The indie comedy Welcome to the Show plunges the characters and the audience into a puzzle. Four college-age guys, always up for a party, blow off Thanksgiving with their parents to party, but the joke is on them.
They score an invitation to The Show, which they assume will be a party; after getting a little high, they sure like being frisked and blindfolded by sexy women, and driven to an undisclosed location. Now they don’t know where they are or what is supposed to be next in this increasingy mysterious experience.
What is being done to them? By whom? Why? And just where the hell are they? Are they in a elaborate party game or inside a piece of performance art? Or is this a prank or something more sinister? They don’t know and neither does the audience.
The surreal experience exhausts them. And, as is fitting for a surreal film, they stumble around completely spent, resembling the iconic walk on the road to nowhere in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
One of the satisfying running jokes is that, having given up their smart phones at upon admission to The Show, these Millennials are utterly lost without the navigation apps. They have not been air-dropped into the Yukon wilderness, but are in Richmond Virginia, a city with a major river, railroad tracks, highways, landmarks and street signage.
Keegan Garant is the most interesting among a cast of newcomers.
This is the second film for writer-director Dorie Barton, and she resists the temptation to reveal everything to the audience.
I screened Welcome to the Show for its world premiere at Cinequest. You can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.