Williamsburg, PBR, bike-riding and deadpan one-liners — throw in a supporting role for LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy and finding the hipster appeal in the trailer for Rick Alverson’s “The Comedy” is inevitable. Even the film’s title should strike a chord with the constitutionally ironic. Or, perhaps it will have the opposite effect. In “The Comedy,” hipster attitudes are fodder for Alverson’s satirical slant. The trailer’s ambient score and the bleak urban landscape that pervades each frame signpost the existential despair that underlies the film’s humor.
In the film, Tim Heidecker plays vain Brooklynite Swanson alongside his “Tim and Eric” co-star Eric Wareheim. The inheritance of his father’s estate opens up countless possibilities for Swanson and casts the aimlessness and safety of his previous lifestyle in a new light. The crowd walk-outs at the film’s Sundance Film Festival debut suggest that, for some, “The Comedy’s” grotesque portrayal of an aging hipster will be too dismal and vulgar a magnification of the generation it represents. A pitch-black social satire, “The Comedy” promises to be incisive, offensive and hilarious in equal doses.
The Tribeca Film release will be available nationwide on demand Oct. 24, and it opens theatrically Nov. 9.
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