Buyers should know that despite the moviemaking subplot, writer-director Jim Heffernan's The Angry World of Brian Webster is not one of those behind-the-scenes-of-indie-filmmaking comedies that seem to appeal to a fervent niche audience (think Living in Oblivion, or even Spielberg's The Fabelmans). It's more an ensemble slacker/guy talk farce, made on an obviously threadbare crowd-funding budget.
Brian Webster (Chris Goodwin) still lives with his parents at age 28. Last summer he tried shooting a DIY horror comedy movie, using his buddies in knockoffs of Universal Pictures icons such as Dracula and the Mummy, but it was left in shambles with Brian in tears over everyone's opposition.
A year later, Brian catches his beautiful but thorny girlfriend Lisa (Susan Danahy) cheating on him (she forgot to send the letter in which she declared an intent to see other guys) and he his job at a florist company fires him in a humiliating fashion.
Looking for work, Brian finds a hostile reception in his area's recession economy. His motley friends are more like enablers in the art of doing nothing; all seem cheerfully unemployed and happy to party away their time on the dole. Looking for validation, Brian returns to the abandoned movie project—which mainly translates as daydream/self-therapy sessions with Lisa and his pals in fantasy form.
One can see a similarity between this filmed-in-Massachusetts material and the Clerks-ish stuff that brought Kevin Smith to public attention (both are in R-rated territory, dialogue, and dirty-joke-wise), except there's no fixation on comic-book culture, the pop satire is fleeting, and no Jay and Silent Bob. Concentration is more on the relationship gab. The feature is longer than it has to be, even if every so often a scene hits the right note with some farcical home truths.
The self-distributed Blu-ray includes director commentary, outtakes, bloopers, and an extra comedic Heffernan short subject, "Destroy All Sisters." It might be worth noting the auteur has also issued the Brian Webster screenplay in book form. Optional, with perhaps special hometown-hero worthiness for public libraries in New England regions.