Movie Review: Who is KK Downey?

Who is KK Downey?

Hipsters watching hipsters hate on hipsters. That’s more or less the movie in a nutshell, but I say that in the best way possible, especially since I probably fall into that first category (save for the fact that I don’t dress well, have never done drugs, and I try as much as possible not to be condescending). Having passed over ‘KK Downey’ at Fantasia I immediately regretted my decision when I asked Cedric how the film was and his simple response was, ‘hilarious.’ Damn, after days and days of watching horror and thriller films I really could have used a good comedy. While I can admit my mistakes, I’m not necessarily one to repeat them so when I saw that there was going to be some special screenings of ‘KK’ at the AMC Forum I immediately took the chance to rectify my mistake.

Now, despite the fact that I got a glowing response from Cedric, going into the movie I still had very little knowledge about what the film was about, other than the fact that it was funny. Briefly, the story is about two childhood friends (Theo and Terrence) who are scenesters that want to make it big. Theo has just competed his three-year project, a book entitled ‘Truck Stop Hustler’ and Terrence tries as hard as possible to get his punk band off the ground. Both find themselves at a dead end, as Theo’s book won’t get picked up as publishers claim, ‘nobody wants to read a book about a tortured male prostitute written by some fat suburban white kid.’ And Terrence? Well he’s just not very good at anything, and worse, his ex-girlfriend is dating an arrogant music reviewer with as ego as big as his own. At their wits end, Terrence comes up with the perfect plan to make it in the world; he will pretend to be the character of Theo’s book, KK Downey, mimicking the infamous hoax by J.T. Leroy. Immediately the book becomes a bestseller, critiquing the image over substance nature of popular culture. As the story progresses their plan digs them deeper and deeper in trouble as secrets are revealed not only about their plan, but also about each other.

Overall the movie was fantastic. The scriptwriting was tight, the jokes were well-timed and the moral of the story was well executed without being preachy. Even more impressive though was that for the team that put the film together, Montreal locals Kidnapper Films, this was their first feature length movie, and all necessary kudos go to them for such a successful project. Indeed they’ve already begun winning awards at Cinequest and Boston’s Underground Film festival, and for a film that was literally edited in the producer’s mother’s basement, this is some achievement.

A special word should be said about the fantastic score to the film. With 18 songs from local independent artists (the film starts out blazing with a song by ‘Duchess Says’) I found myself scrambling for a pen and paper during the credits to scribble down the names of all the artists. Not only was the music fitting to the film, it easily elevated it, grabbing the audience face and dragging them through the storyline.

All compliments aside, there certainly were several areas where the film could have improved. While most of the time the acting was spot on, at others it was unconvincing and broke the spell that the otherwise tight dialogue had over me. The storyline too had a few plot holes that I struggled with. The first is, when Terrence is dressed as KK Downey and tries to woo back his girlfriend its impossible to laugh out when she doesn’t recognize him. It’s kind of like a Clark Kent syndrome where all it takes is a pair of glasses for nobody to recognize you through your disguise. As well, when the hoax is finally exposed, nobody seems to mind and everyone gets on with their day as if nothing had happened. I don’t’ know about you, but if I had found out Kurt Kobain was really a rich kid faking the whole ‘grunge-thing’ to make a quick buck, I’d be pretty pissed off. And hell, I don’t even like Kurt Kobain!

Perhaps the most regrettable part of the movie though, is that in the first half of the film, they introduce so many interesting characters. There’s the sleazy publisher played by ‘Fubar’s Paul Spence. There’s Terrence’s waspy parents who give him everything he asks for, and his snotty sarcastic brother. And there’s a crazy groupie for their punk band who is lovingly referred to as ‘the cum depository.’ All characters are hilarious in their own right but once the plot picks up, they are all dropped and left at the wayside, only having cameo appearance every now and then. This is unfortunate not only because they wasted so much time building up such interesting characters, but also because of the potential each of them could have had in making the movie funnier and even more entertaining.

Looking past the criticisms though, this movie is an indie gem. At its core is a heartfelt story about friendships and relationships and the corruptibility of stardom, fame and power. As a social critique of popularity, it does a pretty good job and ironically, unlike the characters in their film, these twenty-something year old filmmakers deserve to make it big and have worked hard on a piece of work that they should certainly be proud of.