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Released by: Breaking Glass Pictures
Released on: March 25, 2014
Director: Kevin Hamedani
Cast: Kevin Hamedani, Ramon Isao
Year: 2012
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The Movie
Junk is the sophomore feature film from director Kevin Hamedani, whose previous film ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction mixed horror-comedy and progressive politics. Junk takes ZMD's mashing of genres and ideas one step further, bringing relationship drama, pot humor, B-movie parodies, and buddy comedy into the mix, but does it all roll together nicely?
Junk is the story of Kaveh (writer/director Kevin Hamedani) and Raul (co-writer Ramon Isao), two best friends who've had a falling out. Their film, Islama-Rama 2: Moustapha's Revenge, has been accepted into the Outsider Film Festival in Seattle. Since their falling out, Kaveh was dumped by his Russian girlfriend and now spends most of his time getting high, and Raul is struggling with being a creative writer and a faithful husband. When they learn that “The King of Shit Cinema†and “Japanese Roger Corman,†producer Yukio Tai (played by veteran cheque casher James Hong) is going to be at the festival, the friends put their differences aside in an attempt to pitch their film to Tai, but first they need to find a way to get around his heavily armed security detail. Adding to this already stuffed story are subplots about Kaveh's need to move on and get laid, drug dependency problems, the film's primadonna star, the Christian sidekick assigned to them by the festival organizers, OK Go concert footage, and a bunch of B-movie parodies that play out like comedy sketches. Junk is also a movie about the creative process, and the problem of coming up with an original idea amidst all the remakes, sequels and franchises that are made today. All this should highlight Junk's biggest problem, at 1 hour, 45-minutes long, this film has too much plot and too many ideas for its own good.
The most obvious cinematic parallels to what Hamedani and Isao are trying to achieve with Junk are the early films of Kevin Smith, especially Clerks and Chasing Amy. Junk moves back and forth between being a satirical look at a film festival, a pop-culture reference-filled comedy, and a raw, emotional film about relationships, but it tries to do too much and can't handle the delicate balancing act to make all these elements come together.Junk is a movie that is trying to be (at least) three different things at once: a buddy comedy, a relationship drama, and a satirical, insider's look at a film festival. At least one of these plots should have been cut because the whole film feels overstuffed. If I had to choose, I would have ditched the relationship plot. Every time the film tries to focus on Kaveh's problems with women or Raul's infidelity the comedy grinds to a hault and the film stumbles to the point where it barely makes it back on its feet.
Yes, Junk is kind of all over the place, but it has a unique comedic perspective that sets it apart from a lot of low budget comedies. Sure, it speaks to the sensibilities of horror geeks by bitching about the Fright Night remake and making references to Critters, Child's Play, and sporting cameos from director Marcus Dunstan (The Collector, The Collection, Saw IV), and cult actor George Hardy (Troll 2, Best Worst Movie). What sets Junk apart though, is that it also has an Iranian-American perspective on film culture that you don't normally see in mainstream comedies or horror films. Kaveh and Raul's movie Islama-Rama 2 is clearly a nod to their first film, Zombies of Mass Destruction, but how often do you see an Arab horror-comedy, even in the context of a parody sketch? Not very often. In a Hollywood film, actors who look like Kaveh and Raul would likely be cast as terrorists, and this is something that isn't lost on Junk. Islama-Rama 2: Moustapha's Revenge is exactly that kind of Muslimsploitation, but played up to an absurd degree. It's this unique voice that keeps Junk from feeling generic or from falling completely flat even when the jokes don't completely land or the drama sucks the fun out of the film.
Audio/Video/Extras
Junk is presented on DVD in 1.77:1 with a solid MPEG-2 encode. The film had a budget of 1.5 million dollars, which is pretty good for an independent film, and you can see much of the budget went into the camera equipment. There's a nice level of detail in the picture, even in close-up, colors don't appear muted, and while it probably would look better in high-definition, it looks very good for a film of its type. Where it feels more low-budget is often during outdoor sequences shot at night, but style of the film feels appropriate to the camerawork.
The audio on this DVD doesn't fare quite as well. The 2-Channel stereo track doesn't use a lot range, and there are often shifts in the level of volume that the film puts out. The volume can change between scenes, and this is especially the case during dialogue sequences. Different characters often speak at different volumes, and overall, it doesn't sound like the film was recorded very well. It doesn't quite break the experience, but sound is one area where the film is lacking from a technical standpoint.
Special Features on the DVD include a commentary with Kevin Hamedami, Ramon Isao and Brett Davern, Deleted Scenes, a Making of “Junk†Featurette, concert footage of OK Go performing “This Too Shall Pass†and “White Knuckles,†a Photo Gallery, and trailers from Breaking Glass Pictures. The disc features over 52 minutes of deleted sequences, including some whole subplots that never made it into the film. If there was ever any question that this movie had too much plot for its own good, these deleted scenes prove it. Compared to the length of the deleted scenes, the Making Of is a breezy 8 minutes long and mostly covers plot details and background on making of the film.
The commentary track is a very mixed bag. Hamedani, Isao and Davern are clearly having a good time, and a few drinks, as they record the commentary, but they're also watching the movie in the recording booth and audio from the film can be heard underneath what they're saying, rather than coming from the actual audio source on the DVD. Hamedani and Isao are also recording the commentary while high, so the overall mood and dirction of the commentary track is probably too laid back and meandering for all but the most die hard fans of the film, or friends of the filmmakers.
The Final Word
Despite being a bit overlong, having one too many plot threads, and making a really tasteless joke about David Carradine's accidental suicide, Junk is an amusing low-budget comedy and Kevin Hamedani is a filmmaker with a unique voice.
