Kabluey (2007)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Kabluey has moments of whimsical fun. It's a bit slow, but you can't help but smile at the ridiculous characters, the strange situations and the sentimental moments. It almost plays out like a darker version of Napoleon Dynamite. Kabluey a likeable movie; it's just not a great movie.

If you ever find yourself at a retail video store by the likes of Blockbuster or Movie Gallery (if you're lucky enough to find one that's still open), the choices of movies you'll find are overwhelming and daunting. It's not that these stores don't have good movies, but 70-80% of the movies they do have you probably haven't seen because you've never seen them in theaters. Reading the description on the back doesn't seem like a good enough choice to rent the film, because the two hours you spend watching them may be wasted if the film is really bad. There are no credible reviews to guide you, and even if the film has a familiar face or two, that's not even a guarantee that the film will be good or memorable. The problem is not that there are a couple of these films, but movie stores nowadays have packed their shelves with so many of them that it's harder than ever to choose."Kabluey" is one of those films that gets lost in the video store shuffle of all the crappy films. It's unfortunate too, because "Kabluey" is an incredibly original film. It's quirky throughout, laugh out loud funny at times, and has the deadpan sensibility of indie film gems like "Rushmore" and "Napoleon Dynamite".The movie starts out by introducing Leslie (Lisa Kudrow), an Army wife whose husband is stationed in Iraq. He's not dead, but his absence still hasn't been easy with their two hyperactive, uncontrollable sons and no one to watch them without bills being sacrificed. Leslie then learns about her husband's 32-year-old brother Salman (pronounced how it's spelled), who doesn't have a job or a home for that matter.Salman, played by writer and director Scott Prendergast, is the 21st century version of a vagrant. He is a well meaning but inept guy with no skills or education of any kind, thereby differing in Biblical ways to his brother. He has nowhere to go and no money to get there, but he isn't exactly the homeless guy you see sleeping on the sidewalk. Salman arranges with Leslie to watch the kids while she works to pay off the children's Medicare and other expenses. Salman in turn would stay at her house and work until he is back on his feet.The premise so far sounds like a family comedy, but it's far more original than that. The story gets weirder, and therefore more unique, when Salman gets a thankless job handing out fliers in the middle of a barren street with few pedestrians. To make matters worse, he's in a heavy costume with limited visibility and not even the convenience of fingers to easily hand out fliers with.His costume is of Kabluey, a web icon belonging to a failed Internet company called BluLeXicon. Kabluey looks like the yellow AOL man, and has a hanging head to match his blue complexion. There's no shortages of ways it becomes difficult to wear that costume, although Salman tries harder than I would to pass out and organize the fliers. It's also funny when he discovers that the only way to use the bathroom is through the zipper in the butt area of the costume, resulting in his having to temporarily wear the costume backwards.There are many interesting subplots in this film, and they all come together very well to reveal a lot about the characters. The story is strange, but nothing seems sugar-coated about Kudrow's army wife situation. Kudrow plays someone who is understandably distressed, and looks it throughout the movie. She can't control her kids, and she has virtually no friends around to help her. Her situation is entirely understandable, and she's one of the best things about this movie.When I saw Prendergast, I couldn't help but think of Ben Stiller. It's not only because Christine Taylor, Stiller's wife and occasional co-star, is featured in this movie. Stiller seems the be the go-to guy when it comes to playing an incompetent slacker who won't grow up. Prendergast here, however, doesn't come off as a rip-off of Stiller at all. He has an originality to him that eradicates the Stiller comparisons successfully, and his character is as odd and appealing as this entire movie.There's no doubt that this film is odd, but it is very much a rhapsody of intangible qualities that made last decade unique. In this case, the bust of the Internet bubble (signified by the Kabluey costume), and the War in Iraq. These things have made last decade (and this decade so far) notorious, but have not been incorporated into any film I've seen so far, or at least not as seamlessly as this film has done. For a deadpan comedy to have those subjects serve as a backdrop could not have been easy, but somehow the film succeeds.The film has many inconsistencies and unexplained occurrences, with Teri Garr's recurring appearances being one of them. However, this film is the good kind of odd that could make it a cult classic soon. I'm sure people will find this movie after digging through the unimaginative, run-of-the-mill, Hollywood casualties that may be to blame for Blockbuster's demise, and they won't be disappointed.

Salman (Scott Prendergast) is a 30-something year old loser. He has no real job, no home, and no life. He goes to live with his brother's wife, Leslie (Lisa Kudrow) while his brother serves in Iraq. He gets a job at an Internet company where he dons a huge blue suit and stands on the side of the street handing out flyers.It's a hilarious scenario as his life couldn't sink any lower, and its hilarious to watch. But there's also a hint of the dramatic, as we see the lives in the film suffering turmoil and depression. It's a perfect blend of comedy and drama.An excellent film that mixes comedy and drama effortlessly that will have you laughing one minute and completely sad the next. You feel for the characters and you want a happy outcome for everyone.

