Queue Tips: The Comedian (2016)

Apparently, "The Comedian" is not the sequel to "The King of Comedy".  Both films do star Robert De Niro though.  It was not directed by Martin Scorsese, but by Taylor Hackford, who I don't think is really known for comedy.  Actually, neither of them are, I think.  In any case, he didn't write it, and there are plenty of funny materials from the screenplays.  There are many comedians appearing in the film, and I would guess they brought their own material, as well as improvised.

I thought this was a fun watch.  I found myself smiling a lot and just enjoying the film.  There are, of course, plenty of laughs here and there.  Nonetheless, you can argue that it is not necessarily a comedy movie, much like you can say "The Wrestler" is not a wrestling movie or "Black Swan" is not a ballet movie.  Without knowing anything about this movie, I actually thought this might have been directed by Darren Aronofsky, actually.

There are a couple of cringe things here though for me.  In the beginning, there is a character who is making viral videos.  They were just a bit too obvious or overplaying it a bit.  We see that one of them is holding their phone in one of those phone holder thingies.  Supposedly they have a popular channel and they have been doing this for a while.  How many times do you have to day, "Are you recording this?  Are you getting this?"  It's like, hey audience, look, do you get it that we are doing all this just for the content?  Too on the nose, I guess.

Later on, there is another video of the comedian going viral.  His act is manipulated and edited into a music video.  I thought the raw content itself was interesting enough to spread widely on its own.  I don't know.  Maybe they were trying to make a point that the lamer it is, the more popular it gets or that it gets more lamer as it gets more popular.  Maybe.

I wrote yesterday about the age difference in "Licorice Pizza" and "Parasite".  Those relationships were between minors and young adults.  Well, there is an age gap in this film, as well.  This time it's between a middle aged woman and a senior man.  It's still cringey to me though.  I wonder if the original script was for a younger protagonist and if maybe they changed it when they cast the lead actor.  Nonetheless, it made for an interesting dynamic, especially when they ended up having to deal with an adult problem later on.  

I liked seeing all the different comedians.  I didn't know all of them, especially the younger ones.  It was nice seeing the sort of behind the scenes glimpses and how they interact with each other, how they give and take.  It made me want to go to comedy clubs and experience the fun atmosphere.  The only thing though, is I know it's not always like that.  I wouldn't want to spend my time and money to watch someone bomb or to hear lame jokes.  And what I see a lot right now on social media is crowd work.  That's also cringey to me.  I mean, just come up with some good material and deliver.

I also didn't see a lot of bad jokes.  I can't remember which film or show or maybe documentary I saw, but from what I gathered, you hear a lot of lame jokes around comedians.  You kind of how to get through all that to get to the good stuff.  But the protagonist in this movie is supposed to be quick witted and fast, so maybe he just had a natural talent for being funny.

Well, I just googalized and wikified it, and I'm surprised this movie was poorly reviewed.  I actually thought it was pretty good, almost great.  I also saw that they actually wanted Scorsese to direct it.  Not sure about that.  I think Aronofsky would have been great, but I thought Hackford did a fairly good job.  I think someday people will reevaluate this and find it's not that bad.