Jonathan Bilski
Not really that late, we're talking 8pm on a Saturday. But, smartly shown after dark, Late Night had that type of weird energy that needed to banished to a later point. Why? Maybe, so many of the older patrons would be in bed. And, the kids could show some messed-up crazy nonsense. ...At least those who went to bed won't have some pretty weird nightmares.
Where to start? The uncomfortable puppet or the utterly baffling life size doll of a dad? Why not neither?
One of my favs,
REPLAY from Phil Mazo, is not your standard documentary, though it looks perfectly like one. What starts off as a story of redemption of one man's blip on TV as a child talking about chess, becomes a truly amazing comedic short. Without spoiling anything; as I hope one day it appears on YouTube or online. You utterly connect, laugh and are in awe of a sad moment in Phil's life when he's asked, has chess helped him with getting girls. This all happens in just a few minutes ta boot.
What's even more funny is finding out that Phil has now befriended the host/man who called him out on his love of chess as a child.
Another fav of the night was
Channelvue, which was supposed to be a fairly cheap endeavor to create, but got more costly with all the content added in the end. The creators "went a little crazy" making it, as they put it themselves. Fun to learn, the creators literally found the software for the scrolling TV Guide channel of yesteryear from Internet Archive. Which scrolls through multiple times as you watch things go from weird to worse. What seemingly is a normal day on a Christian cable company, spirals out of control when hackers take over the channel guide and then the channel itself. Then, it gets even weirder as the channels seems to be going to Hell or some other nightmare. A burger commercial should not have a soul in it begging for help. Oh, got weird it just the right way.
It goes by fast, but there's a real scrolling of made-up TV shows and movies that makes you want to re-watch it to see what you missed.
A few others that would definitely catch your eye were:
Dad Doll, a creepy Tim & Eric like sketch about having a life-sized father doll in your life. Strangely enough, everything that made up the "Dad Doll" was bought and returned on Amazon to keep costs down, so there's no doll to take to screenings. (I did not include a picture as it should surprise you if you ever see it) Didn't expect to learn you can get 60 fake eyeballs from Amazon in one go.
¡Beso De Lengua! which has love and bloody shock value, got the audience audibly disgusted and nervously laughing. And,
Playing G-d, an amazing stop-motion masterpiece, left the crowd in awe. Scary and creepy, a figure creates a man out of clay that looks like himself, but it looks like he's made others and they don't look so good.
Rounding it out and getting some great laughs were:
Your Own Flavor; maybe that puppet isn't your friend if he wants your phone number. It doesn't matter you sang a song together.
BDay Private Dick was all about singing as comedian Nick Thune sings us a tale about his hate of his birthday and how he hired a detective to go after him to change it up. Was surprised to see John C. Reily show up in it. And, finally
The Traveler and the Troll was like an adult episode of The Muppets. When a troll (a very Muppet-looking puppet) can't remember it's third riddle, the fairy-tale changes to be a bit off.
Good thing it was late, like ending at 9:30pm! So no rotten kids could see them. But the audience, which packed the place seemed to enjoy.
Here's the winners from the Fest
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