BRAD CUTS LOOSE Review

9

Film Pulse Score

If you are looking for one of the best comedic directors working today then look no further than Christopher Good. His debut feature, Mudjackin’, from 2013 happens to be one of the best comedies to come out within the last decade and after spending the last three years mainly directing music videos, for various acts like PWR BTTM, Jens Lekman, and Strand of Oaks, he is back with yet another comedic offering bursting with creativity.

Office drone Brad (a pitch-perfect Kentucker Audley who needs to be employed in more comedic roles) wants to cut loose. By his account, he works hard but would like to start playing considerably harder than he is currently. With the advice from his therapist, he finally verbalizes his deepest secret sexual fantasy to himself and, involuntarily, to the universe as well. Turns out his fantasy is hyper-specific and categorically nonsensical…yet the universe obliges like some fucked-up version of The Secret.

Even within the short runtime of 16 minutes Good has the ability to fully display a breadth of creativity. Even the most ordinary of interactions are processed through Good’s inventiveness thus transforming minor sequences into majors, in terms of craft, rendering the entire viewing experience a joy. Whether it be a group of colleagues checking out a new BMW, the mundane routines of Brad’s mornings and days at work or Tipper Newton listing the various types of sludges and slimes that can pour forth from one’s mouth.

He also captures the mundanity of the office worker’s work week. First, by repeating the same scene with the same key interactions yet varying Brad’s reaction each time. The run-throughs are quick but Brad’s mounting frustration is slightly more apparent each time the scene comes to a conclusion. In the second instance, and arguably the film’s most imaginative stretch, centers on presenting the dreaded morning routine; the one filled with buttoning buttons, tying ties, and a litany of other bullshit chores. To express the robotic, going-through-the-motions of this routine Audley lays on the ground as the various steps of morning preparation are doused upon his body. Water, toothpaste, milk, cereal, and clothing all rain down upon him like it probably has every day for the last several years.

Once more, Christopher Good teams up with himself as writer, director, and editor, along with Jeremy Osbern as cinematographer, to deliver another splendid yet twisted comedic film; another one that trumpets his wide-ranging talents. It also helps to team up with Audley and Newton, both of which provide the right mixture of heart and lack of awareness that bolsters the film’s comedy, keeping it from simply being a case of weirdness for weirdness’ sake.

Brad Cuts Loose from Christopher Good on Vimeo.

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