GREENER GRASS
On the surface, GREENER GRASS is an absurdist surrealist satire of an overly saturated suburban life that glows around the edges. Where every adult wears braces and drives a golf cart. And some individuals generously give away their baby at a soccer match and love their backyard so much they turn their pool water into popsicles.
The feature film debut from stars / writers / directors Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe made me cry from laughter four times, and brought me to tears before I even pressed play for a second viewing. These suburbs are populated with Beck Bennet (SNL Shorts), NeilCasey (UCB Comedy), Mary Holand (Comedy Bang Bang), and D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place). This film feels like the perfect place to live.
But if we look below the surface of the dreamy pristine manicured life of the suburbs, as David Lynch did in the opening scene of BLUE VELVET, we find a darkness churning below the grass.
In the painful pursuit of perfection, every adult wears braces and you force a smile until your muscles are quivering with tension. And when children are burdened with the pressure of school, sports, and the arts, they become something else to please their parents.
With crippling conformity, every adult drives a golf cart, and their pastel polos and shorts are so similar that you may find yourself unknowingly making out with your best friend’s better half. And for some, being like their neighbor isn’t enough. They must be their neighbor by taking over their life completely.
It’s a pleasure to punish yourself with politeness by giving your baby away as an an act of gratitude for a compliment. If a waiter drops your food, you will gladly eat it off the floor to avoid making a scene. And it would be rude to question that validity of someone’s miraculous pregnancy with a soccer ball named Twilson.
After being seduced by your status symbol, you take the pure pool water with you everywhere, and turn it into popsicles so you can enjoy it in a new way. And you do all this while ignoring the ominous fact that your pool was the burial ground for a horse from the times of Pangea, a theory the priest at the pool party does not approve.
GREENER GRASS demands multiple viewings because the frame is packed with subtle visual jokes, and, if you’re like me, you drowned out many of the jokes with your own laughter. DeBoer and Luebbe have birthed one of the best comedies of the decade, and I am so glad they have given their baby away to us to keep as our own.
by Duncan
For Fans Of / Further Viewing
BLUE VELVET - A nightmarish vision of the suburbs
THE LOBSTER - If you’re unloved you must become something else
THE STEPFORD WIVES - Good is not perfect
DeBoer & Luebbe’s Short Films
THE ARRIVAL (2017) - https://vimeo.com/286030523
BUZZ (2016) - https://vimeo.com/321375131
GREENER GRASS (2015) - https://vimeo.com/282898783
And The Moveable Fest’s interview series with the key creatives: