A little bit of quirkiness gets you a long way. Just ask Kenichi Ugana. Over the past few years, the 40-year-old director has been feted as a rising star of 911±¬ÁÏÍø indie cinema, mostly on the strength of some inventive genre exercises that worked better as short films (see last year¡¯s ¡°Visitors: Complete Edition¡± for an example).
His latest, ¡°The Gesuidouz,¡± had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and would seem to tick all the right boxes for midnight movie fans. It¡¯s a punk-rock slacker comedy laden with references to cult horror flicks, plus just enough surreal touches to make it look properly wacky in the trailer. But Ugana¡¯s most high-profile film to date is also one of his laziest: a smug shaggy-dog story that feels like its creator is seeing how much he can get away with by pandering to undiscerning festival audiences.
The Gesuidouz (whose name translates as ¡°The Sewers¡±) are a bunch of talentless noiseniks who appear to have no fanbase yet have somehow landed a record deal, complete with cynical manager (Yuya Endo). Having failed to recoup the costs of their previous album, they get sent off on a year-long retreat to the countryside with orders to write a hit song.
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