Yellow Bird (2023)

Director Angus Benfield Cast Angus Benfield (Inventing Anna), Brian Doyle-Murray (Caddyshack), Kathy Garver (Family Affair), Plastic Martyr (Battle for Pandora), Melissa Disney (Superman vs The Elite) "Synopsis: In the style of The Office and Schitt’s Creek comes a fun new comedy about searching for happiness, “Yellow Bird.” This heartfelt film, set in a small country-town grocery store named "The Yellow Bird," is centered around once successful PR specialist Jake (Angus Benfield), now a stock boy in his mid-forties, struggling with his sobriety, and his conscience in the guise of a gnome (Brian Doyle-Murray) who is determined to remind Jake of all his failings, including his marriage. Jake’s mother, Rachel Rush (Kathy Garver), is struggling with Alzheimer's and is living in an RV. Rachel is holding onto a past she remembers as much more adventurous and exciting than this life and is determined to find it once again, and Scotty, the protagonistic store manager who is stuck in a job his father wants him to be in, and so makes all the fun and quirky employees at “The Yellow Bird” miserable in return." Yellow Bird is among the recently selected catalog at this year's Los Angeles Film Festival - Independent Film Showcase. There are points where Yellow Bird begins to flow toward a direction but seemingly stumbles into the plot as it continuously fails to recognize itself; does it want to convey an overall positive message? It's clear that the goal was to convey a positive message but the attempt gets lost in translation, drowned out by the way body & age shaming is rampant throughout, with women being the primary target. The positive representation of women in the story sees them serve as props & plot devices, they essentially serve as mirrors for our protagonist to prove to us that he in fact, is a good man. The talking garden gnome, voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray, is treated more as an afterthought which makes less sense as the story continues on, leaving an uncomfortable space between what was intended to be funny & a strange choice to utilize an unnamed mental illness and call it his conscience. At the end I was left asking these questions: Did happiness cure his budding schizophrenia? Was it schizophrenia? What other illnesses cause a person to believe a ceramic garden gnome is verbally abusing them? There was no sense of closure there. As far as production value, the camera, audio, & acting were quite good. Jake (Angus Benfield) does seem like a kind person in a rotten stitch, who also happens to be quite misogynistic. Jake’s mother, Rachel Rush (Kathy Garver) is one of the major highlights of this viewing experience, she pulls in the wholesome element quite well. I want to travel with her in her RV. Scotty (Michael Maclane) is the nepo son of the company, it was hard to watch a lovely gay coded character be portrayed as the antagonist, and much like his father Lawrence (Scott King) the story had them changing moods so often that I marveled at the acting prowess of both, as the balancing act felt almost vaudevillian on their part. Krystal (Plastic Martyr) is a shining beacon in this story, taking a character that was seemingly written to be a support beam for the protagonist, managing to bring her to life in such a way as to bypass the limitations that her dialog presented. Her performance granted us time with a beautiful human who deserves a story of her own. I did fanboy for a beat when Melissa Disney graced the screen as the hairstylist. Though I am admittedly biased, it seems almost criminal to have underutilized such an incredible talent. Overall it makes perfect sense that Yellow Bird has achieved recognition in film festivals, it has a budget, the actors all bring something to the story that keeps the characters from becoming empty caricatures, and the crew did their jobs well.