All About the Ego
Hubris Turns Tables on Dating "Game"
When it begins, Hubris seems to be the kind of one punchline joke that people expect from short films. Barry (Frederik Goris) is recently split up and his best friend Jeremy (Jeremy Koerner) takes it upon himself to get Barry laid. If there's any question as to the maturity of these men, check out their t-shirts, both of which are emblazoned with cartoons making reference to monkey poo.
Written by: Gary King
Starring: Jeremy Koerner, Frederik Goris, Alexandra Creighton, and Mary Nitschke
Rated
Running time: 19 min.
FilmGuru's Rating : 5 out of 10.
Jeremy's grand idea is to get Barry into an "exclusive" speed dating service. Why it is so exclusive (or why an ordinary speed dating service would not do) is never explained. But Jeremy has the inside track. Together with three other friends, Jeremy and Barry infiltrate the underground world of dating. They stand around looking for all the world like bad impressions of wise guys in Vegas. I honestly expected them to start robbing the place.
There's a nice little twist in the story as the genius of Jeremy's plan becomes evident. Barry's friends are not there to get dates but to support him. As they give horrible responses, the guys make Barry look great by comparrison. But the story twists again, in a predictable and yet unbelievable reversal that left me scratching my head. It's not easy to tell a good, surprising story in twenty minutes, but Hubris was halfway there. The only thing it needed was to stay on course, which it didn't.
While Koerner and Goris are clearly the focus of the film, they are backed by a couple of solid performances by Jared Asato as Ricky and Fred Zappert as Uncle Lou. Ricky's answers at the speed dating service are funny because he seems to be unaware of his lack of maturity. Uncle Lou, on the other hand, is a lecherous old man who uses his age and experience to easily offend the ladies. Mary Nitschke, Koerner's real wife, also plays his wife here.
The production values for the film are pretty good, but the timing seems to be off. It's as if the director changed his mind about the tone of the film and failed to remember that it's a comedy.
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