The dark Hungarian comedy Heavenly Shift (Isteni mûszak) is deliriously funny. A rogue ambulance crew gets kickbacks from a shady funeral director if the patient dies en route to the hospital. Said undertaker also uses his coffin inventory for his human smuggling ring, and he makes his payoffs in a Chinese restaurant. The ambulance driver is addicted to laughing gas and scolds everyone about the difference between samurai and ninja swords. Then there’s the addict who lives in the subway and repeatedly slashes herself so she can jump the responding ambulance crew and steal their morphine.
The laughs are enhanced by spaghetti western music, complete with showdown-in-the-main-street power chords for dramatic confrontations. The cast delivers wonderfully dead pan performances, especially Roland Rába (Question in Details in the 2011 Cinequest). There’s an especially messy emergency tracheotomy in a produce market and a hysterically madcap runaway ambulance sequence near the end.
Now this is a DARK comedy – and if you don’t find the likes of Killer Joe, The Guard, Bernie and Headhunters really funny, then this may not be for you. For cynics like me, the more noir the better, and I think Heavenly Shift is a freaking riot.
Heavenly Shift’s North American Premiere is March 7 at Cinequest, and it plays again on March 12 and 14.
What a great, dark, dark movie. However, it should be noted that the subtitles are exceptionally small. Like, teensy-tiny small. Sit close if you have any trouble reading.