The macabre story of a man’s last day before he dies, The Living Wake stars comic musician Mike O’Connell as the lovably insufferable K. Roth Binew, with Jesse Eisenberg as his meek manservant, Mills.
With Mills pedaling his rickshaw, the film’s ego-bloated antihero sets out to invite his enemies to his own wake before he plans to pass away from a vague, undiagnosed illness. Set in a timeless dreamscape, the lyrically hyper-real screenplay is infused with elements of fantasy, yielding a morbid storybook feel that defies genre.
Recalling Ignatius J. Reilly of A Confederacy of Dunces, K. Roth Binew hastily makes last-minute preparations for his “good-bye party” in this bittersweet fable directed by Sol Tryon and written by O’Connell and Peter Kline. A DIY labor of love with intelligence and heart, The Living Wake has never enjoyed traditional distribution, in spite of having two theatrical releases. But it’s clearly destined to become a cult favorite on the web and DVD.
Check out the film’s official site, watch it on Amazon On Demand
or iTunes, visit K. Roth Binew’s Emporium, catch deleted scenes on YouTube, stop by Mike O’Connell‘s own website, and buy the DVD
.
Click through below for a gallery of images from the film.
