406. Landline; movie review

 

 

LANDLINE

Cert TBA

103 mins

BBFC advice: TBA

A micro-budget film about a gay advertising executive suffering a mental breakdown and drug addiction.

And this, apparently, is comedy.

Matthew Aaron's film has been hailed as groundbreaking on several fronts but mainly because it had the co-operation of the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise.

I can, therefore, understand why it might have been lauded in the Windy City. 

However, I found it dismally self-indulgent and not nearly as funny as its makers seem to think t is.

It stars Aaron as Ted Grout, the aforementioned full-of-himself advertising executive who is wrongly arrested for a store robbery.

At the station, he tells his hard-luck story to the detective who is given the unfortunate task of interviewing him.

It turns out that things all went wrong after he believed himself a shoo-in for the giant Chicago Cubs account and was incredulous when it is given to his nemesis (Chad Michael Singer).

In his pique, he quit and decided to create a new life which included giving up his mobile phone and installing landlines.

Instead of calming him down, this is a career wrecker and results in social suicide.

There has been a fair bit of lauding Aaron's film because of the way in which the Chicago Cubs have embraced an LGBT movie.

That's pretty much how it earns my three marks. Otherwise, all I could hear was demented screeching, reckless drug-taking and snide bullying.

Where were the funny bits?

Reasons to watch: Quirky

Reasons to avoid; Not nearly as funny as it wants to be

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 3/10

Did you know? In 2018, a United States government survey found that almost 55 per cent of households used cellphones exclusively, up from less than ten per cent in 2005. Another 36 per cent had both a mobile phone and a working landline. Just over five per cent of those surveyed said they relied entirely on a landline, compared with over a third of households in 2005. The remaining three per cent said they didn't have a phone.

The final word. Matthew Aaron: “It’s a gay baseball movie. That’s never been done before… it’s kind of quietly revolutionary. My joke is it’s Moonlight for fat, bald, gay people. [At least] you have to be one of the three to be in it.” EW.com

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