"The Journey"

16 May 2024

9 mins

Exquisite comedy.

It's going to be a bit awkward during AICP week in New York next month when they show this film to the assembled throng of eager hopefuls, and it dawns on them that nothing they've made can match it.

Every part of this virtuoso film by director David Shane is perfect... and we don't use that word lightly.

The script, which was written by Shane together with Ian Reichenthal and Michael Clancy, is a director's dream. It must be handy to be able to provide yourself with such brilliant material. There are so many moments which allow the director and his actors to flex their comedy skills, and, unsurprisingly, David Shane lands every single one. The process of ensuring he did justice to the script he co-created must have begun with the casting. Greg Hildreth in the lead could easily have been trapped in a straight man role, enabling the other actors to land laughs while he holds the film together. But this script is more ambitious than that, and has holding the thing together while also having plenty of comedy business to perform. Hildreth meets this demanding challenge with extraordinary aplomb, and does so witha performance that's extremely generous to the other actors.

Each of the other performances is a gorgeous comedy cameo which offers a counterbalance to Hildreth's without ever threatening to topple over. It's all about balance.

A word for editor Gavin Cutler. Great comedy is all about timing, and David Shane plainly has an editor fully in simpatico, and together they have created a perfect tempo for the comedy.

You don't really notice that this film is as long as nine minutes, because it passes so breezily and DAVID even found himself wishing it was a little longer, that there was another stage or two of this journey to which we could be privy. That's how good this is, and, frankly, that's going to be a major problem for anyone suffering from imposter syndrome in the AICP audience.

USA

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