Bingo: the King of Mornings

15

Clowns are clearly making a comeback, which is no laughing matter if you suffer from Coulrophobia.

The best clown on TV, one Herschel Krustofsky (AKA Krusty), has had stiff competition of late, including It’s Pennywise, Twisty from American Horror Story, Zach Galifianakis’ Baskets, and the biggest, creepiest clown of all, the President of the US of A.

Pulling up alongside them all in a teeny tiny car is Mexican entertainer Bingo. But does he have the balls - to juggle, naturally - to compete with the current clown competition?

boom reviews Bingo: the King of Mornings
And who is up next to play the Wheel of Misfortune- anyone?

With a mother who was a big soap star in here day in Brazil, it’s no surprise that her son Augusto (Vladimir Brichta) was drawn into the limelight. Despite being a big draw in the adult entertainment business, Augusto had bigger dreams.

Deciding to turn his back on porn, he looked to work in the hugely popular world of soap opera, where you could become a household name overnight. It was whilst attending an audition for a role in a soap, that Augusto saw a queue of clowns at the studio. When he enquired what they were all doing there, he was told that they were auditioning to be the presenter of a new children’s TV show. Bingo had been a huge hit in the US, and now they were hoping to replicate his success with Mexico’s very own version.

Considering the potential audience, Augusto decides to join the queue and try his luck. Before you can say “honk honk”, Augusto gets the gig as Bingo. But as he soon discovers, clowning around doesn’t guarantee an easy life.

boom reviews Bingo: the King of Mornings
Call yourself a clown...

After a successful career in film editing, snipping the likes of City of God, City of Men, The Tree of Life and 2014’s RoboCop, Daniel Rezende puts the scissors down in favour of getting behind the camera for this his debut feature. He doesn’t do a bad job of it either.

One area he succeeds in is in his visual interpretation of his country in the eighties. It is on the cusp of technological breakthroughs, whilst still embracing the tech available there and then. Just little touches like the playback of video, and the crackly imagery you often have to contend with, that you tried to defeat with the tracking knob.

He also gets a great performance out of Brichta, who pretty much has to carry the film in his gloved hands.

Where he struggles however, is in the story telling department. The journey that Bingo makes is not only obvious, but also a little on the clichéd side: drugs, sex and rock and forward roll. He also keeps the biggest surprise until the end, by announcing that Bingo is actually based on a true story. It just so happens that the abbreviated story he tells at the end of the film, almost as if it’s an afterthought, sounds a far more interesting premise than the one he delivers. Oops.

With so many clowns in vogue at the moment, Bingo would struggle to significantly toot our horn, and as a result miss out on our top five list of current clowners. With a bit more work on his directing craft though, Rezende could still turn out to be a class act.

we give this three out of five