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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 23 January 2013
This article is a review of KLOWN. |
“Unless the boy has the time of his life Frank, you’re f*cked,” Casper
Rumours suggest that actor Danny McBride and director Todd Phillips have purchased the English-language remake rights to KLOWN. Understandable, as this Danish comedy is hilarious. And weirdly heartening for the prospects of THE HANGOVER PART III, as the antics we witness on this douche-bags-take-a-trip story makes THE HANGOVER PART II appear tame in comparison. Lets hope future comic pieces rise to the challenge of besting the outrage-benchmark now set.
Rumours suggest that actor Danny McBride and director Todd Phillips have purchased the English-language remake rights to KLOWN. Understandable, as this Danish comedy is hilarious. And weirdly heartening for the prospects of THE HANGOVER PART III, as the antics we witness on this douche-bags-take-a-trip story makes THE HANGOVER PART II appear tame in comparison. Lets hope future comic pieces rise to the challenge of besting the outrage-benchmark now set.
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Frank (Frank Hvam) is not the sharpest tool in the box, and his friends take advantage of this. (See the result of their advice, for getting brownie points, by giving his girl Mia a pearl necklace.) Mia (Mia Lyhne) is so sceptical of his inability to take responsibility, Frank is the last in their social circle to be told she is pregnant with his child. Rather than taking his 12-year-old nephew Bo (Marcuz Jess Petersen) to the latter’s grandparents one weekend, Frank thinks it’s a sound idea, to prove his maturity and potential fatherhood-mettle, to bring him along on his male pals debauched mini-break. The lead’s stock has fallen so low with Mia as a result of running away during a burglary while Bo was asleep and unprotected.
“I need women. It’s my drug,” Casper
Before hooking up with the rest of the gang, Frank and Bo collect the former’s best bud Casper (Casper Christensen) - the other lead – and a real deviant, devoid of any real morality. Casper’s only goal on the trip, which he constantly refers to as the “Tour de P*ssy”, is to satisfy his lust. Forced to go canoeing and camping, to avoid spousal suspicion, on the way to a music festival, KLOWN is a mini-odyssey of mayhem, humiliation and awkwardness. Even a book club meet-up pre-holiday involves abuse, threats and embarrassment.
Director Mikkel Nørgaard and cinematographer Jacob Banke Olesen give us a handheld, voyeuristic feel; concomitantly enhancing our intimacy with the characters as well as the uncomfortable laugh-out-loud moments. From threesomes to armed robbery, there are brilliant spins on comic staples. Massive props to Hvam and Christensen who both co-wrote the screenplay. What might have been a tired man-children needing-to-learn-to-grow-up tale, instead, due to the hugely engaging protagonists and excellently conceived scenarios, becomes a cracking comedy.
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