The Living Wake (2010)

50% of critics liked it
(16 reviews)
69% of users liked it
(474 ratings)

"The Living Wake" is a dark comedy set in a timeless storybook universe. Self-proclaimed artist and genius, K. Roth Binew (Mike O'Connell), has one day to live. He has enlisted his best and only friend, Mills Joquin (Jesse Eisenberg), to take him around on a bicycle powered rickshaw. In a final… More "The Living Wake" is a dark comedy set in a timeless storybook universe. Self-proclaimed artist and genius, K. Roth Binew (Mike O'Connell), has one day to live. He has enlisted his best and only friend, Mills Joquin (Jesse Eisenberg), to take him around on a bicycle powered rickshaw. In a final attempt to probe life's deepest mysteries, Binew endures one ridiculous trial after the next. He concludes his day with a final performance, his living wake. On a makeshift stage in an open field, Binew's friends and enemies gather to witness his madness one final time.

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Sol Tryon
Written By: Peter Kline, Mike O'Connell
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: May 21, 2010 Wide
On DVD: Aug 10, 2010
Studio: Mangusta Productions

Critic Reviews

Robert Koehler, Variety
In the end, however, pic defies all categorization, joining a small pantheon of pics including "Withnail & I" and Peter Greenaway's "Drowning byNumbers" that whistle past the graveyard with aplomb.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Sol Tryon's The Living Wake seems but a protracted act of stultifying self-indulgence -- but then maybe that's the point.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Strains to accommodate its daft premise and pontificating lead.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
This is a terminally whimsical vanity project that would probably have been a chore to sit through even in its original intended format, a 20-minute stage monologue.
Nick Schager, Village Voice
Fatally eccentric.
Ted Fry, Seattle Times
In all, it's a peculiar piece of absurdist entertainment that occupies a singular niche in American indie cinema.
Don R. Lewis, Film Threat
Funny, touching, insane, ridiculous and brilliant are just a few words I would use to describe "The Living Wake." Films like this need to be seen so seek it out, you'll be glad you did.
Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest
An out-of-the-blue delight...I found (central character K. Roth) Binew to be inspiring and damn funny in his lack of a psychological/vocal filter.
John P. McCarthy, Boxoffice Magazine
An alienating experience up until the final fifteen minutes when, during the titular ceremony, it suddenly seems loveable-like an annoyingly oafish pup that won't stop nuzzling until you break down and scratch its belly.
Janos Gereben, Entertainment Insiders
A small, peculiar film with a big, grating personality, The Living Wake is like a party crasher at an intimate gathering, momentarily intriguing and difficult to forget, but mostly for the wrong reasons.
Jay Antani, Moving Pictures Magazine
we get the sense that O'Connell is having all the fun, leaving the rest of us to suffer through the indulgences of this aggressively awful comedy
Adam Lippe, Examiner.com
For some reason, despite the constant breaking of the fourth wall, O'Connell thinks we'll care about the twerpy Binew and find his demise moving.
Nathan Rabin, AV Club
Wes Anderson has much to answer for.
Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
A refreshingly original, well-acted and delightfully bizarre amalgamation of comedy, satire, drama and tragedy that's often amusing and unpredictable, but lacks a genuinely poignant emotional core.
Aaron Hillis, Time Out New York
Sol Tryon's dark, irrepressibly hilarious fable offers highbrow absurdism and low-budget filmmaking at their most clever and outlandish.
Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine
So insistently irritating and so consistently lacking in laughs that Sol Tryon's alleged comedy quickly becomes an exercise in exhaustion.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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♥˩ƳИИ &

Cast: Mike O'Connell, Jesse Eisenberg, Jim Gaffigan, Ann Dowd, Eddie Pepitone, Diane Kagan, Matthew Cowles, Jill Larson, Kurt Haas Director: Sol Tryon Summary: When his doctor informs him he'll die soon from an unnamed disease, self-proclaimed artist K. Roth Binew… More
Cast: Mike O'Connell, Jesse Eisenberg, Jim Gaffigan, Ann Dowd, Eddie Pepitone, Diane Kagan, Matthew Cowles, Jill Larson, Kurt Haas Director: Sol Tryon Summary: When his doctor informs him he'll die soon from an unnamed disease, self-proclaimed artist K. Roth Binew (Mike O'Connell) -- who's never completed a work of art -- decides to celebrate his life with a party in this absurdist black comedy. As poet and biographer Mills Joaquin (Jesse Eisenberg) drives him around in a bicycle-powered rickshaw, New delivers invitations for the wake that will occur that evening. My Thoughts: "Quite the odd, quirky, artsy, and original film. The main character was a bit ridiculous and over the top, but again quite enjoyable to watch as he rambled on. It is a movie that stands on its own, haven't seen anything quite like it before which is always a good and bad thing. Some people won't like it and other's will. I enjoyed it for most parts. Of course the ending was the best part for me. Very dramatic and I loved the song."
Walter M

For the record, K. Roth Binew(Mike O'Connell, who also co-wrote the script) is not a relief pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. Rather, he is a writer/poet/former mental patient, whose father(Jim Gaffigan) abandoned him before he could teach him the secret of the one great… More
For the record, K. Roth Binew(Mike O'Connell, who also co-wrote the script) is not a relief pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. Rather, he is a writer/poet/former mental patient, whose father(Jim Gaffigan) abandoned him before he could teach him the secret of the one great monologue, and has been diagnosed with an unnamed/vague/fatal disease. On his final day on this planet, he is accompanied as always by Mills(Jesse Eisenberg), his man/chauffeur/biographer, to hand out invitations to his wake that night, starting with his belligerent neighbor Reginald(Eddie Pepitone). Sadly, the viking funeral is not an option at the undertakers, so he visits a prostitute(Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine) to cheer himself up. "The Living Wake" is a movie undone by too much quirkiness when less would have been more and that especially applies to the character of K. Roth Binew who just never shuts up. A much better approach would have been to pull the camera back to show the world in relation to him. A key example would have been in the scene with the prostitute which should have had a wider frame in showing both the sex and Mills taking notes simultaneously, emphasizing how he tilts the axis of the world just a little towards the strange. Just because Binew is intent on telling his own story(and isn't that Mills' job anyway?) does not mean that the movie has to play into the narcissism of the character unless the filmmakers are maybe narcissists themselves? That being said, the climax is definitely moving, even if it is too little too late.