by John Noonan
Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Patrick Noth, Jordan Rock, Emilia Wilson, Brandon Michael Hall, Bobby Moynihan, Chris Parnell, Maria Bamford, Kate Flannery, Matt McCoy
Intro:
… a highly enjoyable comedy that provides genuine belly laughs …
When crypto-banker Terry (Patrick Noth) finds out that his wife Erica (Emilia Wilson) is pregnant, he does what we’d all do: begin the nesting process, saving up the pennies and preparing to bring a new life into the world. Not really! He throws all his money into moving them from Iowa to LA, so that he can realise his dream of directing his own movie, a sci-fi drama about a meteor wiping out humankind.
Directed by Morgan Evans, who gave us the festively silly Merry Little Batman, Micro Budget is the documentary – the mockumentary, if you will – of Kevin putting together his magnum opus within the confines of an Airbnb.
We’ve become accustomed to the trope of the dope with the heart of gold trying to defeat the odds. We’re attuned to them shedding their pomposity to expose good-natured emotions underneath. David Brent wasn’t a bad person; he was a terrible manager. Spinal Tap continued to push out albums even though the odds were stacked against them. Hell, What We Do in the Shadows made you feel sorry for blood sucking murderers. So, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be another underdog story. Rest assured, then, that Morgan does not even attempt that here. Terry is utterly incompetent from head to toe and hilariously so.
When actor Phil (Jordan Rock) tries to connect the dots that Terry’s meteor movie is an allegory for his impending fatherhood, the director has no idea what he means. Terry becomes incredibly anxious when he discovers that films are not often filmed chronologically, stressing that his has to be so he doesn’t have so much work to do in the final edit. And when accused choosing his cast because they were people of colour, he responds that actually he hates being white and challenges them to think of at least one white director that’s still working today.
While Terry is our anti-hero, there’s enough jokes for the rest of the cast to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. Garry (Brandon Michael Hall), a trained actor regularly clashes with Phil, a self-trained actor, to the point of using his toothbrush as petty revenge. Meanwhile, VFX artist Rick (Bobby Moynihan) has been using his meagre budget to make alien porn on the downlow. Elsewhere, the likes of Chris Parnell, Maria Bamford, Kate Flannery (The Office) and Matt McCoy are on hand for amusing cameos.
What could have been a race against time to complete the picture, ala Kim Jee-Woon’s Cobwebs, with the occasional nod to the torment of realising your vision, Micro Budget seems to be taking aim at current filmmaking today. Terry feels like a metaphor for the processing plant of movies, where it’s better to churn out a legacy sequel or expand on an IP than strive to make something different. Terry’s intentions are laid out on the table when asked about wanting to make a movie in the first place. He cites recently discovering the first Paranormal Activity movie and the fact that it made ‘a bazillion dollars’. Terry doesn’t want prestige, he wants fame. When he’s called out for using Nazi crypto currency to fund the film, he immediately deflects responsibility. In short, he’s every complaint you’ve ever had about film production.
Yet, let’s not got caught in the weeds. At the end of the day, Micro Budget is a highly enjoyable comedy that provides genuine belly laughs about a topic that could easily be saccharine.
