Comedic, but not romanticised, Festival is writer-director Annie Griffin’s portrayal of life beneath the surface of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. An ensemble piece, the film weaves together stories as Irish comic, Tommy O’Dwyer (Chris O’Dowd), attempts to seduce a local radio host and comedy competition juror, Joan Gerard (Daniela Nardini), who herself is involved in a clash of personalities with arrogant celebrity comic, Sean Sullivan (Stephen Mangan), a member of her judging panel.
These characters are only a few in a collection of personalities serving to highlight the tensions between the entertainment industry and the personal happiness of its stars. “This is a festival, it’s about fun”, Joan’s producer tells her in one scene and it is this expectation of constant joviality that weighs so heavily upon the lives of entertainers. Indeed, even when Sean and his disillusioned agent, Petra (Raquel Cassidy), are arguing on a hotel staircase, passing tourists assume that they must be witnessing a play. Festivals may bring lives together, but they can also disrupt them. It is this irony that Griffin is interested in.
Sadly though, the director’s approach to her exploration of the showbiz underbelly is not always a success. Take, for example, her unabashed portrayal of sex. The sight of Tommy lifting his face from Joan’s crotch to swig on a Barcardi miniature amuses, but a scene in which a comic whose routine is reliant upon having his hand in a puppet’s rear-end finds himself on the receiving end of his own scenario seems entirely misjudged.
The main problem though is that Festival simply tries to do too much. The central threads engage, but elsewhere characters seem peripheral and weakly drawn - a trio of kooky Canadian performers are little more than a clichéd annoyance, whilst the tragic arc of a clergyman and his one-man show about paedophile priests seems largely unnecessary. Had it been more focused then this bleak comedy could have been a hit, instead though the frequent variation in quality creates a link between entertainment and frustration almost as strong as the one the story attempts to exemplify.
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