An early candidate for the best pulp crime hair-raiser released in 2014. At the very least, it’s a shoe-in for the finest finger-chopping blood-gusher comedy of the year. Director E.L. Katz’s goal here is simple: He wants to make you laugh at subject matter that’s downright depressing. Most good comedy has a little bit of tragedy mixed into it. It’s the essential bitter in the cocktail and this movie doesn’t shy away from the frightening hole in which its lead character (dumpy and bespectacled Pat Healy) finds himself after he’s laid off from his oil-changing job. He’s also got an unemployed wife, a newborn baby and an eviction notice. Life couldn’t suck worse if he got his balls caught in a hydraulic press. Things lighten slightly, but not enough, when he meets an old friend at a bar. Then things get WEIRD when they both meet a wealthy couple with perverse interests and crazy cash to throw around. The rich fat cat (a memorably sinister David Koechner) starts off by cheerfully offering money to the first one of our old pals to finish off a shot. From there, he leads them through a series of dares, for hundreds of dollars, that start off playfully risky and that eventually turn dark as the 2 AM night.
It’s a film about money and how it changes everything. Cash can make friends pummel each other when they’re in need. It can also buy you nearly any kind of fun you want, no matter how sick and ugly, if you have enough. Want to see a guy mutilate himself? Find a desperate character and offer him thousands to take the knife. Someone, somewhere, will do it.
This film is so funny, and sad at the same time, because we know it’s true.