There is a fine line between a movie being creatively quirky and one that's agonizingly annoying. "An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn," the latest offering from British director Jim Hosking ("The Greasy Strangler"), falls extremely on the side of being a pain to watch.
Hosking has taken an erratic approach to putting together a tale of passion built around disgruntled coffee shop worker Lulu Danger (played with an all-consuming angst by Aubrey Plaza). She leaves her husband to go on a road trip with a stranger, Colin (Jemaine Clement), when she sees that a man from her past, Beverly Luff Linn (Craig Robinson), is performing at a hotel for "one magical night only." The fact three men show interest in Lulu is enough to send the movie into an annoying spiral.
Beverly is a man of few words, literally. When he is not on stage, he speaks in grunts and moans translated by his manager, Rodney Von Donkensteiger (Matt Berry). Not only does Rodney take care of Beverly's every need, he seems to be harboring his own feelings about his client.
The one smart thing Hosking has done is cast actors who have made careers out of playing strange characters. It starts with Plaza, who takes on another role where her character exists in an uninviting space. Clement, who is best known for his work with "Flight of the Conchords," has also played characters who are a couple of orbits outside normal.
Robinson isn't given that much in the script by Hosking and David Wike other than the communications through minimal dialogue. He manages to get across a lot of what Beverly is feeling despite the word shortage, but this ends up being a waste.
It is a positive when a director tries to do something different. Theaters are filled with movies that have used the same blueprint, whether it be a comedy, drama or action film. Ignoring that kind of cookie cutter way of making films is worth praise, but the end result still has to be at least intriguing enough for the audience to commit their time.
That is not the case with "An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn."
There is an effort to be creatively quirky, but it is a fool's errand. In the end, "An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn" is the kind of production that would be best as a long-running midnight feature in Twin Peaks. It's got a plodding nature driven by mundane characters that will appeal to a very different audience.
