‘Lousy Carter’ Review: David Krumholtz Is Funny Enough in Overly Familiar Six-Months-to-Live Comedy
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic This year marks 30 years since Bob Byington’s first feature, though it’s only during the last 15 of those — since SXSW midnight-movie breakout “RSO: Registered Sex Offender” — that the Austin-based director has enjoyed “indie darling” status.
During that same stretch, the cultural discourse has changed a great deal, while Byington’s voice remains remarkably (if somewhat frustratingly) consistent, churning out self-deprecating feature-length sitcoms about flaccid man-babies.
Those aren’t the kind of movies American festivals are looking for so much anymore, which could explain why his latest, “Lousy Carter,” wound up premiering abroad instead, at the Locarno Film Festival.
Locarno’s programmers typically gravitate toward austere, experimental and/or formally audacious works of cinema (it’s the place where Lav Diaz, Wang Bing and Pedro Costa have each won the Pardo d’Oro). “Lousy Carter” is none of these things, but nor is it lousy.
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