Tom Shkolnik's 'The Comedian' is acutely an observed, well-acted but ultimately pointless film. A young man, hoping to make his way as a comic but otherwise without much purpose in life, drifts selfishly between relationships. Others are initially attracted to him but grow disenchanted by his inability to stake anything of his own on their interaction. This in turn upsets him, but it's unclear what he actually gets out of his own involvement beyond gratification to his own ego. There's a kind of tragedy here - the sense that this is not a bad person, per se, just someone who has no idea of how to be a good one - but there's no drama, just painful observation. Without anything to lose, the protagonist just isn't interesting for the viewer - indeed, he doesn't even appear to be very interesting to himself.
Review of The Comedian
