Mad respect to the people behind Birdies, particularly writer/director Troy Carlton, who had the aspirational vision to make a comedy with both sincerity & big commercial appeal, particularly to the underserved (as of lately) masculine humor audience. A lot of people would compare it to Caddyshack, but I think it more closely resembles the comedy style of more modern films like Role Models... non-judgemental comedy with a lot of heart, some gross out humor and a feeling of rooting for an ensemble of people who hold something dear to their hearts that others would think of as more mundane (ie golf life and the country club). The film is not a perfect gem, which I'll detail below, but let's start with the good:
Ryan O'Flanagan is a very strong lead & does his role with a confident ease, unafraid to be goofy and self deprecating to serve the scene. His asides to himself are often the funniest moments in a scene, essentially him playing off of his own changing attitudes. I would have liked to have seen him at work in his old job and just how much it didn't fit him to be doing that. The supporting cast also pulls some heavy lifting, particularly impressive are Zach Hanner (the emotional center of the film) and Nate Panning, who play off of each of the other cast well and lift up their moments regularly. Shout out to the women in this film, too, which I felt were a little underwritten, but shown through even still. I'm talking mostly about (blanking on character name) fellow club runner Lily Nicole who added depth to the role that made her stand out each time. Sydney Penny also stood out with a bit of underacting, but I wish the filmmakers (particularly the camera shot and editing) had stayed with her a few more moments. Her face as her date is loaded into an ambulance was so great and heartbreaking, but the edit shows it in a wide (one of the only wides in a film of close ups). We could have drawn this out a moment more between them.
The film has some great big budget feeling moments (obviously done on a shoestring budget) that pay off well. It shows golf and golf life off really well. The humor is set up well, though sometimes falls short of the full payoff potential. Jokes that landed for me, but could have been even better, included:
*asking a drunk person "can you drive?" to a response "I have a license." & pretty much the entire concept of driving to a home across the street (we needed more about this guy's life, it breeds comedic potential)
*the gay character getting the guy to suck venom out of his rear (but I feel like this could have been funnier with a rivalry established throughout and this was his final win). The scene is funny, but could have used a good final moment as the people react to seeing it. As it is the other characters just sort of drive by without purpose and exit with less purpose. This needed something else.
Side note: The film did nicely with having a gay character that had personality beyond being just the token-gay joke. I think we should have leaned into his dark sense of messing with his straight friends and enemies.
*the fake/real snake joke (but it could have paid off a little better if the real snake scene had ended in a little more chaos ensuing because of it, like the character running scared and ruining somebody's hole in one... something like that).
*the announcers were very funny, though I wish they had been established a little earlier. I'll always give thumbs up to a good Best in Show or Pitch Perfect type commentator montage.
Some issues I had with it were:
*why would the guy wear his exterminator suit to a new job's first day? It was needed for a joke about somebody mistaking him for a vendor and ruining the surprise (which was funny), but should have been motivated differently as to why he's still wearing that. Maybe his wife threw him out and all he has is that suit, he slept on the course so as not to be late... all of this would have pushed his character (I think rightfully so) more to the brink of desperation
and made him taking the job funnier.
*Everything about his home life was inconsistent and didn't strike me as funny. His home is supposed to be super elegant (because his rich girlfriend owns it), but it mostly looked like a nice regular home, not any kind of giant mansion as it should have been. His girlfriend is awful to him, with little redeeming factors & shockingly they make up near the end for no clear reason. I think some more clever character writing for his girlfriend was needed to get her character to pop. Her costumes should have been a little more thought out and over the top to bring out her extra-ness. The scene with a pleasuring object in bed could have been funny if it were part of a series of her messing with him when he goes home and him (like a Steve Carrel type moment) deciding to finally stand up for himself and show her he can pleasure himself too. This could have been a series of scenes where he goes home and has to deal with her until he can't anymore. If I had rewritten it I think they should have properly broken up with him sometimes invited into the bedroom and sometimes not. What would have made her funny wouldn't have lead to her being with him at the end, though. This was an odd choice I didn't like. As someone who is often hired to sweeten scripts up, I kept wondering why in the world he was with her as no redeemable qualities existed & either wanted to make her more likable (if she was indeed going to be with him at the end) or (my preference) had her go total Courtney Love and mess with him & be truly terrible.
*I had a problem with pacing. I wanted to get the script and sweeten it a bit, trim some drag, particularly in the first half and one excruciatingly long scene in the clubhouse on O Flanagan's characters first day that should have been split between multiple locations & probably on the golf course itself as they played a round. Maybe this was where they had to shoot, but on the fourth 5 min scene we cut back it's like alright already... let's get to the funny, let's get to the golf.
*I would have liked a bit more individual villain quirks and ongoing gags which gave them more to do. I would have leaned into the super villain aspect of the alternate golf club owner more (I'm thinking eye patch & always holding a rifle). His son, another villain, only gets interesting (and funny) near the end which was far too late to make the character fun or deep. His character is meant to be a 1980's/90's smug rich kid, like the guy who runs the evil burger rival Mondo Burger in the film Good Burger. However, despite it being an archetype I felt the character was a little too simply motivated and similar to other versions in other films (didn't stand out enough).
*Mad props for the director who was also the cinematographer according to IMDB. Overall it was shot well, but I did have an issue with the windows amount of over-exposure. In low budget you expose for the darks so you can use less lighting, which I understand, but some tricks could have helped this such as outside window-tint (which can be used over and over) & simply closing blinds, turning the scene toward a wall or taking the scene outside. I particularly cringed when a character walks in from outside and the over exposed sun is there the entire time. I really do get the struggle, but there is always a way to hide it even in low budget and quick turnaround set ups. Even night interiors had over exposed white walls that just needed a flag. I hate lightning scenes myself, so I couldn't have done better, but I know when it's wrong and I hope this helps for future lighting scenes... take that extra minute. It was distracting. The outside scenes were so perfectly exposed and balanced, so obviously the crew knew what they were doing... just maybe rushed the interiors and maybe didn't have a few tools they needed (like the ND filter sheets for windows).
My overall takeaway:
I liked the film, saw the potential and laughed more than once. We're not quite to the level of perfection of Dan Akroyd, John Candy comedic genius, but I highly respect making the film and getting it out there. I hope it was successful and I hope it leads to more like-projects that will be even better. Congrats on finishing the film and I'm excited to see what's next.
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