lucky enough to catch this weird little gem at VIFF (vancouver fest). low budget and surreal, with humor that you'll either get, or won't. Nothing here is too obvious or direct. I actually thought a lot of the jokes the main character tells are pretty damn funny. The lead character Trevor is a lot like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, too. Great performance.

The director obviously doesn't like the "mtv" style of editing or using flashy camera tricks. Its all very "real" feeling and mundane. There's no romance of big sad or dramatic moments. I don't even remember hearing a traditional score. Just some really cool punk, metal, and hip hop songs that the lead character hears. It's like we're directly inside his head. Very cool choice and something I don't remember seeing before.

Hopefully it will come out in the US soon, or at least back to Canada!

Plot: Life is tough for the struggling stand-up comedian Trevor. He can't seem to muster up a single laugh in the audience, and off the stage he's just an awkward, lonely and extremely poor pyromaniac. His days are spent drinking slushies, lighting random things on fire and practicing jokes in front of the mirror. He is beginning to lose grip of his own mind.

Our thoughts: When I saw the trailer for "Ape" I wasn't sure if I would like it, but there was something that seemed a bit off, a bit different, that made me interested. As far as I knew, it could've been a pseudo-documentary as much as an art-house/indie comedy - but when I heard the lead in the trailer, while on stage, saying he'd hit the next heckler in the audience, I knew I wanted to give it a shot. I hate hecklers, and I love "Falling Down"... Good enough of a reason, right?

"Ape" tells the story of Trevor, a young, skinny, poor and lonely stand- up comic. His life is really just going in circles around his broken dreams - he knows he's not gonna succeed as a comic, but it's all he has. When he's not failing on stage, he's failing at other things. The only thing that really gets him excited is setting things on fire. Not houses or anything, but smaller and innocent things: such as using spray cans as flamethrowers. I think we can all relate to that. Things are hard for Trevor, there is no doubt about it, and his mind is starting to go a little awry as he one day sells an old joke to the Devil, and in return he gets an apple. Trevor has a joke on stage that is based on Adam, Eve, the snake and the apple that ends with him saying he would never make a deal with the Devil. Not a successful joke, of course, but one that will come to be very important in his life. Now that he has the apple, he has to decide whether or not to eat it - clearly it's a magical apple.

Perhaps this sound extremely ridiculous. And maybe it is a bit silly. But "Ape" works because it plays it so casually, and it never makes huge turns. He doesn't meet the Devil in a vision or in hell, but the Devil is a guy dressed in a costume and he is standing by a fruit stand selling salad (don't ask). So even here, and in upcoming turns that are quite odd, it still remains pretty damn realistic. It's obvious that Joel Potrykus has been careful with his script, and he is just as careful with his directing. This is a slow movie that doesn't do much, but instead it portrays such a great picture of the life of a struggling comedian. It has all the awkwardness of a failed joke, it has the repetition of trying to better the jokes, and it has the loser who tries and tries and tires. It also has the competition, another loser - but one who doesn't realize he sucks.

I think what Joel Potrykus has done here is excellent. From the really bleak drama and stale comedy, to the subtle approach to the surreal subject that slowly grows within the movie, it's just spot-on and never misses a chord of emotion. But nothing would have worked without Joshua Burge in the lead. He's the perfect personality for this role. One look at him and you "get" the character. You're ready to walk through all of this hell with him.

I really loved "Ape". It's straight up my alley, working with comedy through drama, and adding some mind bending ideas towards the end. It's always a movie about our character and never about aesthetics or getting laughs, and I think that's great. There are no big slapping-the-knee laughs, but the entire movie is just so much fun in all its sadness. I know it's early still, as I am writing this in late February, but so far this is the only movie I have watched so far that I consider for my 2013 list. Time will tell how that turns out, but this is a great little movie that I can't wait to own. "Ape" is quirky, weird, sad, funny, intense, charming and then some!

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Ape proves that cinema can capture the audience without unnecessary and distracting cuts, crane shots, or love interests. Burge's performance along with Potrykus' direction allows the audience to take in Trevor Newandyke with slight frustration, but still remain attached with a certain amount of likability to the character. Trevor, who seems to be full of frustration, just the same, seems to listen to music consistently reinforcing the frustration. Potrykus gives breaks of this anger with bits of comedy and fire. Ape has many twists and turns, and pushes the boundaries of its viewers with long shots and awkward scenes. Nonetheless, it seems to hold my attention throughout and leaves me wanting more for from this wonderful duo. Please note, the film may not be for you if you think good cinema equals ridiculous cuts, million dollar budgets, or plots that don't make you use your brain. Ape seems to have multiple levels and perhaps meanings that many may miss if not willing to let go of modern-day blockbuster expectations.

I saw this film at the Copenhagen Film Festival (CPH PIX), where the director, Joel Potrykus was also present, and he shared a handful of interesting facts about the film afterwards, among them being that the budget for the film was only around 2000 bucks, mostly going to catering the crew and transportation, so with that in mind, the end-result is actually quite impressing.

But, despite of this, the film has to be reviewed as a "real" feature-film, and not just some friends making a school-project, and in that regard, it falls completely flat in almost every way. The leading actor, Joshua Burge, playing the unfunny stand-up comedian Trevor Newandyke, is sympathetic enough, but generally just comes through as a lazy slacker bum, who doesn't want a real job, and would rather just hustle his way through life.. or "wing it", rather. All the other characters in the film are either just random bystanders, or similar goal-less slacker-types, like his colleague Dennis Spicer (Gary Bosek), who also deliver quite a few unfunny jokes throughout the movie.

For some reason, the director chose to throw in a few random scenes with a guy in a monkey-suit harassing Trevor, and a guy in a devil-suit doing the same, and quite a few scenes with Trevor using a spray-can as a flamethrower or throwing a poorman's Molotov-cocktail on the ground... again, for no reason whatsoever.

If you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time, and you love watching amateurish, "unfunny" unfunny movies with no real plot or character-development at all, this movie is perfect for you. For everybody else, it's not.

P.S: The director also mentioned, that all the jokes Trevor tells in the film, are actually his own bad jokes, from when he himself was a stand-up comedian, so you can't even tell him to "stick to his day-job" either, as the jokes really stunk.... hard.