Rick Alverson's Entertainment is an oddly transfixing examination of a broken comedian who is en route to meet his estranged daughter. Traveling through the California desert as he makes stops at various dive bars and third-rate venues to deliver his increasingly disparaging comedy, the comedian becomes further detached and alienated from everything and everyone around him. Entertainment is a polarizing piece of filmmaking that is bound to captivate some as much as it infuriates others. Featuring a very, very dry sense of humor, Entertainment is a film that confronts the viewer with this cynical, directionless man, whose disenchantment with everything and everyone around him seems to be escalating with each subsequent cold encounter. Entertainment is a challenging and often beguiling experience, and while the film touches on some interesting aspects about comedy and how we as people define entertainment, the films's dry humor and tepid pacing became a bit grating for my taste. The film assaults the viewer with desolate desertscapes and an ever-increasing surreal encounters that certainly transport the viewer into the psyche of this character, but i'd still argue Alverson's penchant for offbeat energy and dry tone ultimately leads the film's true message being a bit illusive. The film works best simply as a transfixing portrait of disillusionment, as this Comedian character shows almost a complete lack of empathy for everyone and everything around him. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but one could argue that Alverson's film is truly a powerful examination of the comedy profession as a whole, capturing how the culture of this man's profession can suppress empathy while cultivating an overall cynicism to the world around him. Personally, I think Entertainment works best on a broad thematic level, as Alverson uses this character to raise fascinating and challenging questions about what 'Entertainment' actually is, exploring the relationship that exists between those receiving and those delivering the entertainment, capturing just how different those two things can actually be. This disillusionment which the main character feels is without question related to his audience, whose expectations and desires simply don't align with the brand of humor this man is creating. While i'd argue the film suffers from a bloated running time that at times hurts the film's general pacing and engagement, Rick Alverson's Entertainment is a beguiling experience full of fascinating ideas about comedy and entertainment, exploring what it means and the expectations and demands the strain an audience can have on its creators.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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