Tyler Cornack and Ryan Koch’s recent sci-fi comedy Butt Boy made waves on the festival run for its bizarre sense of humor and plot. Cornack played a protagonist with an affinity for putting objects and people up his, well, you know. So, it’s no surprise that the follow-up, Tiny Cinema, would continue that same thread of absurdity. This time, Cornack and Koch teamed up with Butt Boy cinematographer William Morean to pen an anthology that connects six stories of peculiar comedy, each increasingly weirder than the last.
A mysterious fourth wall-breaking stranger (Paul Ford) serves as the guide, introducing the six segments while promising a subversion of expectations. With a wry wink, the stranger acknowledges that he’s likely not the host you expected. It’s a tone-setting bit that indicates an increasingly unpredictable jaunt through manic stories that occasionally brush with horror but always hovers within the range of unhinged comedy that requires its audience to get on its wavelength.
The first segment, “Game Night,” sees the slow unraveling of a suburban husband (Austin Lewis) when he fails to grasp the joke “that’s what she said.” Confusion devolves into anger, becoming unbridled paranoia as the elusive meaning drives him past the brink of madness. It’s as eccentric and silly as it sounds.
The following story, “Edna,” offers the strongest of the bunch. The eponymous character (Olivia Herman) finds a man’s body (Matt Rubano) amidst a pile of trash. She’s so desperate for love that she brings the corpse home to serve as a stand-in boyfriend. Her eventual attempt to resurrect the corpse brings the realization that perhaps her boyfriend might be better off dead. Or rather, far less annoying.
Director Cornack and co-writer Koch go for broke from here with the low-brow humor. Subsequent segments range from friends trying to emulate robberies so their buddy can get a boner to the possibility of a man tasked with potentially having sex with his future self for the fate of the world. It’s not conventional horror the filmmakers are interested in exploring here but cringe humor meant to make you laugh or deeply uncomfortable. Mostly, it’s the latter.
Tiny Cinema succeeds in its quest for unpredictability. It’s so outlandish that there’s no guessing what’s to come. But it operates entirely on a heightened, exaggerated sense of reality. A man becoming psychotic for the inability to register a throwaway joke or the extreme lengths friends will go to for the sake of their pal’s arousal are the type of awkward cringe tales for a more niche audience. The segments are concise, but each is centered solely around a specific gag. It means there’s not much else to grab onto if you’re not into the short’s punchline.
Cornack, Koch, and Morean seem to be having a great time pushing the boundaries of taste and catapulting audiences on one of the most peculiar anthology journeys. But the real question is whether the audience will find themselves as amused. Tiny Cinema rarely succeeds in inducing laughs but nails social discomfort.
Tiny Cinema made its world premiere at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival and will release on VOD on September 2, 2022.
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