Brazzaville Teen-Ager (2013)

"Brazzaville Teen-Ager" is an American 20-minute live action short film from 2013, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year and here we got another relatively short movie in which Michael Cera is starring in and he has shown up for quite a few of these recently. He is also the director and part of the writers team here. It is basically a father-son story and it delivers the same shot at awkward comedy as you will find in every other Cera film, long or short. But there is maybe more drama in here than usual for the actor, even one scene where Cera goes all in tears-wise, but the really sad thing is that neither comedy nor drama feel authentic and neither is working as much as I hoped it would. And then there is the problem that Cera is really no particularly gifted actor and the script here just cannot make up for the fact that once again he is playing the exact same character in every movie. The music is not helping either and the incredibly random inclusion of singer Kelis playing herself just adds to the fact that you never have the impression that you are watching actual characters here and not actors giving mediocre performances for these characters. Admittedly the senior actors were a bit better here, but not good enough either to make up for the slow motion scene at the recording studio for example. What was that seriously? Was that supposed to be funny. This film here gets a thumbs-down from me and even if it was relatively short already, it could have been even shorter, maybe should have, for all I care. Don't watch.

Gunther's father is sick in hospital – an event which he often thought would see is father's steely reserve break down and them become closer, but so far neither that nor a recovery is on the cards. In order to force both, Gunther decides that he must humiliate himself in a very specific way – by getting his imposing boss (an aging man who has spent his life in publishing) to sing the backing vocals on a track currently being recorded by Kelis.This very dry film is not hilarious but it does have a nicely absurd idea at the core and it uses that as the hook to delivery some nicely funny moments but also deliver a simple tale on the lack of communication between a father and his son, both of whom are very closed off. As a film it is not a total success because it doesn't do too much of any of the specific things it has going on – for example the father/son aspect is really down to the final few lines of the film, but it does still work. Cera is solid in the lead although as usual is a version of the rather inverted and awkward character he always plays. He is well supported by O'Connell (who is very funny in his straight role), while Kelis and Grodin add their faces and aid the joke.The short is nicely put together and Cera does a good job of directing the action and getting good moments (in particular a close shot of O'Connell) and generally there is enough in the short film to make it nicely odd and engaging even if it is never brilliant or particularly strong in any specific aspect.