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MURPHY'S LAW
Produced, Written, and Edited by Joe and Dan Masucci
Directed by Dan Masucci
Director of Photography - Joe MasucciTad - Todd Birmingham
Sucks to be Tad.
Sucks big time.
In a past life, brother must have kicked some burnt, crippled kid's puppy under a bus or something. From the moment Tad gets out of bed, his day goes from terrible to downright hellish as Fate goes all Lord of the Dance and stomps Dueling Banjos on his nutsack.
In their newest production, the Masucci brothers, the twisted masterminds behind the incredibly fun X-FILES fanfilm GRACELAND, give us a darkly comedic tale of an average joe whose world collapses around him in a drawn out illustration of the old adage from which MURPHY'S LAW gets its title.
As it turns out, we've been somewhat misquoting Murphy all these years. What Rocket Scientist Edward A. Murphy actually said was: "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it." (For the ful story, check out the Masucci's website) A few days later Murphy was misquoted in the press and today we have: "whatever can go wrong, will."
And that is exactly what happens during the course of Tad's day. His girl friend leaves him via answering machine. On the drive to work he dumps coffee in his lap after having to wait in line behind those slow-ordering fellows who always seem to put a strain on my day. That's just a tip of the iceberg, as the day proceeds, Tad loses a great many things including his job, his pants, and his bowels.
There's no overall story or structure to MURPHY'S LAW, just a chronicle of Tad's horrendous day built upon the set-up/punchline method of scriptwriting. For a short film told with such an episodic construction, the plot cues are revealed in a rhythmatic fashion that doesn't necessarily take away from their darkly comedic bite. Some gags we see coming, some we don't, but each soul-ending abyss Tad finds himself falling into is far deeper than the last.
About halfway through MURPHY'S LAW I realized I had stopped laughing. Not because the film wasn't funny, but I found myself relating the events to occurrences that have happened my own life. As an actor, Todd Birmingham never allows himself to play up the character for laughs. It's his ability to maintain a straight face that helps create the tangibility with the audience. He never winks to break down the cinematic wall, instead he opts to play Tad as the ultimate straight man: the everyman. Because of this, the film feels like it's laying it on a little thick, and it does, but that's the nature of comedy.
The Masucci's have a made a better movie than the GRACELAND, as every moviemaker should with each subsequent project. The box proudly boast that MURPHY'S LAW was made for $97. My guess is that's the cost of digital tape. Calculated out, they could have made a feature for $300, which is exactly what Wayne Harold did with TOWNIES, another darkly comic tale that I admire immensely. These are gentleman who prove that you don't need money to engaging entertainment, just determination and talent.