Each from time to time a comedy creates its personal wacky universe.
Suppose “The Greasy Strangler” or “Napoleon Dynamite.”
The traditional guidelines don’t apply in these movies. Everybody within the solid is sticking to a brand new, absurdist playbook. “Audrey” is a kind of films.
The Aussie comedy is daring and black, a charcoal-hued story of a stage mom keen to do something to steer the highlight again to her.
Something.
What begins as a gloriously authentic romp shortly runs out of steam, falling again on wacky intercourse scenes and immoral twists to maintain us engaged.
Nothing doing.
Ronnie (Jackie van Beek) longs to reclaim her temporary performing profession, and she or he’s desperate to push her teen daughter into the biz on the identical time. That’s Audrey (Josephine Blazier), who isn’t as excited a few theatrical life as a lot as Mama.
Audrey desires to run off to Nepal together with her beau, however earlier than that may occur she falls off the roof of her residence and leads to a coma.
Don’t ask.
That received’t do, Ronnie mopes. My daughter has rehearsals developing! So she steps in and pretends to be Audrey at her native college.
In the meantime, Audrey’s father Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) does handyman work for a church dabbling in non secular pornography.
Don’t Ask, The Sequel.
Cormack falls for one of many church’s male leaders, a rabbit gap that makes little sense at first and will get extra complicated because the story trudges alongside.
“Audrey” grows darker and darker, and it’s clear the filmmakers aren’t positive what they need from their broad farce. Is that this the story of a middle-aged mother pretending to be her teen daughter (and all of the wacky excessive jinks that ensue)?
Sure and no.
Is that this a darkish story of a stage mother on steroids? Positive, however probably not.
Is it a portrait of marital malaise? Sure, however solely to showcase pointless intercourse scenes that aren’t humorous or participating.
We’re left with that coal-black tone, too few laughs and a story that retains pushing us away.
Defeated by Dashed Profession Goals, Jackie Van Beek Takes on Daughter’s Id in ‘Audrey’ – SXSW Trailer Drop https://t.co/4FrNcAW2IS
— Selection (@Selection) March 7, 2024
Some laughs emerge however not sufficient to justify the wacky world constructing. The household’s different daughter, who has cerebral palsy, will get to expertise a flood of feelings that some bodily challenged actors aren’t allowed to discover.
That’s a plus, and actress Hannah Diviney quietly steals just a few scenes.
The movie’s soiled little secret is that life will get considerably higher with Audrey out of the image. It’s one other meaty conceit, however screenwriter Lou Sanz will get distracted by different subplots.
Smaller scenes rating larger, like Ronnie’s performing lessons underneath the tutelage of a trainer who appears as crazed in her personal method as her ‘star’ pupil.
Van Beek is dialed in because the star-hungry Ronnie, and her arc might have gone in any variety of hysterical methods. As a substitute, she finds herself combating for her marriage in shockingly typical vogue.
A 3rd-act play stops the movie’s crazed momentum chilly, or no matter is left of it. Oh, what might need been with the maddening “Audrey.”
HiT or Miss: “Audrey” is so promising that the movie’s eventual implosion is all of the extra painful.
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