Three couples in troubled relationships–whether individual participants realize it or not–meet at a charming, waterside Louisiana farm for an orgy. If in your mind that description and the film's title scream “PORN!” (or, at the very least, “SKINEMAX SOFT CORE!”), think again. Cummings Farm contains no nudity.
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Is it raunchy? You betcha. Implied penetration? Check! Funny as hell? Absolutely. These aren't horndogs who casually agreed to swap bodily fluids–at least not all of them. The most into it is '70s-porno-mustachioed Todd (Ted Beck, in his feature acting and screenwriting debut), who created talking points for the night's events. “I've never seen him so focused,” observes his dim hausfrau of a wife, Tina (Laura Silverman, Sarah's sister and co-star on
The Sarah Silverman Program). She's obviously not into it but believes as Ted's wife she must obey him. Tina also convinced her girlfriends to show up with their boyfriends, even though none of the dudes like one another. Heck, they barely like their women. Alan (Adam Busch of TV's
Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Yasmine (Yasmine Kittles, in her second film role) are bored with one another. Gordon (Jordan Kessler, a production-side vet who has only previously had tiny parts) is a stinkin' drunk, frustrating the woman most desired by the other guys, Rachel (Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, whose packed acting resume includes
Supra Pirate Booty Hunt). What sounds like a bad idea going in only gets worse on Cummings Farm, something amplified by Andrew Drazek's tight direction and Beck's crackling script. I can't agree on which of the three lines I scribbled down in my notepad is best, so I'll share the one that gives the least away: “It might be the Ecstasy, but I think I can feel your sperm swimming in my brain.” Move over, Shakespeare.
Cummings Farms plays at 7:30 tonight at Edwards Island Cinemas. Go here for ticket info.
Also
recommended and playing today at NBFF: Learning From Light: The Vision of I.M. Pei; Living It
Forever; Modjeska Woman Triumphant; A Shine
of Rainbows; So Right So Smart.
The
long list (today's entries that sound promising): Bride Flight; Christina; Cleanflix; Elephant in the Living Room; Jesse's Story; Made in Hungaria; Make It Count: The Element Story; Peepers; Ride the Divide; When the World Breaks.
Theaters:
Regency Lido Theatre, 3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach; Regency
South Coast Village Theatre, 1561 W. Sunflower Ave.,
Santa Ana; The Studio at Sage Hill
School, 20402 Newport Coast Dr., Newport Beach.
Visit newportbeachfilmfest.com
for times, theaters and ticket information.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
