‘An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn’ Review
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Emile Hirsch, Jermaine Clement, Craig Robinson, Michael D. Cohen, Matt Berry, Maria Bamford, Zach Cherry| Written by Jim Hosking, David Wike | Directed by Jim Hosking
When director Jim Hosking came out with his film The Greasy Strangler in 2016, I was intrigued by the Bad Boy Bubby feel that the trailer showed me, and the odd-ball obscurity of the tone. I didn’t end up liking the film, though. It annoyed me too often for me to enjoy it and I felt like it went the “let’s make a bad movie so people make a fuss about it” route. So, scroll forward to last year, 2018, and the release of Hosking’s An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, written by both Hosking himself and David Wike (Out There). It wasn’t on my radar. It wasn’t a movie I can honestly say I had much interest in, though the cast did intrigue me. I like Aubrey Plaza and Emile Hirsch and know many of the other cast members. It took me a few months to get around to actually watching it.
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn follows Lulu (Plaza) who walks out on her husband, the cocksure and arrogant Shane Danger (Hirsch), and along with a stranger she’s just met, Colin (played by Jermaine Clement), she goes to a nearby hotel that is advertising the event “An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn; For One Magical Night Only”. Beverly Luff Linn (Craig Robinson) is a mysterious groaning man who seems to have history with Lulu, and the tale unfolds from there.
It’s a basic plot that doesn’t really go much further than that paragraph above. We wander around with these characters, and other smaller side-characters, as the back-story between Lulu and Luff Linn unfolds. I didn’t have as much of an issue with this movie as I did with The Greasy Strangler. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love cult films, I love weird cinema and bizarro movies and fiction. It’s not like the whole tone and style is foreign to me, I just didn’t think it was done well. This film has a similar feel to Strangler, and really, that’s where my problem lies. There is a certain element here of “let’s make a bad movie so it becomes a cult hit” going on. The over-acting and dated grimy visual style works with what Hosking wants to accomplish, but it sadly feels very forced.
There isn’t much story going on, but rather a series of weird moments as we see the characters awkwardly interact with each other. That’s the point of An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn. It isn’t supposed to be normal, and it really isn’t normal, not at all, but it isn’t as bizarre as it wants to be either. I applaud anyone who wants to make something fresh and odd, and there were some parts here that made me laugh. Still… I sadly have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to the forced-absurdity. There will be fans of the film that consider it a work of art or a complete blast to watch but for me, personally, I thought it was just okay.
Movies, like any art, though, are subjective most of the time. So just because I didn’t like it, doesn’t mean you won’t. Hell, you might absolutely love it and all it’s weirdness. To each their own!
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is available now on Netflix.
