Yeo Joon Han's debut black comedy “Sell Out!” premiered more than a decade ago and since than has been shown at more than thirty film festivals around the globe. It has also garnered many awards from festivals such as Venice Film Festival, making Yeo the only Malaysian director with an award from there, Fantasia International Film Fest, and Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.
Sell Out! is Screening at Locarno Film Festival
Rafflesia Pong (Jerrica Lai) and Eric Tan (Peter Davis) work at the multinational conglomerate Fony. She is a predatory arts show host who hopes for a new program away from the “over-rated underachievers we call artists”, and he, a meek yet creative product designer who hasn't learned Fony's main philosophy – steal from others and sell products that break. After a lucky episode filming the death of a poet, Rafflesia gets her reality show focusing on death, while Eric gets exorcised by his inner dreamer and fired from work. Faced with these developments in their careers, the two young people must decide to keep their authenticity or sell out for fame and recognition.
Yeo Joon Han starts his debut with full-frontal male nudity coupled with brutal violence and ends it with a song number. And thorough it is a wild and random ride with characters breaking into song, scenes of silent movie era slapstick comedy, and people just doing and saying plain weird things. There's even a whole karaoke sequence thrown in for a good measure, with all of the bells and whistles that such a thing needs such as onscreen lyrics, generic backgrounds, and cheap instrumentals.
Even from this, it is rather obvious that “Sell Out!” is a super quirky flick. It is also wildly hilarious. Never one for laughing out loud, not to mention transcribing movie quotes, I found myself howling all the while trying to write down all of the jokes the movie is littered with. Well, I couldn't simply because there is no respite from the non-stop barrage of insanely funny jabs. This black comedy is so tightly packed with jokes and jabs at media and corporate greed that it necessitates multiple viewings just to be able to take everything that happens in.
This last statement might make some think that “Sell Out!” is overstuffed with visual information, characters, and plot twists. That cannot be further from the truth. Rather it's the opposite. It is pretty sparse, at times slow, minimalistic, and stylish in a way that reminds equally of Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit but also of Zucker brothers, if that makes any sense. At others, it is serious and drab, even. And it is precisely this contrast that makes Yeo's debut so insanely funny.
But what type exactly is this type of humor that makes a grown man holler like a baby? That's a bit tricky to explain. It's the type of humor that manages to be both ridiculously nonsensical and weird, all the while taking very concrete and smart jabs at contemporary society. From pretentious art, mass media, and corporate culture to the desire for shallow fame, envy towards European looking and sounding people, nothing can hide from the sharp and funny critique of Yeo's writing. But what truly brings all of the jokes together and gives a thematic unity to this Malaysian black comedy-come-musical is that everything in it, from the framing to the acting and all of the dialogue, is underpinned by its main theme, namely the loss of what makes humans truly human – their sense of curiosity and ability to dream. Instead, according to the Yeo, the contemporary postmodern society has become one of empty human-shaped shells that desire ephemeral things and create flimsy material products and relations.
Change “flimsy products” with “digital content” and “Sell Out!” proves fresh and relevant more than a decade after its release. Take for example Fony, the company where Rafflesia, a name that constantly reminds us of the character's shallow and parasitic nature, and Eric work at. Both a jab at the Japanese conglomerate and a not-so-subtle play on words that tells us everything about the products it produces, Fony is also very reminiscent of many a company that virtually rules the lives of many contemporary people. From the hospitals they are born in and the houses they inhabit, to the products they consume, both material and immaterial, and the gadgets they consume the latter one. Everyone in this world must sell out by destroying his inner dreamer and his humanity so as to to fit with the superficial copycat society.
The razor-sharp writing is helped by the effective acting, especially that of Jerrica Lai, who portrays Rafflesia Pong just as her name suggests: shallow, fake, predatory, and with very stinky morality. Kee Thuan Chye and Lim Teik Leong are hilarious as the two CEOs of Fony. Entitled, inapt, aloof, and plainly stupid (CEO 2 is proud of his “pornographic memory”), the duo delivers some of the funniest jokes with incredible seriousness and conviction. Only Peter Davis' confused portrayal of Eric Tan leaves something to be desired.
Visually, “Sell Out!” is apt but not as creative and unhinged as its script. Both a blessing and a curse, the visual minimalism by Eric Yeon that borders on boring at times works as a juxtaposition with the comedy but at others, most notably the scene in the doctor's office, is plain bad and uninspired. The songs by Yeo Joon Han, on the other hand, deserve a lot of praise. Equal parts funny and touching, these Beatles and Queen-inspired earworm of numbers are at the center of some of the most memorable and imaginative sequences in the entire movie. They are also so catchy that I found myself humming them a long time after the credits rolled.
Insanely funny and insightful, “Sell Out!” proves as timely now as at the time of its creation and a heartfelt plea for not losing one's humanity.
Where can I stream this?