The Greasy Strangler (2016)

Director: Jim Hosking

Writers: Toby Harvard, Jim Hosking

Composer: Andrew Hung

Starring: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo, Gil Gex, Abdoulaye NGom, Holland MacFallister, Sam Dissanayake, Joe David Walters, John Yuan, Matt Yuan, Mel Kohl, Sal Koussa, Jesse Keen, Carl Solomon, Dana Haas, Darrell Keith Harris

More info: IMDb

Plot: Ronnie runs a Disco walking tour with his son, Brayden. When a sexy woman takes the tour, it begins a competition between father and son for her love. It also signals the arrival of an oily strangler who stalks the streets at night.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

When I saw the trailer over a year ago I knew instantly this was something I just had to see.  Now that I've seen it I'm struggling with words to describe it.  Watch the trailer.  The movie is outrageous and the trailer perfectly captures that but it's also painful to get through.  It was clear from the first few minutes that the filmmakers were greatly inspired by NAOPLEON DYNAMITE (2004) from the characters to the look and the music but these guys make it filthier and greasier.  Some of the jokes go painfully too long.  Sometimes I laughed because it was genuinely funny and other times because it was just so absurd and ridiculous that it was a gut reaction.  Despite the negativity, the acting was great.  Really.  My favorite performance is Mel Kohl's as the hot dog vendor.  His line deliveries were hilarious.  It's a small role but boy was he funny.  Sadly, he died of a heart attack almost a year ago at the age of 67.  I think if you like NAPOLEON DYNAMITE then you stand a chance of possibly liking this.  I'm disappointed but in some strange way I'm glad I saw it.  I'm glad I waited  a day to write about this because these words would've been a lot harsher if I'd started right after seeing it.  The Filmrise DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen.  There were no extras except for maybe the trailer.  I was hoping for a commentary or something to explain how this oddity came about.