In this day and age, we are living in the “woke” era as well as living in cancel culture. The two often go hand in hand when dealing with films and television. Ricardo Lorenzo’s The Super Exciting Gang dramedy takes these modern day elements and shows us what it may be like to sit in a writer’s room of different egos in today’s climate.
David (Marcus Ellison) is the creator of The Super Exciting Gang, a comic that is being adapted into a film. He has reunited with his former college friends to get an idea for the film’s plot. David quickly realizes that he is the only one who hasn’t gotten caught up in the bright lights of Hollywood or the world events. It is clear that David will have his work cut out for him when being attached to the project, as each group member wants to get some message across – none that most of the group does not seem qualified to address in the first place.
The story of the film had a lot of good things about it. First of all, I could feel David’s history with each group member, even though it was barely touched upon. David has a very interesting relationship with each member of the group, and the two most interesting relationships he has are with Trevor, the new head writer, and Lynn, his ex. As entertaining as these relationships were, I felt like there is so much left to be seen with these characters, that’s what’s tricky when it comes to short films. You only have time to tell a small part of a story, and that has to be enough story to make it a film. This film has a story, but I would like to see more backstory as I feel this could have been a full-length film. But I understand that full-length films are much harder to make as more resources are needed.
“…each member of the group wants to get some sort of a message across…”
What I loved most about The Super Exciting Gang is that it made fun of every type of person. It made fun of the overnight activists, the self-absorbed, the clueless, and probably had some humor that even went past my head, to be honest. Humor is key in a film like this, and it makes this film even more watchable.
One thing that cannot be debated is the film’s production quality. Everything looked great on screen, from the camera to the lighting and even the acting. It’s amazing what independent artists can do sometimes despite having a lower budget than major studios. Sometimes, independent films can look better than blockbuster films – this film is one of them.
The Super Exciting Gang is a short film that has a lot of good going for it. I love that a film was made about artists, writers, and creators, as that is our wheelhouse here at Film Threat, so I feel that all artists can relate to this film. I did feel a bit let down by the ending, as I did not quite understand what happened, and I would have loved to see more stories fleshed out as I found myself interested in the history of the characters. Also, having a Blink-182 cover in the closing credits gave it some added bonus points as it brought back memories of every late ’90s/early 2000s film that seemed to have a Blink-182 song in the film.
"…has a lot of good going for it."
