Revolution!: A Red Comedy

Writer/director Jeff Kahn's independent satire on contemporary student Marxists in America is an on-again, off-again low-budget film. Christopher Renstrom stars as Ollie, who likes to lounge in the bathtub reading Das Kapital (which, for some reason, is cited as a two-volume work, when it is traditionally considered to be a three-volume treatise). He lives with Suzy (Kimberly Flynn), a roller-skating nightclub entertainer whose comments about critics suggest more of an insecurity in Mr. Kahn than they illuminate the art of criticism. Together they hook up with Steve (Johnny Kabalah), an aspiring Marxist with a rich aunt. The long satirical stretches on Marxist theory are more conducive to coma than to chuckles, and the extended dirty name-calling fights amongst the principals and their enemies are not offensive, so much as merely juvenile. A plot to kill Steve's aunt and take her money to start a revolution works out predictably until a startling, and reasonably clever ending. But it is too little, too late. Time will tell whether Mr. Kahn has more to offer than your basic student movie. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)