Screenings: March 6, 7pm (Cam 12); March 8, 7:15pm (Cam 12); March 9, 3pm (Cam 12)
I don’t know how to class this film. It’s a drama, with a strong streak of black comedy. Or maybe it’s a black comedy with a strong streak of drama. A black dramedy? Whatever it is, it’s a trip. Terrence and Theo are lifelong friends, but also failures. Their band is going nowhere, in large part because of Terrence’s drug binges and rants. Theo is unable to sell his novel, “Truckstop Hustler,” because he is a pudgy white kid from the suburbs, and (according to a potential publisher) nobody wants to read anything by a guy like him. They come up with a scheme: Terrence will impersonate the main character of Theo’s novel, KK Downey, and they’ll re-present it as a memoir. Things go wonderfully, with KK hailed as his generation’s Dylan, until a suspicious journalist starts sniffing around, determined to debunk the new folk hero.
This film exhibits one of my favorite traits in independent movies: I may have an idea of where it’s going, but I can’t be sure I’m right — or be sure of how it’s going to get there if I am. My one complaint is the unevenness of the characters. Many are so over-the-top and caricatured that they seem like cartoons brought to life, but some of them are not, and it gives the film an unbalanced feel. But perhaps that’s what the filmmakers were going for.
Official Site: http://www.whoiskkdowney.com/