Director:
John Feldman
Studio/Production Company:
Hummingbird Films
Genre:
Experimental
Sub-Genre:
comedy-drama
Length:
Feature
Awards Won:
New American Cinema Award -Seattle Intl. Film Fest.
Digital Vision Award - Fest Intl. de Cine de Cuenca
Website:
http://www.hummingbirdfilms.com/bobbyroosDVD.html
Score:
4.5/5
“Who The Hell Is Bobby Roos?” indeed! Directed by maverick filmmaker John Feldman, this dazzling, engrossing, almost impossible to categorize film seems to be about the character named, big surprise, Bobby Roos, though it seems to closely parallel the life of lead actor and co-screenwriter Roger Kabler, a prodigiously talented comic impressionist whose ability to channel, actually seeming to become famous actors, is almost frighteningly supernatural. Is Bobby really Roger, an alter-ego, simply a character or persona created by a performance artist? Is this a case of split personality, (inner) demonic possession or some hybrid of all of the above? Much like Bobby/Roger him/themselves, the film, too is split up, mixed around and blended to become an unsettling but utterly compelling combination of cinema-verite, improvised yet conventional docudrama, fictional narrative, traditional documentary and, for lack of better phrase, talk therapy that, at times, teeters uncomfortably on the brink of recording what might actually be a genuine mental/emotional breakdown.
In a film where reality and fiction are deliberately blurred, some things that appear to be facts emerge. Early and mid-90’s, archival footage from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Arsenio Hall Show and various comedy clubs,(presumably “borrowed” from Kabler’s personal collection) shows “Bobby” in action, hilarious, generating the heat that led to movie/ TV roles (including a big part in Feldman’s own 1990 feature “Alligator Eyes”) and a shot at his own network series. It is this past glory that still haunts, maybe infects the contemporary Bobby Roos, still a monumental talent whose struggles to find regular comedy gigs only intensifies after he succumbs to a heckler’s taunts, hops offstage and starts swinging punches at the guy while “playing” Robert DeNiro. Now, desperate to find a gig but shunned by almost everyone who once supported him, Bobby starts to slip further and further away from reality, one night going out on the streets of New York “as” DeNiro (even applying his trademark birthmark to his cheek) and attracting the attention of Emily (Iris Paldiel), a pretty young DeNiro fan in a mini-mart. Unable to get a comedy gig, Bobby figures that he might as well at least try to meet a woman so he allows the interaction to evolve, eventually letting on that he is not who she thinks he is and she is impressed enough to let him take her out.
Feldman and Kabler then inject a traditional boy-meet-girl trajectory into the mostly semi-plotless film and, impressively it works because, frankly, it is a relief to see Booby catch a break in his personal life at a time when his professional life has so dramatically deteriorated. Unfortunately, the business of “being other people” (his ability to “become” Robin Williams, Richard Dreyfus, John Travolta, Al Pacino, among others, is truly startling) has clearly caught up to Bobby, he struggles to “turn off” and be himself with Emily and when he cannot relate to her out of character, almost, uncontrollably out of her beloved DeNiro persona and, relentlessly, seemingly unable to stop himself from slipping into the persona of another famous actor that she cannot stand, the results are agonizing, leading him to sink deeper and deeper into mania, confusion, depression, desperation and muddy self-examination.
Later, Bobby runs into actress Annabelle Larson, Roger’s co-star in “Alligator Eyes” although, from their interaction, maybe it was Bobby who was in that film and things seem to stabilize, veer towards the right direction and the film ends with something approaching hope for Bobby. Lest, the whole affair become a total showcase for Kabler, Feldman not only references “Alligator Eyes” but borrows a tune from the soundtrack of his second feature, the wonderful, dark comedy “Dead Funny” --- a hugely entertaining film and a textbook example of ingenious low-budget production.
For a film that is so conceptually high-brow, the production is decidedly, defiantly lo-fi, badly though effectively shot on, presumably medium range pro-sumer equipment, cut with jagged, jarring edits and sloppy hand-held camera in a way that visually approximates Bobby/Roger’s tortured soul. “Who The Hell Is Bobby Roos?” is, maddening, frustrating, painful, scary, very funny but definitely not for everyone, only adventurous audiences hungry for daring, brazenly original, challenging films.
