After a troubled childhood filled with tragedy, David (Gonzalo Trigueros) attempts to juggle his ambitions of being a successful comic and get his mentally ill mother away from his abusive father.
Such a Funny Life follows David as he attempts to make a living as a standup comedian. The film is not done in a chronological timeline but instead weaves in David’s tragic childhood, which works. It helps give reason and support the choices David makes as an adult in the present. David’s childhood consisted of watching the continuous abuse of his mentally ill mother by his father. Also, watching his sister die in a tragic accident, which was also a result of the father. As an adult, David still deals with his mother’s mental health and the abuse of his father. David becomes homeless and gets involved with drugs and violence, throwing off the course of his standup career.
“…attempts to juggle his ambitions of being a comic and get his mentally ill mother away from his abusive father.”
Going into this film, I just read the title and was assuming it would be somewhat of a comedy. Well, I was wrong…for the most part. I should stop assuming that having when a film has “funny” in a title it would mean that the film that bears the word is meant to be funny. Such a Funny Life is a full-on crime drama. It is a very dark with serious issues and occasional violence. Just because it deals with a standup comedian, you should not expect to laugh.
Believe it or not, there are opportunities for this film to be funny. The opportunities come when David is on stage and also when there are other comics on stage telling jokes. The problem is, none of the jokes told by any of the comics are funny. These scenes were also an opportunity to add more depth to the film, which I think was needed. If the comedy in this film was pulled off correctly, it would have also made it more of an impressive film.
“I appreciated that it was different.”
This film is not what I expected it to be, and I know I pointed out quite a bit of negatives rather than positives, I have to make a point that I did not hate the film. I appreciated that it was different. Different does not automatically put the film on the good or bad side of the film; the execution of it does, which is the issue I had with Such A Funny Life. Up to the final scene, the film seems to just barely miss the mark in the place where it could have thrived. The ending is somewhat puzzling with the assumption that the audience would make a connection to what happens with David, but instead, it just left questions.
"…very dark with serious issues and occasional violence"
