Red Flag

Red Flag

2012. USA. Written and directed by Alex Karpovsky. With Karpovsky, Dustin Guy Defa, Jennifer Prediger, Keith Poulson. The version of himself that Karpovsky plays in his laugh-out-loud comedy Red Flag is an even more hilarious reinvention of the filmmaker-actor's inimitable on-screen persona—familiar from his comic turns in Lena Dunham’s Girls and Tiny Furniture, and in Madeleine Olnek’s Co-Dependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (a Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Award nominee in 2011). Newly single thanks to his aversion to marriage, Karpovsky embarks on a road trip throughout the American south to screen his second feature, Woodpecker, at college campuses and indie cinemas. He conscripts his reluctant friend Henry to go along for the ride (Onur Tukel, all shaggy-dog warmth). Inevitably, they get mixed up in series of madcap misadventures, including Karpovsky’s one-night stand with a congenial stalker. Gleefully indulging the myriad indignities of a life in microbudget cinema, Karpovsky's self-deprecating star turn and docu-fictional style transcend the very limitations the movie sends up. 84 min.