Nerdland (2016) Tribeca 2016

The first and very possibly last feature film from Titmouse the studio behind any number of good Cartoon Network shows is a largely unfunny vile mess that manages to be incredibly unpleasant (intentionally so) to the point  you wonder why you are watching it.

Centering on a screenwriter and an actor wanna be who will do anything to become famous for being famous NERDLAND thrashes around as if the worst parts of BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD collided with the vilest parts of SOUTH PARK and then amped it all up into something nasty. The film is stupid people going around trying to get on TV by any means necessary including faking a rescue of some one, being beaten up by the police, murder or knowing someone on TV. Though voiced by Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt no one on screen is anyone you'd want to hang with

The one thing is the film manages to be is unpleasant You like no one, people do terrible things to each other and it all takes place in places you wouldn't want to see. For example Paul Rudd's character doesn't just rip his pants, he rips his under ware so we see his anus, not once but twice (in the press notes the director said he made the film so he could do a film where the punch line was showing a puckered anus). I disconnected the first time and never really reconnected not that I ever was connected.People are grotesque forms of people. Everyone is freakish. And in the background they take great pains to show dogs that shit and people that vomit.

The one thing that people will be talking about is DVD called V-X. A compilation of every violent act in movies. Its supposed to be no filler just nastiness. The boys watch it hoping it will turn them into murderers. We see part of the disc and its a minute or so of really graphic violence set to J-Pop. Its deeply disturbing. I know some of the stuff in the sequence comes from real films and other bits I'm not sure. Its a sequence that provoked a reaction in the critics screening which was for the most part rather silent.

And I could forgive pretty much everything wrong with the film if it was funny, but it's not . After the film a whole bunch of us headed to the subway and the one thing everyone noticed was the largely lack of laughter. Yes some jokes hit, but mostly every one sat stone faced.

Odd moment aside this is a not very good film and one of the least films at Tribeca. I suspect that this film will be showing up somewhere but I suggest you avoid it unless you are drunk, stoned or a sociopath.