Lots of American comedies bill themselves as “outrageous” and it’s usually obnoxious, but when Scandinavians tell you something is offensive you can usually believe them (a møøse biting your sister has a way of turning the volume down on other stuff). Such is certainly the case with Klown Forever, the follow-up to Klown from the Danish comedy team of “Klown” (Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen).
Where the first film featured a bawdy canoe trip to a river-side brothel (along with side plots about a sexually aggressive pancake chef and a teen boy with a micropenis), the sequel takes Hvam and Christensen to LA, where they screw things up in typical Klown fashion, only now with LA stuff, like Adam Levine and Nissan Cubes. Oh, and Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones. Did you know he is Danish? Did anyone else notice Frank Hvam’s Game of Thrones cameo as the bitchy receptionist at the Citadel? Is this thing on?
Here’s the official rundown:
Klown Forever follows estranged best friends Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam as they travel to the States seeking fame, fortune and friendship, only to immediately dive head-first into an impressive array of wildly inappropriate misadventures and unforgettably mortifying social situations.
When Casper attempts to break into Hollywood, Frank follows him to Los Angeles, seeing an opportunity to salvage their strained relationship. As the guys come face-to-face with a number of LA’s denizens—including Isla Fisher, Adam Levine and “Game of Thrones’” star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau—it’s clear that they’re equally ready and willing to take on Hollywood…but is Hollywood prepared for Casper and Frank?
A reunion with Klown director Mikkel Nørgaard, Klown Forever sees the series, best described as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as directed by Lars von Trier, reach ingenious new heights––and stoop to gut-wrenchingly hilarious lows.
And, as you may have noticed, the trailer even includes a pull quote from yours truly. Since quoting me is all the rage, here’s a longer one:
Klown often gets compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is fair, given its penchant for heated comedic dialogues, directed improv, and etiquette-based comedy, where the characters are named after the actors and modeled after their lives as famous comedians in Denmark. But whereas Larry David is a slightly misanthropic and extremely neurotic Everyman, the Klown boys push their fictionalized natural personas right up to the edge of sociopathy. They don’t do terrible things by accident, they make conscious choices to engage in indefensible behavior.
Can you laugh at sociopathic, criminal behavior, even when it isn’t always “fun?” Find out September 2nd, when Klown Forever hits select theaters and VOD.
Vince Mancini is a writer, comedian, and podcaster. A graduate of Columbia’s non-fiction MFA program, his work has appeared on FilmDrunk, the UPROXX network, the Portland Mercury, the East Bay Express, and all over his mom’s refrigerator. Fan FilmDrunk on Facebook, find the latest movie reviews here.