Brian Pestos writes and stars in Revenge For Jolly! by first-time director, Chadd Harbold, a story of two friends on a crazy adventure, out to avenge Harry’s dog, Jolly.
Harry is having a bad day, and it’s not entirely clear what’s going on, but apparently he owes a lot of money to somebody for not doing something he was supposed to do. Confused? Me too. Harry’s friend Cecil (Oscar Isaac) seems to understand, and the two decide to drink their troubles away. Harry talks of his love for his miniature pincher, Jolly, as it’s evidenced by a short montage of the silly things they do together. But disaster strikes and suddenly Harry is out for revenge. Instead of trying to figure out the mystery, Harry and Cecil embark on misguided violent rampage that never seems to garner the attention of any law enforcement.
Item 1: terrible and unnecessary voiceover. Rather than have Harry speak, voiceover is used to randomly give a unneeded insight into what he’s thinking. Rarely does it actually present any information not completely obvious.
Item 2: why should I care about Jolly? Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love pets. But the way Jolly was portrayed, Harry never took her anywhere or took a bath with her or anything like that. There was not nearly enough emotion built up to carry the story and it was not even close to being funny enough. A dog watching you put together a puzzle? C’mon.
Item 3: dispensable scenes/sequences that only served a purpose for cameos. One cameo, ok. Two cameos, alright, but with over eight cameos, the film seems to just revolve around who is going to show up next rather than caring about what is going to happen. I won’t spoil it for you because they really are the best parts.
I had such high hopes for a film about a man avenging the death of his dog. Instead, Revenge For Jolly! was unnecessarily violent and trivialized the relationship with man’s best friend.
Rating: With lots of gratuitous violence, it’s likely to appease some, but most will be disappointed (2/10)
Tribeca Film Festival – Revenge For Jolly!
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