An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn

An empty facsimile of quirk.

In practice, unfortunately, the film is so intent on creating a WTF universe that the characters register as little more than crude outlines.

A stab at absurdism that results in a swampy wallow in affectation.

We are all more like characters in An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn than anyone is likely to admit.

The parade of bad taste and tacky outfits sometimes brings to mind early John Waters minus its spirit of pre-punk camp, or Quentin Dupieux without the dream logic and camera sense.

A Hosking character doesn't just walk into a room. They move like stop-motion figures covered in human skin.

It shouldn't work, yet miraculously most of it does.

It's not often that Aubrey Plaza appears in a movie without being its most deadpan performer, but she's surrounded by stony-faced competition in this comedy.

Plaza and Clement are especially adept at finding the yearning souls of their characters, something that perhaps isn't in the script.

Some will find this impenetrable and irritating, but audiences willing to tune into Hosking's off-kilter style will be moved by the ridiculous love stories and relish the hilarious eccentricity.

Plaza occupies Hosking's deadpan surreal world like she's born to it, though Clement banks the biggest laughs with his pathetic bids to impress: his monologue about childhood bowel movements and candy is a hapless delight.

It is so stuffed with jokes that there are even solid jokes in the background of other jokes.