Review: An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, the second directorial feature from Jim Hosking, is a curious thing. Its mishmash of genres filtered through the an absurdist lens shouldn't work and yet, despite its torrent of quirk, it remains compulsively watchable.
Initially, it plays like David Lynch's variation of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza) is a woman stuck in a small town. She's bored with her life and definitely bored with her husband Shane (Emile Hirsch), a diner manager so irked that his brother-in-law Adjay (Sam Dissanayake) might have more money in his literal cashbox that he does in his non-existent one that he enlists his two dimwitted employees Carl (Sky Elobar) and Tyrone (Zachary Cherry) to help him steal the cash. Like many moments in the film, it's highly ridiculous: Adjay recognises the barely disguised Shane who, though toting a gun and the cashbox, denies that he's robbing Adjay.
The robbery is one of a series of peculiar events that stirs Lulu from the sleepwalk that is her life. There's the reappearance of the titular character, played by Craig Robinson, in town for one magical night only, who happens to be Lulu's first love whom she thought long dead and for whom she still harbours intense love. Then there's Colin (Jemaine Clement), a hitman Adjay employs to recover the money, but who ends up running off with Lulu when she takes his gun and the cash. The two end up sharing a room at the motel where Beverly is staying with his platonic life partner, Rodney von Donkensteiger (Matt Berry). From thereon in, the film turns into a roundelay of unrequited love. Colin longs for Lulu, who years for Beverly, who loves Rodney less than Rodney loves him.
At times, Hosking piles on too much of the bizarre. Scenes play out a little longer than they ought to, but even these moments yield chuckles if not outright laughter. What holds it all together is Hosking's obvious command and love of absurdist comedy and the work of the leading quartet of Robinson, Clement, Berry, and especially the splendid Plaza, all of whom underline the proceedings with a depth of melancholy that truly, madly, deeply pierces.
An Evening with Beverly Luff Lin
Directed by: Jim Hosking
Written by: Jim Hosking, David Wike
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Jemaine Clement, Emile Hirsch, Craig Robinson, Matt Berry, Maria Bamford, Michael D. Cohen, Sam Dissanayake, Zachary Cherry, Sky Elobar
