Film Review – Cheap Thrills

Debutant E. L. Katz turned a few heads at last year’s SXSW festival with this raucously unpleasant little creation. It was deemed to be so offensive that it was promptly voted audience favourite in the Midnight Features strand and provoked a brief but intense bidding war to secure its distribution rights.

This one works best when it wears its nastiness like a badge of honour. As a brazenly grim piece of violent, antisocial behaviour it pretty much excels. The hair-brained, scatological comedy is less sure-footed, dulling some of sickness in what you suspect is a relief valve for those moments when Katz might have been wondering if he’s taken the abhorrent violence a bit too far. He needn’t have worried too much; it’s strangely engrossing to see a couple of chumps putting themselves through no end of physical torment, even if you have to brush aside the odd bit of frat-boy immaturity to get to the meat and gristle.

Family-man Craig (Pat Healy) is out on his arse after losing his job and gaining an eviction notice all in the same morning. Depressed and in dire need of some money to keep a roof over his, his wife’s and their baby’s heads, he wanders into a bar where a chance encounter with old schoolmate, Vince (Ethan Embry)leads to an evening of financially lucrative, yet soul-destroying and utterly shameful torment and abuse.

Violet and Colin (Sara Paxton and David Koechner), a bored wealthy couple, are prepared to throw handfuls of cash in Craig and Vince’s direction provided they satisfy their sadistic urges. The two must compete against each other in a series of demeaning dares, starting out with some low-level public humiliation and slowly working their way up to full-blown physical violence, ritualistic forced sex and disfigurement

.The ultra-violent game of one-upmanship is likely to offend as many as it delights. It’s unlikely to leave anyone unmoved, whether that’s for good or for ill is debatable, but if nothing else it’s certainly sellable. The parting shot nods in the direction of Michael Haneke, indeed this could easily a slicker Funny Games devoid of its nagging tone and played for belly-laughs.

When you’re done with it you’ll have gleaned little, even to which the lengths people will go for a fast buck, so it’s lacking the strength in depth to provide much intellectual nourishment. That feels like a conscious decision though, a dare to the audience itself to take offence at the mayhem being churned out for eighty-odd minutes with little else to say.

Good on it. It’s oddly refreshing to see something as flagrantly obnoxious as this.

[rating=3]
Chris Banks

Genre:
Comedy, Thriller
Distributor:
Koch Media UK
Rating:15
Release Date:
6th June 2014 (UK)
Director:
E.L Katz
Cast:
E.L Katz, David Koechner, Sara Paxton, Ethan Embry, Pat Healy