Entertainment

Entertainment (2015)

Set in the Mojave Desert, the film follows a broken-down comedian playing clubs across the Southwest, working his way to Los Angeles to meet his estranged daughter.

Date of release
2015-11-13
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (76)
Runtime
1h 53m
Genres
Drama, Comedy
Director
Rick Alverson

Casting

Interesting facts

Entertainment is a 2015 American drama film directed by Rick Alverson, starring Gregg Turkington, Tye Sheridan, and John C. Reilly. It is loosely based on Turkington's Neil Hamburger character. The plot follows a stand-up comedian as he performs in various locations where the audience is either hostile or indifferent to him. Alverson, Turkington and Tim Heidecker co-wrote the film.

Production

Gregg Turkington had previously appeared in director Rick Alverson's The Comedy. Alverson proposed to Turkington the idea of making a film based on his character Neil Hamburger. The two discussed what Hamburger's character would be like off stage, both finding that his life would be dull and not very dynamic.

The film's script was written by Alverson, Turkington and Tim Heidecker. The film's dialogue is improvised. Turkington described the dialogue as "really more based on descriptions of the tone or the mood that was needed in particular scenes, and kind of running with that.

Turkington and Alverson initially disagreed on some aspects of the Neil Hamburger character, such as never showing the character without his glasses and never showing the character talking in a normal voice.

Alverson felt the film wouldn't be credible if Turkington constantly spoke in his Neil Hamburger voice. Among the locations Hamburger visits in the film is an aircraft boneyard. No actual tours take place at the location which was part of a military facility in Mojave, California, which allowed them a few hours to film where they could only shoot the film in certain directions.

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