Description

Theo and Terrence are best buddies, twenty-something scenesters with big ambitions. Theo’s invested three years in his first novel, Truck Stop Hustler, the hair-raising, drug-soaked tale of a male prostitute. Terrence, a sociopathic slob with delusions of grandeur, dreams of rock ’n’ roll superstardom with all the hedonism and hero worship that entails. But the cards aren’t in their favour. Their band can’t draw flies, and the girl Terrence loves has been stolen from him by an obnoxious music journalist with an ego bigger even than his own. Theo’s book, meanwhile, is rejected by a slimy publisher (played with brio by FUBAR’s Paul Spence). Nobody, he claims, wants to hear that story from a soft, pampered suburban white boy. In a flash of desperate, dead-end inspiration, Terrence proposes a wild plan. He himself will publicly play the role of Theo’s character, K.K. Downey. The success and celebrity they crave awaits the pair, but so do terrible secrets that threaten to destroy their friendship—and worse.

Hardly unfamiliar to fans of cool comedy and indie filmmaking in Montreal, the Kidnapper Films crew—the firecracker talents behind the shorts THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE (Fantasia 2005) and SHARKBOY, and the popular Kidnapper Show events—unveil their debut feature film, and it’s a doozy. Riffing on the infamous literary hoax of J.T. Leroy, WHO IS K.K. DOWNEY? savagely skewers pretentious, directionless hipsters and the cults of personality they create. It has already nabbed awards and roars of audience approval at the Cinequest and Boston Underground film fests, and one can see why. Cleverly written and acted, capably shot and scored with cool tunes (locals Duchess says, for instance, provide the title track), WHO IS K.K. DOWNEY? is certainly a big score for the home team, sharply perceptive and ferociously funny with a big heart at its core.

—Rupert Bottenberg