Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

runamokprods A fascinating and ambitious mess, with echoes of David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and Stanley Kubrick among others. Beautifully shot and full of careful and striking lighting and compositions, this tragic-comic character study of an abrasive, sad, utterly unsuccessful stand up comic has a number of surreal scenes and images that are deeply affecting and/or quite funny. There are also a number of scenes that seem needlessly repetitive, or working way too hard to be self-consciously weird. And the film definitely feels long. Back on the plus side, it's made more complex and interesting by the fact that the stand up character in his off-stage real life is outwardly nothing like the hyper-annoying, aggressively unfunny and gross person he plays on stage. He's quiet and introverted and seems more terribly and dangerously depressed than angry. However, under the surface the comic and his on-stage alter ego share a desperate sense of alienation from other human beings, and it's that terrible modern isolation that's at the heart of the film. Extending that exploration, 'Entertainment' plays with an interesting meta idea. What if an arty, self-referential surrealist comic like Andy Kaufman (or this film's lead Gregg Turkington) spent their career playing their most difficult and abrasive alter-ego like Kaufman's Tony Clifton (or star Turkington's Neil Hamburger, who is the basis of the on stage persona here), but instead of playing for crowds of hip and 'knowing' urban young people 'in on the joke', they only got to do that act in sad, barely populated working class dive bars out in the middle of the California desert, where the inside joke is totally lost for the audience. It raises interesting questions about perception and comedy, and how much of our enjoyment of hip ironic distance in modern entertainment is a cover for something wounded and broken inside us. It's a difficult film I'd be hesitant in recommending to most other people, and that I have my own reservations about. Yet I find that since I've seen it, moments, images and performances are aggressively haunting me in a powerful way, and make me look forward to seeing it again.

wyrzykowskikajetan The title, in all its sarcasm in regard to the film's actual content, is a complete contradiction of what we may derive from Rick Alverson's drama. Entertainment is a very peculiar piece of cinema, but one that wishes to pretend to be something it's not.The nameless comedian (Gregg Turkington) travels around slums and dive bars in an American desert to put on a series of unedifying performances. As he dwells into the state of depression, he seeks refuge in calling his daughter and leaving her voice mails.Actually, it is really hard to understand Alverson's drama ins and outs. It is soaked with George Orwell's dystopian perception of reality, dripping with grotesque, with Greek tragedy written all over it too. What's more, the scraps of comedian's performances that we watch, are truly pitiful and create a colorful canvas with his personal drama. It's tailored with malaise and heart-wrenching sadness. We are also given a lot of symbolism – odd scenes (like the giving birth sequence) that even though sketch in the details of comedian's surroundings, reveal nothing important to the story itself. Yet, Alverson's point that he strives to make is just too obvious – you can't entertain people, if you don't feel like doing so. Entertainment just falls into the pit of self-loving artistry, without understanding the importance of the dialogue with the audience.Nevertheless, what needs to be stated is that the acting in Alverson's feature deserves appreciation. Turkington masterfully portrays a withdrawn, introvert and people-hating man, with details nurtured greatly, so that it makes his performance noticeable. The supporting cast do their part too – Tye Sheridan is perfect as the comedian's co-worker and John C. Reilly singing is something one just need to love. Then again, quite the contrary could be said about the soundtrack. It varies from creating a joyful contrast to be exaggerating with drama, struggling to remain the background and eventually becoming distracting.Entertainment was one of the indie productions that I truly awaited last year. Putting apart my love for peculiar filmmaking and the fact that Alverson's film reminds me of films like Lanthimos' Lobster, Coens' A serious man or Fargo – this film fails to establish any truthful bond with the viewer. If you seek a story of a broken comedian, this year's TV series Baskets is a much better choice.

themissingpatient An exploration through the dark side of entertainment. A feverish introspective nightmare of a character who remains more mysterious by the end of the film than at the beginning. Entertainment drags us along on a slow road trip through the desert with a comedian who loses his self along the way. The line between reality and dreams become completely blurred. The whole film seems like an inside joke the filmmakers refuse to let us in on. Sure, there are funny moments, especially during the first half, but by the end you'll be left with more questions than answers.It's emotionally heavy, bizarre, heart-breaking, surreal and even somewhat disturbing. What is truly masterful is how, without ever fully understanding who this character is, the film causes us to lose our sense of reality with him. He is explored, with great depth, inwardly without us ever sure of who he is on the outside. Rick Alverson has perfectly re-created the dream logic story telling techniques and beautifully strange cinematography of a David Lynch film. Yet, he does this using his own voice, which is strikingly original. Entertainment is somewhere between a broken character study, an absurdist comedy and modern tragedy.Entertainment is not for everyone and if you try using your brain while watching it, you may give yourself a migraine. If you try to use your heart to feel your way through, you won't be sure where to put it and may feel depressed afterwards. This film is a trip that you have to allow to wash over you. Let yourself get lost in it's wonderful visuals and be sure to have friends to discuss it with afterwards.

cfwc I saw Entertainment at the Sundance Film Festival yesterday and this is my first ever review.This is hands down the most incoherent, nonsensical, abhorrent piece of trash I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure the director was trying to set a standard for how to create a film that not only assaults the eyes, intellect, and sanity of the viewers, but to educate future filmmakers on how to ruin the audiences day.From the seemingly endless minutiae of wondering about, aimlessly, through life with a stupid look on his face to the series of comedy acts that are as inane as they are uncomfortable, the main character may be the most hopeless and awful person ever written. Each scene is unrelated to the former, resulting in a chain of thoughtless, boring, absurd moments that makes the viewer wish they were dead. Frankly, it's not even the loss of my time and my brain cells that bothers me, it's the poorest allocation of capital I've ever seen. What in the world were the financiers of this film thinking? Unless you hate yourself, go do anything else with your time. Hope this helps