I’ve previewed three films coming to IndieFest. Here’s what I thought about them.
B+ The Drummond Will, Roxie, Friday, February 4, 7:00; Sunday, February 6, 2:30;
Monday, February 7, 7:00. No one can make murder funny like the British. In this low-budget comedy, two very different brothers inherent a ramshackle house from the father neither of them cared for (they don’t much like each other, either). The house contains a bag with a very large amount of money, and at least some of the townspeople know about it. The brothers want to keep everything secret, of course, and it’s not really their fault that the people who might stand in the way of their new found wealth keep dying under suspicious circumstances. Made on a low budget, The Drummond Will lacks the largish cast and familiar faces we associate with English comedy, but the fresh faces seem just as funny. Special kudos go to Mark Oosterveen as the more straight-laced brother (his voice and phrasing remind me of Simon Jones–the original Arthur Dent), and Jonathan Hansler as the local constable (think John Cleese at a normal height). In widescreen black and white.
B Worst in Show, Roxie, Wednesday, February 9, 9:15; Sunday, February 13, 2:30. There’s one thing you know going into a documentary about Petaluma’s Ugliest Dog 
Contest: You’re going to see an awful lot of adorably ugly dogs. (Believe it or not, even the one shown looks lovable when cuddling with his owner.) What’s surprising is how involved the human contestants become, and why. There’s a real shot at fame and modest fortune by having your dog win this contest, which is covered by media from all over the world. And there are controversies. Should dogs qualify who are ugly because disaster or disease have disfigured them–opening up charges of exploitation–or just those who come by it naturally. But even here, the Chinese Crested are arguably bred for ugliness. The festival web site lists Worst in Show as a 90-minute movie, but the review screener sent to me by the festival runs just under an hour.
D+ The Evangelist, Roxie, Sunday, February 6, 4:45; Wednesday, February 9, 7:00. Another great idea ruined by poor execution. Danny–lonely, gay, miserable, and an atheist of the Richard Dawkins variety–adopts Gideon, a 12-year-old 
boy who seems to have materialized on the beach with no backstory. But Gideon turns out to be a fanatical Christian of the most annoying variety. This could have been great with believable characters–or at least entertaining with funny ones. But Danny, as played by Theodore Bouloukos, is dull and borders on being a gay stereotype. And Gideon (Lucas Fox Philips) is simply annoying and arguably evil. There’s no attempt to make him a human being, but just a force of plot development. An interesting twist near the end, plus the way the film captured Provincetown, Massachusetts in widescreen black and white, brought the grade up from a straight D.
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