The first installment of Sassy Mohen’s three part series How To Hack Birth Control, a show focused on cis women’s sex life and the role of birth control in it, is a wickedly funny 30-minute trip into helpful, accurate sex ed, flanked by game show sequences and scene crashings by its charmingly scathing narrator (read… Continue reading How To Hack Birth Control: Sound Information Wrapped In Satirical Goodness
Tag: Comedy
His Name Was Gerry: Processing Grief With Fireworks And Heartwarming Lightness
Peter Lee Scott’s His Name Was Gerry opens on a grim scene. A boy processing the death of his best friend. It is a violent process, involving several smashed pieces of furniture. But this is meant to be a comedy; the rug is pulled out from beneath you soon enough. It is heralded by a… Continue reading His Name Was Gerry: Processing Grief With Fireworks And Heartwarming Lightness
Pragma: Love, Technology And Further Complicated Questions About Choices
One would not necessarily expect to be moved by a film about finding love through big data, and one would be wrong. Director Ellie Heydon achieves everything she sets up Pragma to be: funny, weird, oddly profound, and surprisingly moving. Written by and starring Lucy Heath, the 20-minute film weaves in these elements with skill… Continue reading Pragma: Love, Technology And Further Complicated Questions About Choices
Stand uP: A Family Drama About Comedy
For a film that is about comedy and is partially a comedy, Jonathan Samukange’s Stand uP is rather aptly titled with a pun. Henry, a stand-up comedian, has to break the news of his career decision to his conservative parents and, when backed into a corner, stand up for himself. It starts with a set.… Continue reading Stand uP: A Family Drama About Comedy
The Trust: A Pop Culture Rich Pandemic Comedy
A 11-minute pandemic comedy, Harris Shore’s The Trust uses the ‘Zoom call’ style to unfold its comedy about a dead man and the trust he left behind. Said trust is to be read by the family attorney over a video conference to the man’s widow and son. And his CPA. The film makes snide references throughout. The… Continue reading The Trust: A Pop Culture Rich Pandemic Comedy
Picnic Under A Gibbet: Morbidly Funny, Scarily Familiar Epidemic Satire
If they had to argue, the two characters of Richard Corso’s satire, Picnic Under A Gibbet (adapted by Rebecca Gorman O’Neill from Gregory Ferbrache’s short story) would probably agree—though they prefer to be on opposite sides on most other subjects—that picnicking under an old, rotting corpse was just the cherry on top of a darkly amusing tale.… Continue reading Picnic Under A Gibbet: Morbidly Funny, Scarily Familiar Epidemic Satire
Noose: Death And Tragedy Lend Themselves Well To Comedy
The title makes it obvious. Someone is trying to die. Keyword being trying. Because Paul wants to die, and the world is not making it easy. Nick LaMarca’s 18-minute comedy-drama, Noose, takes a laid back approach to a heavy subject, and it works surprisingly well. The film opens boldly. There is the noose at eye-level, and there is Paul, played… Continue reading Noose: Death And Tragedy Lend Themselves Well To Comedy
Longest Day Of The Year: An Antidote To Emptiness
And they take a walk.” Thus ends Lauren Hoover’s pandemic comedy, Longest Day Of The Year. Simple though that statement is, it is heavy with significance, accumulated over a long 18 months when taking a walk was often impossible, or the most anyone was allowed to socialise. Longest Day Of The Year, a chipper 10-minute film, takes… Continue reading Longest Day Of The Year: An Antidote To Emptiness
Kingdom Animalia: The Melanie Fyfe Story: A Much-Needed Satire Reflecting On Contemporary Times
Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s Kingdom Animalia: The Melanie Fyfe Story can be as easily misunderstood as cheered for. The film, a pure satirical story set in a fascinating world of humans and animals is a neither-here-nor-there fantasy, that is, however, a thorough visual treat. Appealing to the eye, but troubling to the soul, the film dissects the… Continue reading Kingdom Animalia: The Melanie Fyfe Story: A Much-Needed Satire Reflecting On Contemporary Times
Hell In A Handbasket: It Could Get Much Worse, Apparently
The pandemic has been a dumpster fire. And it keeps getting worse. Writer and director Lee Chambers gets straight to it. His 5-minute comedy, Hell In A Handbasket zooms straight to the people who could potentially make it better: scientists. At the centre of the plot is Dale Borger (Robert Bryn Mann), a scientist deep in his… Continue reading Hell In A Handbasket: It Could Get Much Worse, Apparently