Okay, okay, okay. Now I know I was in the minority here, but I really liked this movie. In fact, it’s up there with Trailer Park of Terror for my favorite movie of the festival. The fact that this was more of a ‘cult’ movie than a ‘horror’ or ‘genre’ movie made it stand out for me right away, but once it got going I was completely hooked and loved every minute. Who is KK Downey? is (what I hope will be) an instance cult hit along the lines of Napoleon Dynamite and Juno.
Who is KK Downey? is the story of Theo Huxtable – yes, that IS the name of a character from The Cosby Show, trust me there’s no resemblance. Theo is a young writer who is desperately trying to get his book ‘Truckstop Hustler’ published, about a young man named KK Downey who is a drugged out whore, but can’t because no one wants to read a book like that written by a guy who looks like him. It is also the story of Theo’s best friend Terrance who is a coke-head would-be musician poseur who still pines over his ex-girlfriend, Sue, and generally makes an ass of himself. Sue has moved on to a pretentious writer poseur with Flock of Seagulls hair and a hard-on (wuite literally) for Volataire. When Terrance hits rock bottom and Theo thinks he’ll never have a chance at fame, Terrance comes up with an idea to make them both rich: Terrance will become KK. The idea is a grand success and thus beings a whirlwind, hilarous, unpredictable movie about two friends and how fame changes each of them.
There were two things that struck me about this movie most. The first was that it 
was remarkably well written – and smartly written too. It doesn’t pander to you. Some of these cult type movies pander to the lowest common denominator, writing well below the intelligence level of the average viewer simply to get the cult status it wants. It’s almost a gimmick rather than genuine storytelling. This movie doesn’t do that. It never pulls a punch and if you don’t get the joke that’s really your own problem, not theirs. The other thing I admired about this movie was that it never once winked at the camera. Even when there are remarkably insane things happening on screen it doesn’t ever pull back, turn to the audience and say, ‘This is nuts, non? Are you having a good time?’ Because this movies doesn’t care whether you’re having a good time or not. You are or you’re not. That’s not it’s problem. In a way, the movie itself embodies the poseur artist persona that it’s about and that is honestly why it succeeds. Never does it flinch. Never does it think ‘maybe we shouldn’t’. It just does it, knowing that it’s going to work. The filmakers are very much this way as well. Like our movie or don’t, but if you don’t, be ready for a rumble.
I think that you should get your act together and see this movie as fast as you can. For you lucky Torontonians there are select screenigs at the the Royal at 7:00. Go.
Click here for the site and trailer.
