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m_emerson_newsJune 25, 2008
SF International LGBT Film Festival: Ready? OK!
(By Joe Kukura)
Ready? OK!
Hey! Is that Michael Emerson up there on the right, who plays the sinister creep cult leader Ben Linus on LOST? And is that Carrie Preston on the left, whom we recognize from Transamerica and Desperate Housewives? And is that Chester in the middle, the lovable sexual predator of the burlesque cheerleading troupe The COCK-Ts? “Like, totally for reals!” on all three counts… as Frameline 2008 had an enormous cheergasm for last night’s screening of Ready? OK! at The Victoria.
The premise of this film is pretty much can’t-miss – an adorably outgoing 10-year-old boy decides to go out for the cheerleading squad at a catholic school, and has a litany of hilarious conflicts with cruel classmates, furious nuns, and his flustered mom. But in contemporary films, can’t-miss ideas usually do miss… and that’s why Ready? OK! is so exceptionally rad. Where you expect preachy and PC, it goes for silly and slapstick. It doesn’t try to be a message movie, it tries to be a funny movie and slap-happily succeeds. Dialogue gas are piled onto editing gags and topped with sight gags. They’re not all funny, but they do all work – keeping the plot engaging and adding humanity to every character. The laughs come less frequently near the end when it gets all redemptionny, but by that point this silly thing has you totally hooked. It is visibly not a high-budget film, but Hollywood hasn’t come up with a sweeter and funnier comedy than this all year.
The great revelation here is boy-cheerleader Lurie Poston – perhaps the greatest kid comedy actor we’ve seen since Spanky was dodging lettuce heads trying to recite “Julius Caesar”. (You’ll see this little fellow again in Step Brothers, the upcoming Judd Apatow flick). When he argues using verbatim marketing copy from cheerleading catalogs, when he concocts laughably naïve fundraising schemes, when he obliviously tries to cheerlead people through real-life situations, this little nipper will have you on the floor. LOST fans will probably come to see Michael Emerson as the erudite, wisecracking next-door neighbor, or to check out Emerson’s real-life wife Carrie Preston as the overwhelmed single mom. But little Lurie Poston might be the topic du jour for their message boards and discussion groups as they try to kill the seeming-eternity until their new episodes commence.
You’ve got another opportunity to catch Ready? OK! Thursday night at the Realto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley. In terms of this film’s distribution and availability after that… well, people are talking to people. But whether you see it on cable, DVD, or at a more discriminating theater, Ready? OK! is a touching and terrific comedy that you will two.. four… six… eight… totally appreciate!
Check out the SF International LGBT Film Festival's schedule of films here.
Source: sfist.comMy thanks to Robert Dougherty for this find.
