When Life Gives you Lemons, make O.J; Magnolia Fill Three Cups Worth with Alverson’s “Entertainment”

As discussed in our recent post Sundance Film Festival assessment of the NEXT section distribution deals, we noticed that there was some fine fruit at the top of the tree that had yet to be picked. Well, the Magnolia Pictures folks have just picked themselves a tarty, sour lemony number in Entertainment. Starring Gregg Turkington in the violently unfunny lead, after a quick round of American film fest premieres in Park City, SXSW and a closing night spot at the New Directors/New Films series in New York, Rick Alverson‘s unsettling, yet satisfyingly bold number uproots formula and Americana.

Gist: Written by Rick Alverson, Gregg Turkington and Tim Heidecker, en route to meet his estranged daughter and attempt to revive his dwindling career, a broken, aging comedian (Turkington) plays a string of dead-end shows in the Mojave desert.

Worth Noting: This was filmed in glorious 2:35:1 widescreen.

Do We Care?: Following in the footsteps of his pleasantly agitating seminal film, The Comedy, Alverson’s fourth feature will be the most talked about, critically most decisive items for 2015. Worth revisiting for the introductory sequence alone.