Sympathetic, scary, and psychotic are words we use to describe clowns, and Clown-N-Out in Valley Village, Mark Hensley’s feature, is a neo-noir thriller with grease paint and a sinister laugh. John, a former convict now working as a party clown, is trying to reconnect with his son while battling addiction and a reputation that’s followed him since prison. Rejected by his ex-wife and barely hanging on, he stumbles deeper into a web of crime and danger as he decides to get into the burglary game.
Which brings us to Elaine, a struggling actress on the verge of suicide, who is haunted by visions of a man named Frank, a powerful and abusive producer from her past. Her world unravels as she writes what appears to be a final letter and prepares to end her life with pills and alcohol.
As luck would have it, John’s next burglary target is Elaine’s home. While searching the home for valuables, he runs into Elaine with a gun. As the pills take effect, Elaine begins to slip out of consciousness, only for John to break her fall. When he gets to her, he helps her vomit the pills, inadvertently saving her life. She begins having more visions of Frank, deepening the mystery around his connection to her.
As John and Elaine recover and open up to one another, they discover they’re both wounded people searching for meaning and redemption. John has been erased from his son’s life, and Elaine is trapped by memories of a man who once held power over her career and her safety. In their conversations, they realize that Frank is at the center of their pain.
“John, a former convict now working as a party clown”
For a micro budget film, filmmaker Mark Hensley delivers a film that feels like a noir. There are guerilla style elements as Hensley goes for a shot-on-film appearance. He uses soft focus filters for his femme fatales and videos effects for dream and drug-induced sequences.
In terms of the noir tale, the misfortunes of his characters hit them with melodramatic emotional weight, with some sexiness on the side. I also have to hand it to our clown, Joe Heck—he’s got the sad life of a clown down, complete with the occasional goofy laugh. Mark Daponte’s script thankfully refuses to make a mockery of Heck’s clown persona, which would have been too distracting. Instead, as in true noir fashion, our heroes are rats in a trap pushed to their emotional limits.
It’s not a perfect film. There’s only so much you can do with a micro-budget, as much of the film is conversations bookended with some good action scenes.
Clown-N-Out in Valley Village delivers a darkly whimsical dive into broken lives looking for redemption—with a jolt of clown makeup and a loaded pistol. Mark Hensley leans into the grit of indie noir, mixing pathos and pulp with just enough sleaze and sincerity to keep us glued to the chaos.
Clown-N-Out in Valley Village is currently available on Amazon Prime Video.
"…rats in a trap pushed to their emotional limits..."
