Monday, October 9, 2017

The Funeral


Director - Jon Kovach
Starring - Jared Earland (Keep Breathing, Article 17), Tara Williams, Becca Howell (A Twisted Fate, Private Eye)
Release Date - 2017
Genre - Drama/Comedy
Taglines - "If Luke's not joining the funeral downstairs, his family is bringing Gammy up"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     October is here.  The month of horror, spirits, witches, and my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween.  I watch a horror movie a day and have for years so October is just another month for me except I can watch more movies centered around the holiday.  In years passed I would get sick of Halloween flicks before the month was over so this month I've decided to hold off on Halloween flicks and review something else.  One film that was brought to my attention is the indie comedy The Funeral from Studio 605.  This one was directed by Jon Kovach and is his debut film.  I want to thank Roman Jossart and Studio 605 for reaching out to me to check this one out.  I'm glad you did.
      The film follows a young man, Luke (Earland), who lives in his parents attic.  His father recently lost his grandmother and decided to host her funeral in his home.  Luke was never close to her and has decided to stay in his room the entire time.  His mother tries to convince him come downstairs but he sticks to his guns.  He is then visited by his cousin that he has an attraction for, his vegetarian sister, and two friends before his dad visits him to convince him to come downstairs.  The two share an emotional moment and Luke decides to be with his family during this time.
     Studio 605 is a very talented indie production company that has brought several hits to the indie horror community with films The Campground, The Wicked One, The Woods Within, and the upcoming Scream for Summer.  I really enjoyed their previous efforts for the most part and was curious how they would approach a comedy especially considering that this is the director's debut film.  The acting in this one is fantastic.  The entire cast was damn near perfect.  Jared Earland made his character very believable.  He let his role take over and delivered a hell of a performance.  With that being said, Becca Howell was fantastic.  Her character was fun and brought a little charm to a film that could easily be dark and dreary.  She is immensely talented and how could you not fall in love with that smile?  The supporting cast is equally as awesome and do an outstanding job at creating unforgettable characters.  The story for this one is a little on the slower side.  The film runs just a little shy of 45 minutes but it does tend to drag on a bit in some of the scenes.  The film is very dialogue rich and some of the scenes tend to drag on a bit.  However, that doesn't mean this is a bad film.  It's actually far from that.  I'm just saying a little trimming here and there would benefit the film.  Finally, the film is being billed as a comedy but the film is far from that.  It does feel like a light drama with great character development but I didn't find anything funny about the film.  Maybe its my sense of humor but the film wasn't that funny.  Don't get me wrong.  Please, don't get me wrong.  The film is not bad at all.  I really enjoyed it but it just wasn't funny.  Overall, The Funeral is a superb indie film about loss, love, and unconventional grieving.  The film may not be perfect but you wont be forgetting it.  I can't recommend this film enough!




No comments:

Post a Comment