'Validation' is fun, sweet, and entertaining

Validation (2007)
Starring: TJ Thyne and Vicki Davis
Director: Kurt Kuenne

Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

A parking attendant (Thyne) with a gift for lifting people's spirits falls in love with the one person he can't make smile (Davis).

If you're feeling down and/or are in the mood for a romantic comedy, you need to watch "Validation". Even if you're happy and just want to watch something really fun and entertaining, you need to watch "Validation".  Go ahead and click on the embedded video below! I guarantee you will have a smile on your face at the end of its 15-minutes run-time... and I likewise feel you'll find yourself adding this to your lists of favorite romantic comedies and urban fantasy films. You'll also find yourself humming the theme song, "Smile".

I probably already gave too much away about the film between the teaser summary at the top and the paragraph above, so I'll just add that if liked T.J. Thynes on the long-running Fox series "Bones" (2005 - 2017), you'll love him after seeing his performance here.

I love everything about this short film. It's among the most solid Ten of Ten Stars I've awarded since I began writing reviews again in 2003. If I could, I'd give it Eleven Stars, because it deserves a Star for the punnish title alone. (If you've spent any time on my Facebook page, you know how much I love puns.)

The greatest terrible mini-musical you'll ever see!

Rent-a-Person (2004)
Starring: James Haven, Jennifer Haworth, Oscar Torres, and JoJo Henrickson
Director: Kurt Kuenne

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A lonely bathroom attendant (Haven) gains fame and fortune when he starts a business that pairs single drivers with a second person so they can use the carpool lane. But will he ever find love?

 

You've heard the phrase "so bad it's good"? It applies to film so ineptly made they become fun despite themselves... but it can also be applied to films like "Rent-a-Person" that take tropes and turn them upside down, take jokes to ridiculous extremes, or are such self-aware spoofs that they not only poke fun at their subject matter but end up making fun of themselves. And what we have here is not just good... it's GREAT!

Whether you love the movie musicals from the 1940s through the early 1960s, or hate them, I think you're going to get a big kick out of "Rent-a-Person". The same is true if you're just in the mood for an off-center comedy. 

Click below and sit back and enjoy the product of writer/director/songwriter Kurt Kuenne. If nothing else, you owe yourself the joy of experiencing the most inappropriate opening number of any musical you're ever likely to see anywhere.

Trivia: Jon Bokenkamp, the creator of "The Blacklist" and "Blacklist Redemption" television series, is featured in the opening scene of this film and credited as "Pooper". Kurt Kuenne has also directed a number of episodes of "The Blacklist." Click here to visit Kuenne's website.