Travis DeSimone.
Corsair.
Every once in a while you see a movie so dark that it changes the way you perceive black comedies. A Film With Me In It did that for me. Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon and starring Mark Doherty as Mark, an actor out of work who is holding on to the last chance to save his relationship with his girlfriend Sally. Together they take care of Mark’s brother David who is an invalid, living out of a wheel chair and hardly showing any signs of cognition. Dylan Moran of Black Books plays Pierce, who lives in the same complex. He is Mark’s best friend and tries his hardest to keep their little community afloat, lending Mark rent money won from gambling on horses. Pierce is a writer but never seems to get much done because he is a drunk. All of these characters live beneath the land lord Jack who is kind of a jerk. With rent behind and the apartment needing considerable work, their situation seems a bit hopeless.
It may not seem to be the darkest story but at the twenty minute mark the situation becomes more dire. Sally leaves Mark. The bookcase falls and kills her dog after she leaves. Distraught by the recent turn of events Mark goes to play Clarinet for his brother David. Then Chandelier falls and kills David. Now we are getting black. As the body count rises Pierce comes along and tries to help Mark decide on what to do? Call the police? Cut up the bodies? As they panic and shamble around the flat they start pitching ideas on how to turn the twisted series of events into a a script.
A virile and witty performance. Sometimes it made me tear up, other times I was laughing. Dylan Moran plays his character well, echoing Bernard from Black Books and resonating his persona he carries in his stand up. It won the 28th International Istanbul Film Festival in Turkey Special Jury Prize.