Not all singers are bad actors. Shawn Mullins, for instance, delivers an excellent performance in Stacey Childers’s film “Delivery Boy Chronicles,” a slap-stick comedy about food-delivery employees wishing to do something more meaningful with their lives. Like any good, comedic ensemble cast film, “Delivery Boy Chronicles” has a narrative anchor in one character and develops the others in a way that infuses the film with wit and purpose.
Mike (Ralph Price) and his friends Molly (Kelly Hobbs), Tig (Shawn Mullins), Magoo (Chet Dixon), and Shawn (Shawn Bost) work for Restaurant on Wheels, a food-delivery service. Mike, the narrative focal point, is waiting to unleash the businessman inside; Molly wants to better the world; Tig and Magoo are both exploring artistic _expression. Then there’s Shawn, the troupe’s bard, and Chris (Ray Stoney), who’s fresh out of college and has much to learn about the “real world.”
The characters’ individual goals intersect in a plotline that involves shrooms, Magoo’s sculpture artwork, His Holiness from Tibet, and a brief discussion as to whether or not forensics pathologists can prescribe pills. However random the visual and verbal humor might appear, it’s all there for a reason. The talking camel, the attacking ostriches, the assaulting bosom, and the lawn-chair cooler make you laugh until your stomach hurts, but they’re also very important to the plot. Without the talking camel (who later becomes a talking gorilla), Mike wouldn’t take more initiative in brainstorming for a lucrative business investment. There wouldn’t be the lawn-chair cooler, Molly wouldn’t discover Buddhism, and there wouldn’t be any mentioning of the Comprehensive Package, the most comprehensive of comprehensive packages.
Filmed on location in and around Atlanta, GA, “Delivery Boy Chronicles” is a zesty medley of odds-and-ends. The film’s comedic timing is excellent and includes the best exception to the notion that singers can’t act.
