Kabluey

Starring Lisa Kudrow, Scott Prendergast, Christine Taylor; Conchita Ferrell, Terri Garr, and Chris Parnell with Landon Henninger and Cameron Wofford
Written and Directed by Scott Prendergast
website: http://www.kabluey.com/

IN SHORT: one of the few indie gems that must be sought out. [Rated PG-13 for some sexual material including a crude reference, and brief strong language. 86 minutes]

While no one but us critics was looking, Lisa Kudrow has been doing the best film work of all of the Friends cast. Year after year, and we know that no one outside of film freaks living in indie houses has seem 'em, she has done terrific work. That continues with this summer's Kabluey, a tale of a broken family (lonely mom and two single digit kidlets from hell) and the shlub of an uncle who helps pull things together until his brother can get back from military service in Afghanistan.

Okay, now that writer/ director/ producer Scott Prendergast has blown a load of steam out of his ears for the perceived diss, let us tip our hats to this triple threat indie gem maker. Yeah, no one wears hats anymore. It's an old compliment (but we're old. This film easily takes a couple of decades off the back. That's a good thing.)

Kabluey is the kind of independent release that, if we're lucky, we get to see maybe once a year. Twice a year every decade or so. It is stuffed with visible faces from teevee land, all of whom jumped when they read a terrifically written script. Each character is developed. Each gives its actor something to do. Each is terrifically done. That uses up our allotment of the word "each" for the year so let's lay it out for y'all . . .

Salman (Prendergast) is a 32 year old loser who, banned from the state of Nevada, finds himself on the doorstep of his sister in law Leslie's (Lisa Kudrow) house out in the great nowhere of the middle of our country. With a husband called up for military service, Leslie has to go back to work to maintain the kid's medical insurance. That leaves Salman in charge of two devils (Landon Henninger and Cameron Wofford), one of whom promises to kill the Uncle when he isn't looking. The kid ain't kidding, either.

Salman finds a job as "mascot" for an Internet disaster called BlueNexTion whose office manager Kathleen (Conchita Ferrell) needs the guy to try and find sublessors for its office space. That means that every morning, Salman climbs into a huge costume fit only for the sidelines at a Z-league football game and is dumped by the side of a field to hand out fliers to any passing driver who happens to stop and wonder what the heck the blue thing standing out in the middle of nowhere is doing there. Those would include Betty (Christine Taylor), who hires "blue" for her kid's birthday party and Suze (Terri Garr) who seems to have psychological problems involving the blue thing.

Sure it sounds like there's a lot of nothing there but Prendergast has done a great job by keeping his story as small as the location, and letting his actors run with their characters. Kabluey is, as we write, going to be difficult to find. Do so.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Kabluey, he would have paid . . .

$8.00

Find. Watch. Point out SNL's Chris Parnell in his cameo. Tell Friends. Rent and Repeat.

	Click to buy films starring Lisa Kudrow
	Click to buy films starring Terri Garr
	Click to buy films starring Christine Taylor

The Cranky Critic® is a Registered Trademark of, and his website is Copyright © 1995 - 2012 by Chuck Schwartz. Articles by Paul Fischer are Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Paul Fischer. All images, unless otherwise noted, are property of,©, ®, ™ their respective studios and are used by permission. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used or copied for any commercial purpose. Academy Award™(s) and Oscar®(s) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.