Moving (2002)

Posted on Sep 19, 2002 under "Hot", Comedy |

Directed by Jonathan Friedman
Written by Jonathan and Matthew Friedman
Starring
- L. Derek Leonidoff
- Terry Jernigan
- Michael Lemelle
- Katherine Poirier

I have to admit, sometimes when I put a screener tape in the VCR, I just cringe. Sure, there are plenty of buck-and-a-quarter auteurs out there who stay in the microbudget arena because they prefer the complete independence from beancounters and other industry-related headaches. But there are even more who are making their movie for $1000 because no one in their right mind would give them a real budget.

I cringed when I put Moving in. And I apologize. Because this is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen in my whole damned life.

“(Sniff.) G’bye, ol’ Paint…”

Ron (L. Derek Leonidoff) is a mid-thirties technical writer who dreams of being a novelist. In fact, he’s just come back from a publisher’s conference when his taxi drops him off in front of… an empty lot. His house has been stolen. Gone. Nada. Zilch. Nothing left but a live wire and a dirty toothbrush.

The police are naturally ineffective (he can’t even get to respond to his call until he finally lies and tells them a donut shop is being robbed). The insurance company is even worse — it seems that someone has already filed a claim on his house and received the check for $136,000, which has bankrupted the agency (naturally, I have to be pedantic and point out that agencies don’t pay claims, they just sell the policies and collect the commission — and any actual insurance carrier that gets crippled by a measly hundred-K claim was already bankrupt — but you don’t really want to hear about that, do you?). Suspected of insurance fraud and threatened with violence by some pretty surly insurance agents, Ron makes it out with their file, showing the P.O. Box to whom they mailed the check.

“Trust me, you’re in the competent hands of law enforcement.”

It’s the only clue he’s got — so he recruits his tabloid-writing friend John (Terry Jernigan) and together they try to find the way home, so to speak.

But no, the story’s not just going to coast on the surreal pseudo-roadtrip concept. Adventures along the way include:

- Combing flea markets for Ron’s goods, forming a breadcrumb trail to Atlantic City. Which wouldn’t be a problem except for paranoid militia types and squabbles over Tribbles.
- Frequent run-ins with a bearded spook (Bill Armstrong) who looks like ZZ Top after being recruited by the CIA, who gives Ron such enigmatic wisdom as “This is not about a house” and “The answer is in the air.” (Naturally, Ron is the only one who ever sees him — the spook always disappears by the time John turns around.)
- The loss of their steering wheel.
- The loss of the whole damned car.
- A run-in with Thelma & Louise wanna-bes which leaves them stranded in the middle of a cornfield in their boxers.

An FBR agent (Federal Bureau of Rabbis).

Yes, it sounds good, but we all know that comedy is the toughest beast to cage. After all, a failed comedy doesn’t even have the safety net of being “so bad it’s funny.” But I’m here to tell you that this movie is 100% funny, from the big picture premise down to itty bitty details and detours, like the mysterious something that lives in Ron’s neighbor’s overgrown lawn, or the hilarious theory of Jesus that conspiratorial John espouses (because hey, if missionaries the world over are working so hard to convince people that Jesus was killed, it should make you suspicious that he never really was, right?).

Then there’s the shotgun-toting redneck who’s actually a refined man named Pierre (Tim Morton), and his exceptional sniper son Jacques (Michael Lemelle), and the resistance movement of other people suffering from Ron’s fate, led by hardnosed fighter babe Devonah (Katherine Poirier), who unfortunately hasn’t gotten any further than “Somebody stole our homes.” And it all comes back to Leo DiCaprio — no, the other one (Justin Mykael). Despite the surreal-bordering-on-the-ridiculous plotline, it all manages to make complete sense in the end. More or less. (I’m not going to think about it too long, lest it all come crashing down.)

“The man behind me is named Ron, and he thinks there’s an insect in my ear.”

The script is incredible, but also kudos to the uniformly terrific performances. Leonidoff as Ron basically channels Matthew Perry throughout (you can’t tell that his deliveries of “Oh — my god!” and “Could this BE any worse?” aren’t knowing); in fact, Perry would probably love to have played himself here, given the projects he’s chosen recently. Jernigan as John is a refreshing combination of shallowness, paranoia, sexism, and slobbery — the perfect worst best friend.

And a special commendation on the music. The Friedman brothers reportedly took the modern indie approach of poring through MP3.com and such sites, and the soundtrack they’ve assembled would be a welcome addition to my shelf.

“Excuse me while I plug my WebUndies.com affiliate link.”

Can this be an unabashedly positive review? Well, I do have a single, solitary quibble: I wish this had been shot on film. Not that I’m an anti-video slob, but most shot-on-video productions are already limiting their audience by subject matter and content to a small, devoted audience already used to watching video features without prejudice. Moving, on the other hand, is a comedy that could easily be a sleeper direct-to-video success, and would deserve it; I hope that Joe Public wouldn’t turn up his nose at this for technical reasons. It would end up being Joe’s loss.