FILM CHALLENGE: 158) It's Kind Of A Funny Story

158) It's Kind Of A Funny Story

Director: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: A clinically depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's last two movies, Half Nelson and Sugar, have both been very serious and mature efforts. However, with their third film-making collaboration the pair have decided to lighten the tone for this quirky and darkly comic independent comedy.

Set in a New York psychiatric ward we spend five days in the company of a confused and disillusioned teenage boy who admits himself there after a suicide attempt. Here, he tries to come to terms with the things that drove him to such a severe state of depression and restart his life with a new outlook with the help of some strange fellow patients.

The funnier, uplifting and light-hearted direction that they take here is certainly a welcome change for the film-makers after their previous work was so emotional and affecting. In fact, this new approach suits them very well and it's a surprise that they've never tried their hand at a comedy before. Boden and Fleck's writing is both full warmth and poignancy as well as provides some hilarious, laugh out loud moments even if it does slide into the cliched hipster conventions here and there.

Nevertheless, despite this diversion from their usual style, their ability to create a well-observed character study still remains. The main character, Craig, is a wonderful insight into the confusion and angst that every teenager suffers at some point in their lives. How he feels trapped under the weight of expectation and pressure, disillusioned by how the world of hope that he was once promised has been corrupted, and uncertain of what he really wants to do is like, depending on your age, looking back at or seeing a reflection of yourself on the big screen.

Furthermore, they still maintain their magic for getting fascinating performances from their actors and actresses. Ryan Gosling's acting in Half Nelson is one of the most underrated of the last decade and, similarly, the same kind of fate could easily bestow Zach Galifianakis here. Wholly deserving of an Oscar nod, his comic timing is brilliant in every scene and, when we see under the skin of his character, he provides a haunting look into a broken, hurt and lost human being.

Yet, unfortunately, many of the other characters are left two-dimensional. Unlike the similarly set film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, a stunning look at the people who reside in a mental hospital, It's Kind Of A Funny Story really only focuses on the two main characters. More of an insight into a character like Noelle is very much needed, for example, for it to have the full effect that Boden and Fleck are seemingly hoping to achieve.

And speaking of what they want to achieve, a huge flaw that It's Kind Of A Funny Story has is that it doesn't know who it's aiming for. At times, there is vomiting, sex jokes and quirky dream sequences that aim for the American Pie and Superbad audience. At other times, it feels even more infantile in some of the aspects of Craig's romance with Noelle. And on some occasions, it slips into a very mature category especially in the dramatic moments.

A flawed but fun coming of age story, It's Kind Of A Funny Story is an enjoyable step into new territory for Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and one that, while not being anything special, kept me smiling right the way through.

3/5

By Daniel Sarath with No comments