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Weirdsville
As a rule, stoner comedies work best with the willing sacrifice of a few brain cells and Weirdsville is no exception. But it's funny enough to stand up to viewing stone cold sober if you're willing to cut it a little slack ' and forgive its trivializing of heroin addiction. Best buddies Royce (a hirsute and befuddled Wes Bentley) and Dexter (cynical Scott Speedman, from Underworld) are first seen breaking and entering into a country mansion, aided and abetted by a garden gnome. The movie then backs up a ways to explain what brought them to this desperate deed: namely an unhealthy debt to Weedsville's Mr Big; the reckless agreement to deal heroin for him; and the subsequent fatal overdose of Royce's girlfriend Matilda (Taryn Manning, Hustle And Flow). Discretion trumping valour, the buddies decide to bury her in the basement of the local drive-in. They are interrupted by a trio of Satanists, who also have a corpse on their hands and who inadvertently bring Matilda back from the dead. The bulk of the picture consists of Royce and Dexter fleeing the angry Satanists and trying to recover enough money to pay off their debt before daybreak.
Directed by Allan Moyle (Pump Up The Volume) and written by Willem Wennekers, Weirdsville generates plenty of amusing ideas even if they're slapped together a bit haphazardly. Greg Bryk and Maggie Castle play the devil-worshippers as if they're prissy young Conservatives. A midget security guard (Jordan Prentice) could have been a silly throwaway but turns into a hilarious running gag. The inventive directorial touches (including fast-mo replays and a music video style fantasy in which Dexter seems to be skating through mid-air down a deserted urban street) keep the whole thing up, even if some of the supporting actors seem to be trying too hard and the silliness always threatens to become irritating. Bentley and Speedman hold it together ' or rather, it's fun watching Royce and Dexter consistently fail to. Tom Charity 
More information about Weirdsville » Critics' Reviews
Imagine if the stoner character played by Steve Zahn from Soderberghs Out of Sight landed his own spin-off... read more on www.timeout.com Members' ReviewsReviews Voted Most HelpfulMost Recent Reviews |
David Jenkins, Time Out