"Weird Al" Yankovic's 2018 Moontower set will veer away from his famous parodies.
Photo courtesy of Moontower Comedy Festival
Why did the chicken cross the road? Probably to get to the Moontower Comedy Festival. The annual yuck fest produced by the Paramount Theatre is returning April 18-21 with three hot headliners: Mike Birbiglia, Tiffany Haddish, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Yankovic’s appearance will be part of his The Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, a performance that will break away from the props and production of his most recent shows in favor of a minimal set of originals. (Sorry "Eat It" fans. The comedian will not be performing his famous parodies.) 1980s comic weirdo Emo Phillips will open the show.
Birbiglia’s comedy was most recently showcased in a February Netflix special "Thank God for Jokes," a show he performed when he was last at Moontower. His film Don’t Think Twice debuted at SXSW in 2016 to great acclaim. Haddish broke out this year with a scene-stealing turn in hit comedy Girls Trip. Her first stand-up special “Tiffany Haddish: She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood” premiered in August on Showtime.
Badges for the event held at the Paramount and Stateside Theatres and Cap City Comedy Club went on sell Friday, October 13, with early bird prices and can be purchased online, at the Paramount box office, or by calling 512-474-1221.
The most important thing for any movie to establish early on is its tone. No matter the genre, a film needs to make its audience understand how they should feel as the story unfolds so that they’re willing to go along with whatever transpires on screen. A film that doesn't do that, such as the new Onslaught, runs the risk of failing to connect with viewers even if it has some interesting or fun elements to offer.
One of the biggest issues for the movie is that it fails to fully invest in its main character, Celeste (Adriana Arjona). She’s a military veteran who now lives in and manages a desert trailer park, which is filled with a motley crew of offbeat people. She also has a contentious relationship with her ex, who unexpectedly drops off their daughter, Daisy (Blake Kennedy), soon after the film begins.
Celeste has a stash of high-powered weapons, showing she hasn’t left her former career fully behind. Her expertise comes in handy when something goes wrong at a nearby military contractor facility run by Hans Kemmler (Dan Stevens), and a trio of super soldiers escapes into the wild. Trained to kill everyone in their path, it’s not long before they set their glowing eyes on the trailer park.
Directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, the film has elements of horror, action, and comedy, but the filmmakers struggle to find the right combination of the three. Wingard and Barrett divide the film’s focus between the trailer park and the military facility for a long time at the beginning of the film, and the quirkiness of people at the former mixed with the bold weirdness of the people at the latter keeps viewers off balance in a bad way.
Once they finally settle into the main part of the story where the super soldiers go on a rampage, the filmmakers overpromise and underdeliver. The showdown between a seemingly unstoppable group and an angry woman and her band of misfits seems destined to be highly entertaining, but comes off as underwhelming. The sequence is filled with brutality with no meaning and heroics that feel more accidental than purposeful.
The ham-fisted way in which the story plays out is disappointing since the film has a bunch of characters who could have been great if used properly. The trauma of Celeste’s military career and personal life is hinted at, but doesn't come into play as much as expected. Hans and his wife Hanna (Rebecca Hall) are completely off-the-wall, but their eccentricities seem to be apropos of nothing. The super soldiers are initially intimidating, but the climactic sequence undercuts them significantly.
Arjona has yet to fully break out despite some good roles in Hit Man and the Disney+ show Andor. She makes for a good lead here, embodying the toughness of a military veteran while still being relatable. Stevens and Hall go all in with their bonkers characters, but the story doesn’t serve them well. Comic relief comes in the form of Reginald VelJohnson and Eric Wareheim, and they do a great job in smaller roles.
A movie like Onslaught is typically one where the audience just turns off their brains and enjoys the carnage. But Wingard and Barrett try a little too hard by throwing in oddball characters that don’t add much to the story, forgetting to pay enough attention to the mechanics of the plot in the process.
