SF IndieFest: The Dry Spell

The film starts with a voice-over monologue, the chances of which happening in an independant film are fairly high. Josey (Slamdance-award winner Chip Godwin), a slight, goofy-looking young schlub, confesses to us that he's been unlucky in love. He narrates us through a montage of his romantic failures, all of which are inspired-genius-funny: awkward failed attempts to pick up hot mourners in a cemetary; trying to learn woman-wooing skills by reading "Ballroom Dancing for Retards;" being so nervous upon speaking to a sexy foreign lady that he can only bark like a seal; administering the date-rape drug to himself to calm his nerves on a date, and then immediately losing consciousness. Poor Josey - every stab he takes at love is a failure. Who among us can't relate? It's funny because it's true. "We're in love, Goddammit," Josey wails on behalf of romantic failures everywhere, "let us come!"

As the movie goes on, we're treated to fast-cut scenes from his childhood, from past relationships, and even his fantasy life: at one particularly awesome point, Josey expresses a wish to roll around on a beach with a beautiful woman, singing foreign love ballads, and poof -- we get a 10-second shot of him and a woman on a beach, passionately lip-syncing foreign love ballads to each other. This movie's captured the same ADHD-ish, amphetamine-giddy sensibility that infuses "The Family Guy" and "Arrested Development": any time anyone mentions something weird, no matter how obscure it is, we're going to get an outlandish cutaway about it, plus insightful narration.

So, to say that the movie is laden with gags is putting it mildly. It's probably about 90% gags -- and unfortunately, it's only about 10% story. Plot? Character? Theme? No time for those, we've got a hilarious dream sequence to get through! "The Dry Spell" is crammed full of awesome jokes, but it's at the expense of Much Happening. The effect is sort of like watching a highlight reel of another movie, or the recap at the beginning of the second half of a cliffhanger. "Last week, on 'The Dry Spell,' Josey tried to bolster his confidence by posing nude for an art class, but was openly mocked by the class for having shaved his pubes." It's a funny idea, sure, but the onslaught of barely-related funny ideas, coupled with an often-redundant voiceover, has sort of a numbing effect. We enjoyed the 30-second art-class bit; we might have enjoyed it even more as a whole scene. As it is, "The Dry Spell" feels sort of like flipping through channels. And it's tough to get emotionally invested in flipping channels.

Two hundred schooting locations; over 450 scenes; a cast of 120; a shooting script of 300 pages; a year and a half of post. Yikes. The amount of work that went into it is clear - the comic timing is excellent, the technical proficiency is high for a shoestring-budget movie, and the actors all seem genuinely delighted with their parts. Writing-directing-producing team John and Drew Dowdle are one hundred percent Yes. We suspect that theirs will soon be the names to drop when you want to show off how you're SO on top of indie film right now, and not just because they're hardworking and talented. They've hit upon a style that makes Romantic Comedy feel new and edgy, which is basically like discovering the means to make gold out of regurgitated hamburger. We were just lamenting how stagnant and self-important indie film has felt for the past 7 or 8 years; The Brothers Dowdle give us a glimmer of hope that indie film is about to get seriously fun again.