The Marconi Bros.

Laughter filled the Alamo Ritz on Sunday afternoon at the World Premiere of "The Marconi Bros." at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. This was the first all-out comedy I'd seen since I arrived and it provided a good dose of much-needed levity.

Brendan Sexton III and Dan Fogler are Anthony and Carmine Marconi, brothers in their father's carpet business who, through a series of mishaps and misfortunes, aspire to join the wonderful world of wedding photography. It's a laugh-out-loud thrill ride which wowed the audience and was a refreshing change from the dark material so prevalent at recent festivals.

The strength of "The Marconi Bros." lies in the chemistry between Sexton and Fogler. Much of the film leans towards farce but director Marco Ricci and Michael Canzoniero keep it from straying too far over the line. Ultimately, the audience ends up on a wild thrill ride -- the caper at the heart of the film wandered into my mind's "Pink Panther" territory. So much of the plot is admittedly silly and implausible yet I smiled all the way through to the end credits.

Despite being an indie, "The Marconi Bros." definitely has the look and feel of a Hollywood movie. The use of HDCam is helping to keep the cost of films lower, allowing more resources to be put into areas like lighting, sets, and post-production. In addition, the filmmakers explained in the Q&A afterward that many of the locations, color processing, and other elements important to the look, feel, and sound of the film were donated. The result is a slick, polished work that should appeal to a wide audience.

Dan Fogler is great in this film, doing his usual wild comedy as well as some nice scenes with his brother Anthony (Sexton). Both Sexton and Fogler are convincing as brothers stuck working in the family business and trying to break away on their own.

Jon Polito is excellent as always, though near the end he gets a bit frantic and crazy. The rest of the supporting cast are great, especially the Irish bathroom attendant who nearly steals the last few scenes.

The film is paced well, and covers a lot of plot in the approximately 85 minutes of running time. No small feat for a low budget film, so the directors should be complimented for putting together a coherent, funny, and entertaining comedy. Hopefully it will get picked up for wider distribution.

I watched this without any notion as to what it was about with a friend and after 20 minutes or so we came to the conclusion that it was attempting to be a comedy but without providing anything funny to help guide us to that conclusion. The wacky odd couple brother schtick was there and there was some vaguely wacky dialogue here and there but the whole thing just seemed extremely pointless. The story went nowhere and there was nothing to laugh at, it was impossible to care what happened to any character. I noticed a lot of people said it was a hilarious comedy, i struggle to understand what they found funny. anyway, just my opinion, if you enjoy it, good luck to you, i just found it to be a waste of 82 minutes.

What great chemistry these two guys have. This is not like Fogler's or Sexton's other work. Fogler is goofy but has genuine side as well (credit the directors for sure), unlike his other studio films. Sexton is amazing when you consider he is one of the rapist/murderers from Boys Don't Cry.

Its funny, its sad, it goes by fast because of tall the snappy scenes. Everyone is lovable, believable and at the same time a touch nutty. You gotta ask yourself, "Am I one of those people?".

It's a tough world for any comedy without 20M behind it. I hope this one does well.