CFF Review: Bryan Connolly’s Charming Indie Comedy ‘Make Popular Movies’ Punches Up at Hollywood

Void Video
by Evan Jordan

One of the most exciting things about independent movies is being able to bring to life a concept that big studios wouldn’t fund, such as Bryan Connolly’s scathingly accurate satire of the Hollywood film industry Make Popular Movies. After opening with an absurdist skit involving a disruptive gorilla in a theater, which turns out to be a shoot for a commercial, viewers are dropped into a Los Angeles bar alongside hotshot director Lou Bagetti (John Gholson of Maybe Shower, absolutely stealing the show with his comedic chops) as he discusses his upcoming epic with an associate over the phone. The side-splitting altercation he gets into simultaneously with the bartender, though, is when it really sets the stage perfectly for the type of experience the audience is in for: constant chaotic hilarity that almost never lets up.

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