Review: Nobody Famous is just about the right title for this wan comedy

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• Nobody Famous
• Directed by: Sarah Rotella
• Written by: Adrianna DiLonardo
• Starring: Winny Clarke, Justin Gerhard, Evan Giovanni, Grainne O’Flynn and Justine Nelson
• Classification: 14A
• Length: 89 minutes

Early in Sarah Rotella’s low-budget comedy following the rivalries and jealousies among a group of struggling L.A. actors (played, naturally, by Canadians), one character remarks, “It’s like you two are inseparable.” Close, but I think the word she was looking for was “insufferable,” as every single person here deserves little to no screen time. This isn’t to say there haven’t been successful films made about horrible individuals in the past, but Rotella’s simply sticks us in a cabin with three girls and two guys who are not only awful, but awfully dull. Perhaps this approach would have worked if director and screenwriter Adrianna DiLonardo shifted up a late-film Shallow Grave-esque twist, but the burst of dark-comic energy comes too little, too late. Instead, we’re asked to find ourselves swept up in the myriad teeny-tiny dramas of some remarkably self-obsessed dolts as they swap sexual partners and seethe over missed career opportunities. Making Nobody Famous was likely a fun exercise for the cast – the cottage setting that Rotella and her crew found is gorgeous – but I hope no one imagined this as a calling card for bigger and better things south of the border.

Nobody Famous opens May 25 in Toronto.