Sell Out! That’s the name of the first film to screen at this year’s NYAFF… and it’s a doozee. The film, which has been bottled up in distributor hell by its Malaysian owners, has finally been made available to US audience goers and the result is something of a hodgepodge of wacky cinema that will constantly surprise you.
I knew next to nothing about Sell Out!except that it was Malaysian and that is was supposedly funny. I didn’t know that is featured some of the most well written, play on words comedic dialogue that I’ve haven’t heard since films like Airplane!, The Pink Panther, and any of the Three Stooges or Marx Bros. stuff (well done writer/director Yeo Joon Han). If you ever enjoyed that kind of humor then you are bound to like Sell Out!
The film centers on two people, Rafflesia Pong (Jerrica Lai) and Eric (Mixed Martial Artist Peter Davis). Rafflesia is a television host of a low ratings show called For Arts Sake, a show about art which is aired by FONY TV. On the brink of losing her show, Rafflesia accidentally captures her former love interest dying on camera and the ratings on her show spike. She then decides to go to her bosses and convince them to let her launch a new show, one based around the final minutes of a person’s life. Her goal is to interview them, obtain their wisdom, and then capture their death on screen, an obvious ratings magnet.
As for Eric’s story, he works for FONY electronics, part of the same conglomerate that Rafflesia works for, and pitches his new product, the 8-in-1 Bean Machine, to his bosses. The dimwits reject the idea immediately because the item doesn’t contain a mechanism to break the machine as soon as the warranty expires. Because Eric breaks the ‘original sin’ of not trying to make money, his bosses go nuts and stress Eric out to the point of contemplating suicide. In order to get Eric on their page, the bosses decide to have his ‘dreamer’ side (creative side) exorcised so that he can simply make something without being inventive. The movie gets even crazier but, suffice to say, Eric and Rufflesia’s paths do cross so at least my explanatory plot hole is filled in your mind.
The opening scene of this film is the reason why I attend this festival and probably why Sell Out! was the first film to screen. It’s shockingly funny, has some very clever dialogue, and then, out of nowhere, almost everyone dies. It’s a very unorthodox set up and is one that shouts classic NYAFF.
What I loved about this film was the incorporation of dimwitted characters, the usage of the aforementioned ‘play-on-words’ 
comedy, the continual social commentary, and the fact that the entire movie was a setup for a joke. The dimwitted characters were the FONY bosses, one had a comprehension problem and anger towards those who ‘but’ him, and the other was chain smoking prick. The two played off each other rather well, especially when you consider the harsh, direct, and comedic dialogue that they used.
I‘ve already touched on the dialogue so I’ll move on to the commentary. The movie itself is one massive satire of capitalism, social classes, corporate culture and this generations desire to push the reality television envelope to the brink. It was a cunning and cheeky flick that managed to surprise me on more than one occasion. The first half of the film was such a success that it could have stood alone, but that’s not how films work and this one just didn’t feel complete, or should I say consistent.
I realize I’m praising this movie a lot but believe me it does have its flaws. I’ll start with the acting. It wasn’t very good even if you consider the fact that the movie is in English and not everyone is a native English speaker. This was Peter Davis’ first film and the guy has never acted before so I give him a pass but, while it’s easy to overlook the everyone else’s acting because of their enthusiasm, it doesn’t mean you won’t notice the quality of their performances. As I watched the film I continually overlooked the acting but when the movie turned into a musical that’s when I got annoyed. I’m not a huge fan of musicals unless they are rooted in comedy and, while this movie was, some of the cast couldn’t really sing (which was admitted during the Q & A). What really killed the musical aspects was the duration of the songs, some went on for too long which made it painful, specifically the one song where Eric was trying to figure out if he could score with Rufflesia. I will say I did enjoy a few of the songs and thought the attempt at getting the audience to sing along was quite noble. It would have been hysterical if people started to actually sing.
The last bit of the film that bothered me was the fact that the humor dies down significantly in the second half of the film. With such a strong start it was bound to happen but I was hoping for a little more consistency with the laughs. The reason the humor dropped off is because the film turned a bit more serious by focusing more on the social commentary and trying to close up any holes in the storyline.
Overall, Sell Out!was a very amusing film that pointed out the harshness of Malaysian corporate life, the ridiculousness of reality television, and the disparity between the rich and the poor. Even though the film had a cheesy romantic core, it never completely overshadowed the genius of some of the dialogue or the hysterical characters that spoke it. What gives the film ever more credibility is the fact that the movie is based off Yeo Joon Han’s personal life experiences (minus the singing), so there is some truth to what is being seen on screen.
Rating: A quirky Malaysian satire that’s grounded in love and passion (7/10)
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