Imagine if the Libertarian Party made a movie that mocked the Republican Party and The Sierra Club with a combination of slapstick, absurdly strident political diatribes and really strange dick jokes. That's about as close as I can come to describing The Ultimate Truth.
Jeda (Keir Howeld) is a jobless Australian now living in England with his girlfriend. He gets into a bar fight with the rich and drunk Monty (Jonathan Rhodes) and puts him in the hospital. Meanwhile, teenaged Timothy (William Gregory) finds himself shocked into pseudo-political awareness by watching anti-capitalist protesters on television. He's especially take with the words of The Cardinal (Charles Mayer), leader of a group called Project Mojo. Timothy begins spouting off like a mad polemicist from the early days of Socialism, unaware that his heroes in Project Mojo are just a bunch of idiots who congregate at a shack in the woods while they decide what to protest next. Jeda decides he should try to make a career in politics and enlists his friend Weazel (Jackson Wright), who seems like he just dropped out from some college political science class, hooks up with the newly intense Timothy, and starts his own political movement called Verdeant Thrust when the local Green Party wants nothing to do with him. Eventually, everyone converges at a party thrown by an area businessman, where disillusionment, inspiration and a slapfight ensue.
It's always odd watching low-profile British films. Big name, big budget British movies are usually made with an eye toward the American market, so their story and dialog are somewhat U.S. friendly. Stuff like The Ultimate Truth, though, is exclusively aimed at a domestic audience and is packed full of slang and cultural references that make absolutely no sense to non-Brits. So, for example, there's a lot of penis grabbing and references to penis grabbing in The Ultimate Truth but I have no idea if that's supposed to be some sort of nod to homosexuality, latent homosexuality or something else entirely. There's also a blatantly classist tone to the story, rich vs. poor with the middle class stuck in between, that you NEVER see in American films. It's so over-the-top in its class consciousness that I can't tell if it's making fun of class distinctions in Britain or making fun of the overemphasis of such class distinctions.
I also can't make heads nor tails out of the political references in the story. Most of them seem like they came out of a Socialist pamphlet of the 1930s instead of the mouth of someone living in the 21st century. Even the most far-out, left wing American films wouldn't say what's in this movie, but I haven't the foggiest notion of what these antique harangues against the free market are meant to say about modern British politics.
Some comedy is universal, though, and The Ultimate Truth has a bit of that. A man reciting a love poem to his woman and then sneezing on her. Overly precious environmentalists upset because someone steps on a sapling. A guy putting a stethoscope to his testicles and hearing the ocean.
The film also deserves credit for having a better looking cast than many British films. I'd say at least three-quarters of the actors in the movie are pretty enough to make it in Hollywood, which is a much higher ratio than most movies out of Great Britain.
If you're looking for a funny movie, the truth about The Ultimate Truth is that you'll be staring at the screen with a puzzled look on your face more often than you'll be laughing.
Jeda (Keir Howeld) is a jobless Australian now living in England with his girlfriend. He gets into a bar fight with the rich and drunk Monty (Jonathan Rhodes) and puts him in the hospital. Meanwhile, teenaged Timothy (William Gregory) finds himself shocked into pseudo-political awareness by watching anti-capitalist protesters on television. He's especially take with the words of The Cardinal (Charles Mayer), leader of a group called Project Mojo. Timothy begins spouting off like a mad polemicist from the early days of Socialism, unaware that his heroes in Project Mojo are just a bunch of idiots who congregate at a shack in the woods while they decide what to protest next. Jeda decides he should try to make a career in politics and enlists his friend Weazel (Jackson Wright), who seems like he just dropped out from some college political science class, hooks up with the newly intense Timothy, and starts his own political movement called Verdeant Thrust when the local Green Party wants nothing to do with him. Eventually, everyone converges at a party thrown by an area businessman, where disillusionment, inspiration and a slapfight ensue.
It's always odd watching low-profile British films. Big name, big budget British movies are usually made with an eye toward the American market, so their story and dialog are somewhat U.S. friendly. Stuff like The Ultimate Truth, though, is exclusively aimed at a domestic audience and is packed full of slang and cultural references that make absolutely no sense to non-Brits. So, for example, there's a lot of penis grabbing and references to penis grabbing in The Ultimate Truth but I have no idea if that's supposed to be some sort of nod to homosexuality, latent homosexuality or something else entirely. There's also a blatantly classist tone to the story, rich vs. poor with the middle class stuck in between, that you NEVER see in American films. It's so over-the-top in its class consciousness that I can't tell if it's making fun of class distinctions in Britain or making fun of the overemphasis of such class distinctions.
I also can't make heads nor tails out of the political references in the story. Most of them seem like they came out of a Socialist pamphlet of the 1930s instead of the mouth of someone living in the 21st century. Even the most far-out, left wing American films wouldn't say what's in this movie, but I haven't the foggiest notion of what these antique harangues against the free market are meant to say about modern British politics.
Some comedy is universal, though, and The Ultimate Truth has a bit of that. A man reciting a love poem to his woman and then sneezing on her. Overly precious environmentalists upset because someone steps on a sapling. A guy putting a stethoscope to his testicles and hearing the ocean.
The film also deserves credit for having a better looking cast than many British films. I'd say at least three-quarters of the actors in the movie are pretty enough to make it in Hollywood, which is a much higher ratio than most movies out of Great Britain.
If you're looking for a funny movie, the truth about The Ultimate Truth is that you'll be staring at the screen with a puzzled look on your face more often than you'll be laughing.
