Punching the Clown

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, Punching the Clown is a laugh-out-loud comedy presumably influenced by the unhappier show business experiences of its star, comic/musician Henry Phillips. Phillips plays himself as a down-on-his-luck songwriter and performer. Constantly traveling by car and performing in front of indifferent audiences in dumps across the nation, Henry settles in Los Angeles for a while, where he achieves some career traction with a low-level agent (Ellen Ratner) and a regular gig at a coffee bar. Filmmaker Gregori Viens serves up a buoyant comedy with memorable satiric moments (such as a Hollywood party where the food chain of power is absurdly evident), while Phillips delivers a genial if also amusingly quixotic performance as a man who hungers for success but is conditioned to expect disappointment. Recommended. (T. Keogh)