We have a question.....can you fly? Quirk. Outside of surrealism, there is no style of film that is more difficult to successfully pull off, and yet, so consistently greenlit and, most disturbingly, profitable, than the dreaded Quirkly Indie Comedy. Divorced from reality and big-studio pressure, half-wit hacks are free to pack their piffle with desperate actors clamoring for respect, ironic one-liners so overthought they don't consciously exist in our world, and hapless one-dimensional characters being mugged by their actors, dropped into 'wacky' situations and tasked as either Creator of Chaos or Straight Man for Double Takes and Eyebrown-Raising. This is the tough crowd into which Scott Prendergast presents Kabluey!.Norminally, the story involves a man named Salman (as I said, Quirky Indie Comedy, nobody is named Ellen or Abbie or Scott, they're named Juno and Olive and Salman, played by our writer/director, Prendergast), inept and fired from every job he has (most recently as a laminator who got fired for...overlaminating), who is contacted by his sister-in-law (Lisa Kudrow) after her husband's stop-loss National Guard duty in Iraq is extended and she risks losing her health insurance unless she can get a job. He is stuck in the role of caregiver for her two children, who are, predictably, hellions, and he, predictably, is in over his head. In fact, so much of this opening act is overly familiar that my first draft of this review, a review that shifts and fluctuates as a film marches on, had to be completely scrapped as its pleasures unfolded to me.The statement the film is making is far from new, a lot of croaking about faceless conglomerates taking advantage of the working man, but the way in which it's presented is undeniably unique. The reason for this is that I don't think social criticism was the foundation on which Kabluey! was to be built. Instead, I think the film, like many comedies, began its framework with an image in mind, a striking, or amusing, or emotional, or preposterous image. For Prendergast, that image is a man in a giant-headed, faceless, handless blue costume, handing out flyers on a desolate country road. Prendergast seems to share my glorious amusement pertaining to people in ostentatious outfits, their faces either stationarily affixed or wholly in absentia, and it would seem to me that he found this pathetic plush with the dirigible head amusing and decided to attempt to build a film out of it. It's a compliment to his imagination that he managed to turn this image into such an affecting little piece of work.The main idea presented here is of the weak-willed, the faceless, the socially inept, the poor, the put-upon being helplessly dominated by the uncaring, quixotic and powerful automatons. Be it the army, who pulled her husband back to Iraq, the rich women who all hate each other and relish the opportunity to put each other down once they relinquish earshot, and view the poor as non-people (despite being in his ridiculous, lugubrious costume, he goes completely unnoticed while eavesdropping on their conversations), the nonsensical business whose mascot he inhabits (his superior is the harried and hilarious Conchata Ferrell, who he meets after being informed there were no jobs, and who promptly gets into a shouting match with another man in a messy, empty room), or the leader of that company, who carries on an illicit affair with the desperate and lonely Kudrow. But there also remains another, less pronounced but equally important oppression, that of Salman by his brother. The film takes care to emphasize that in all of the family pictures Salman observes, the entire family is frowning, and once his brother finally returns, we are privvy to a quick shot of awkward brotherly strife hanging on the wall. Prendergast takes great pains to shoot him only in shadow, a spectre hanging over the proceedings, and there is a moment of subtle but spectacular sadness hanging over the shot immediately following this: The children, having finally warmed up to Salman, reluctantly approach their father, and looking back for that support that they had come to rely on Salman for, find the seat he previously occupied empty.Perhaps this is signifying that one should savor the small victories in life, because very rarely is the Little Guy able to rise up against The Man, on any level of Man-ness. Most tellingly, upon his brother's return, he immediately departs without a second thought. In addition, the film has a number of small vignettes, hardly-developed characters that appear in small moments throughout its runtime, be it Teri Garr, a passing motorist continually expressing her frustration at the iconography of the mascot's company, who put her out of business, wayward grocery store clerk Ramona, or the passengers of the bus Salman takes to work, taking a stand, or doing something small but meaningful to someone to which it would mean the world.I gotta say, this film has thoroughly exceeded my expectations (read the introduction paragraph in case you need reminding). An emotionally-engaging, frequently amusing (of both the subtly verbal and up-front Ace Ventura varieties), making an incisive, intelligent and worthwhile statement, all while being simply, quietly entertaining with breezy brevity. Score one for the f-cking little guy. Not bad for a movie about a dude in a funny costume, eh? {Grade: 8.5/10 (B+) / #2 (of 74) of 2008}