Not a bad idea for a Hollywood satire here – and there’s a cameo for renowned character turn Fred Melamed, whose appearance does however have the effect of exposing how callow everyone else is on screen. Much as I wanted to like this lo-fi production, which cheekily intersperses its modestly budgeted scenes with stock footage establishing shots of the city skyline, the movie kept slipping gears and – scene-by-scene – felt awkward and uncertainly performed, along with some audio issues on the soundtrack.
The setting is Los Angeles, and Dev (Matthew Sato) is a young wannabe screenwriter humiliatingly fired from his job as an executive’s assistant for hawking his script to his employer’s competitors, and his need to break into the biz becomes increasingly desperate. To the dismay of his longsuffering girlfriend Monica (Olivia Rouyre), Dev tries one last roll of the dice: he befriends Trip (Will Sennett), the rich screwup son of film producer Scott Lefkowitz (Melamed) – a big-hitter who is known for his ability to greenlight projects with a single phone call.
Trip is a notorious trust-fund idiot and nepo idiot with hipster ambitions to be a visionary poet but zero talent and a disturbing temper. He is thrilled with his new best friend Dev, and subjects him to endless drug-fuelled rants and monologues. For his part, cynical Dev puts up with it because he thinks that his entry into the enchanted garden of Tinseltown success could depend on sycophantically cultivating the odious Trip while trying to steer the conversation around to his script and Trip’s powerful dad. The movie meanders its way to a silly and half-hearted kind of horror-thriller finale. An amusing premise without substance.
• Don’t Trip is on Tubi from 7 November.
