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