John Feldman
Studio/Production Company:
Hummingbird Films
Genre:
Experimental
Sub-Genre:
comedy-drama
Length:
Feature
Awards Won:
New American Cinema Award -Seattle Intl. Film Fest.
Digital Vision Award - Fest Intl. de Cine de Cuenca
Website:
http://www.hummingbirdfilms.com/bobbyroosDVD.html
Score:
4.5/5
“Who The Hell Is Bobby Roos?” indeed! Directed by maverick filmmaker John Feldman, this dazzling, engrossing, almost impossible to categorize film seems to be about the character named, big surprise, Bobby Roos, though it seems to closely parallel the life of lead actor and co-screenwriter Roger Kabler, a prodigiously talented comic impressionist whose ability to channel, actually seeming to become famous actors, is almost frighteningly supernatural. Is Bobby really Roger, an alter-ego, simply a character or persona created by a performance artist? Is this a case of split personality, (inner) demonic possession or some hybrid of all of the above? Much like Bobby/Roger him/themselves, the film, too is split up, mixed around and blended to become an unsettling but utterly compelling combination of cinema-verite, improvised yet conventional docudrama, fictional narrative, traditional documentary and, for lack of better phrase, talk therapy that, at times, teeters uncomfortably on the brink of recording what might actually be a genuine mental/emotional breakdown.
In a film where reality and fiction are deliberately blurred, some things that appear to be facts emerge. Early and mid-90’s, archival footage from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Arsenio Hall Show and various comedy clubs,(presumably “borrowed” from Kabler’s personal collection) shows “Bobby” in action, hilarious, generating the heat that led to movie/ TV roles (including a big part in Feldman’s own 1990 feature “Alligator Eyes”) and a shot at his own network series. It is this past glory that still haunts, maybe infects the contemporary Bobby Roos, still a monumental talent whose struggles to find regular comedy gigs only intensifies after he succumbs to a heckler’s taunts, hops offstage and starts swinging punches at the guy while “playing” Robert DeNiro. Now, desperate to find a gig but shunned by almost everyone who once supported him, Bobby starts to slip further and further away from reality, one night going out on the streets of New York “as” DeNiro (even applying his trademark birthmark to his cheek) and attracting the attention of Emily (Iris Paldiel), a pretty young DeNiro fan in a mini-mart. Unable to get a comedy gig, Bobby figures that he might as well at least try to meet a woman so he allows the interaction to evolve, eventually letting on that he is not who she thinks he is and she is impressed enough to let him take her out.
Feldman and Kabler then inject a traditional boy-meet-girl trajectory into the mostly semi-plotless film and, impressively it works because, frankly, it is a relief to see Booby catch a break in his personal life at a time when his professional life has so dramatically deteriorated. Unfortunately, the business of “being other people” (his ability to “become” Robin Williams, Richard Dreyfus, John Travolta, Al Pacino, among others, is truly startling) has clearly caught up to Bobby, he struggles to “turn off” and be himself with Emily and when he cannot relate to her out of character, almost, uncontrollably out of her beloved DeNiro persona and, relentlessly, seemingly unable to stop himself from slipping into the persona of another famous actor that she cannot stand, the results are agonizing, leading him to sink deeper and deeper into mania, confusion, depression, desperation and muddy self-examination.
Later, Bobby runs into actress Annabelle Larson, Roger’s co-star in “Alligator Eyes” although, from their interaction, maybe it was Bobby who was in that film and things seem to stabilize, veer towards the right direction and the film ends with something approaching hope for Bobby. Lest, the whole affair become a total showcase for Kabler, Feldman not only references “Alligator Eyes” but borrows a tune from the soundtrack of his second feature, the wonderful, dark comedy “Dead Funny” --- a hugely entertaining film and a textbook example of ingenious low-budget production.
For a film that is so conceptually high-brow, the production is decidedly, defiantly lo-fi, badly though effectively shot on, presumably medium range pro-sumer equipment, cut with jagged, jarring edits and sloppy hand-held camera in a way that visually approximates Bobby/Roger’s tortured soul. “Who The Hell Is Bobby Roos?” is, maddening, frustrating, painful, scary, very funny but definitely not for everyone, only adventurous audiences hungry for daring, brazenly original, challenging films.