Blog - Thursday, March 5, 2009 21:25 - 0 Comments

From Youtube to Sundance: Mystery Team

The sketch group, Derrick Comedy (Dan Eckman, D.C. Pierson, Donald Glover, Dominic Dierkes and Meggie McFadden), known for their popular Internet shorts, has taken a step forward with their first feature, Mystery Team (which had preview shows this week). Mystery Team follows three high school students, known in the town as detectives who solve small mysteries, hired to discover the killer of a young girl’s parents. Faced with this new responsibility, the team begins to discover the real world. Not surprisingly the film is filled with talented comedians (who are mostly Upright Citizen Brigade alums, along with Derrick Comedy) who play along the lines of the boy’s world of fantasy and reality.  

When given a chance to take their short videos and turn them into feature-length films, filmmakers are usually prone to hesitation. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is an example of this: the 11-minute cable television show, released as a feature in 2007, was panned by critics and left fans on both sides of the film. There’s a big difference between short videos and feature length projects, and this difference is often a testament to the success of the creator’s vision.

Whether or not you’re familiar with the group, Mystery Team can satisfy old and new fans alike. It bears traces of sketch comedy (at one point, the team tries to enter a gentleman’s club, dressed in tailcoats and top hats, thinking it’s a spot for distinguished men rather than a strip club), and fuses these traces together in ways that develop strong characters and fresh humor.

What is striking in this film is its use of framing. In most comedies, audiences want to be moved by humor, not by cinematography. However, I was both by the comedy and the images, seeing that the filmmakers employed many techniques used in their short films.

On the whole, the film is a fairly strong showcase for the group’s comedic voice. Derrick Comedy have been successful at moving their ideas from the world of YouTube to the big screen. Unfortunately, because of today’s film market, they are struggling to find distribution; this is difficult to believe considering how funny this movie is. As such, Mystery Team is unlike any other American comedy that you’re bound to find in theaters this year.