You’re
invited to the wackiest wedding since Robert Altman last
threw the rice, where no one is polite and everyone “acts”
real. What is truth, and what is fiction? How does one discern
reality from pretense? These are serious questions, but if you’re
looking for answers à la Japanese abstraction, German expressionism
or Swedish nihilism, keep looking, because The Wedding Video has
the answer, “REAL WORLD” style. In the first film
to come out of the MTV phenomenon, Norman Korpi (the gay guy from
“Real World-New York”) and creative partner Clint
Cowen have made a deliciously wicked satire that skewers all the
clichés and conventions of the reality show. Norm plays
“Norm” who hires “Clint” to film his gay
wedding. He invites his best friends - all popular “Real
World" alums - and has Clint tape them as they arrive for
the bachelor party and ceremony. The cast members have great fun
parodying the on-air personas that MTV created for them through
its editing: San Francisco’s Rachel is now the ultimate
self-centered bitch, London’s Lars has his nose stuck up
so high he might die from asphyxiation, and New York’s Heather
B. becomes a walking-talking hip-hop video. And in the “true”
manner of such shows, every backstab, every catfight, and every
shocking revelation is caught on videotape for our tawdry entertainment.
As the reality genre pushes the envelope - and strains credibility
- it becomes ripe for parody; who better to do it than the people
who created it in the first place? --Andrew Preis