Tossers (2008) - By josh Samford

Film Reviews: Tossers (2008) - By josh Samford
Posted on Monday, November 03, 2008 @ 19:20:51 Mountain Standard Time by Duane

The mockumentary genre is one of the toughest facets of comedy to really nail. It seems when you get a lot of gifted people around, everyone has no trouble entertaining themselves - but sometimes what entertains ones self during an improvisational moment isn't necessarily as brilliant as you might think later on when watching it free of the giddy and fun-filled mood such an atmosphere puts you in. We've all seen at least one of the brilliant mockumentarys put on by Christopher Guest, such as This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind - and chances are you've stumbled across a couple of the really painful "oh my gosh, look how silly we're being!" videos located on the net as well. Tossers is a short film however made with more of an inspired vision than some of the mess you'll find out there in youtube land, and actually provides quite a few laughs along the way. What seems to work best with Tossers is the leniency towards absurdity, and playing it completely straight. This is a little more extreme than a character having two actual left feet, or an amp specifically made to go to 11 on the volume knob. We have werewolves and Vegetarians who hate people who even THINK about endangering animals - as well as shopping cart artistry. Whether or not you find it as enjoyable as I did, there's no getting past the quirky imagination involved in the making of this short.

The basic premise for Tossers is that we're given four different characters all with the intentions of winning big at the fourth annual Frisbee Dance Off, France Fest. It all started with German performance artist Frederik Vilhelm who was playing frisbee in the park and accidentally tripped - but did so in such a fashion that everyone around took notice of the inherit beauty in his fluid movement that Frisbee Dancing was then born. Ever since France Fest has been the meeting place for the best in the world. Last years champs, Willow and Moonbeam Goldberg are looking to win big again this year as they take their VAICAN lifestyle to the forefront. VAICANS are of course Vegetarians Against the Imagination of Cruelty to ANimalS. There biggest competition are found in Simon and Sherman, a couple that has been on the rocks recently after an attempt at the most dangerous dance move in the sport went wrong. Simon is a British punker with a massive Mohawk, but shows his more gently side in his love for Shopping Cart art. Sherman is a werewolf who simply cares about Simon. That's right, a werewolf. Well, he hasn't changed into a wolf just yet but any full moon now he's expecting it to come - so he locks himself up by chain and keeps fresh meat in a bowl just in case.

Quite surprisingly the film really didn't have many gay jokes throughout, not like one would expect from a film called Tossers about Gay Frisbee Dancers. There are a few jokes of that sort here and there, but overall the comedy is simply random and silly on the whole. Which works great for me because that's just the sort of comedies I find myself attracted to. The moments such as the introduction to our character who believes himself to be a werewolf are simply amazing, same for the tour of Simon's museum of Shopping Cart Art, where we find two shopping carts paired together and discover the title is simply "sex". Such random deviations from the focus of the film give the film a real voice for itself, so does the production values which are much better than a lot of Independent work out there. Some visual FX, longer takes than the average and some experimental camera work give the short a feeling of style and professionalism. Added to this the script is actually a little more layered than one would think, showing one relationship deconstructing and one reconstructing by the end of the short. Giving the film more worth and investing something other than just simple laughs in the characters. I have to say I was very impressed with Tossers, moreso than even I was expecting. You can check out more from Socal Film Group at their official site here as well as their Tossers page here, and I hope that you will. It's a very funny and crafty short film that I hope more people have the option to see in the future. Check them out and show some support!