★★☆☆☆
In 2016, there was a strong feeling in the US and the UK that the world had gone mad. No, I’m not talking about politics – remember the craze that made people dress up as evil clowns? It was properly nuts, if thematically appropriate, stuff.
Cold on the coattails of the world’s most recent mainstream clowning event comes Irish comedy Apocalypse Clown. The lack of cultural relevance suits the film down to a tee – David Earl’s depressed entertainer, Ken, is quick to remind us of the modern clown’s societal stature whenever he can. “We’re like fax machines – we’re obsolete”, he says.
Unfortunately, the feeling that this is a film out of time doesn’t end at its subject matter. Most of the comedy mined in Apocalypse Clown alternates between tired and slightly puerile penis innuendos and the sort of jokes about women drivers that wouldn’t feel out of place in a 1970s working men’s club.
The film might get away with that sort of thing if it had something more interesting to say about it, but between a deliberately misogynistic, pervy villain and a miserable hero who’s only slightly more upstanding himself, Apocalypse Clown just ends up feeling rather joyless. When the script doesn’t seem to like its own characters (and it certainly doesn’t like clowns) the result feels depressingly mean-spirited.
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There is still some fun to be had, though. Natalie Palamides stands out by lending the film both laughs and heart as terrifyingly expressive street clown Funzo, while some choice jokes about stealing toilet roll and the odd bit of action movie parody work well.
But these moments of warmth are few and far between in a film which hasn’t really found the joy in its solid premise. Earl’s Bobo might not be his own biggest fan, but also doesn’t do much to endear himself to the audience either. Instead, his character starts and ends the film as more or less the same job-hating party-pooper we’ve seen hundreds of times before. With little to distinguish himself from the deliberately bleak backdrop, out of all the film’s characters he might be the one we’d be least inclined to spend nearly two hours following.
Natalie Palamides brings a wonderful energy to “scary clown” Funzo (Credit: Vertigo Releasing)
The BAFTA-nominated success of Earl’s last outing, delightful robo-comedy Brian and Charles, has undoubtedly raised expectations for his next cinematic starring role in a way that isn’t entirely fair.
He didn’t write Apocalypse Clown, for one. But his latest outing’s biggest crime isn’t even the fault of some off-colour jokes or a messy plot – it’s that it generally doesn’t feel like it’s having any fun.
And if Apocalypse Clown doesn’t even like itself – how are we supposed to?
Apocalypse Clown is in UK cinemas from 1 September.
