Kevin Chenault | 2016 | ★★★
Kevin Chenault's fourth film, after two promising features and a sublime short, proves entertaining if not quite up to the standards set by his previous work. Its intriguing and ambitious if not entirely elegant mix of nonsensical plotting, absurdist humour, relaxed pacing, and somewhat experimental visuals is often great fun, though, with Chenault, himself, doing well in the lead role, as a young man with a potentially fatal brain tumour who takes to a diet of beer, cough syrup, and roll-ups after his diagnosis. The supporting cast, however, doesn't always prove quite so convincing, as his life – replete with murder, mystery, familial prodding, and an ever increasing threat of violence – becomes increasingly nightmarish. Likewise, or perhaps consequently, the dialogue is also possibly a little on the awkward side. That said, this is the first of his films to feature laugh-out-loud humour, and it's often genuinely very funny. Plus the film's technical aspects, particularly its photography and sound design, are as top notch as ever.
