DISCONTINUED
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Not again.
Sadly, Cinema's lame Mumblecore subgenre continues to drag its meepy feet across audience's eyes in this depressing post-Covid dystopian movie.
If you hated Lena Dunham's "Tiny Furniture" or Greta Gerwig's "Ladybird," you will really despise newcomer Trevor Peckham's attempt at making suicide palatable.
Director Peckham and co-screenwriter Michael Villucci deliver one well-written date scene in movie that ignores the rules of screenwriting to its detriment.
Forget about things like three act structure, having an empathetic protagonist, or even thematic subtext for that matter, "Discontinued" is content to spin its wheels in existential mud for 90 minutes.
Ashley Hutchinson plays twentysomething Sarah, a lonely suicidal Millennial more interested in crossword puzzles than in discovering her life's calling.
Judgemental, condescending, and unpleasant to a fault, Sarah comes across as mean-spirited.
Sarah finds footing in sarcasm, her humorless happy place.
Snarky is as snarky does. It's not a stretch to imagine Sarah's idea of romance as stepping on bugs for hours at a time.
Philosophy and creativity are not in Sarah's wheelhouse; passive aggression however is high on her limited agenda.
Sarah's one-note sad sack attitude is best described as what-the-fuck? She's a poster girl for the bad rap that disrespectful, entitled Millennials get.
Fuck all that.
A vaguely addressed suicide attempt — did I say that right? — brings Sarah to an AI-assisted realization that all of life is a simulation.
If only Sarah had listened to The Buzzcocks's "I Don't Mind."
So much for pop music logic.
Rather than follow the narrative thread they've sewn, the filmmakers skip ahead two years toward a forced ending that isn't exactly life affirming.
This narrative short-cut excises what should have been the meat of the movie. Instead, we discover that Sarah is incapable of personal growth.
Ignored too is the character development of Sarah's arch nemesis, Tucker (Michael Bonini), a Bro manboy who at least repents the errors of his past misogynistic ways.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Based on the little information provided, Tucker would have made for a much more compelling protagonist for the movie to be based upon.
Screenwriting and directing are two different disciplines equally difficult to master.
Perhaps Trevor Peckham should focus on directing, based on the abysmal writing on display here.
"Discontinued's" shoddy lighting and production design doesn't help.
Not Rated. 91 mins.
ZERO STARS
