Usually, when movies are titled The Postman or The Mailman they turn out to be a shlocky horror B-Movie Maybe it’s something about the uniform? Who knows? However, The Mailman, written, directed, and starring Joseph Baken is not that at all but actually a musical, a black comedy and a very cute coming-out story. This is actor Baken’s debut directing a feature film and he approaches it with an unbridled passion that makes us not want to dwell on any of the film’s shortcomings.
Baken plays the lead character Phil the mailman a chirpy young man who seems happy enough with his lot (which is not much at all) and who dreams of being a writer. The only two people he knows in the world are his colleagues at the Mail Depot Tanya Miatta Lebile and Ernest (Paul Vogt). Plus Mrs. McGillicuddy (Jack Plotnick) an eccentric old lady who lives on his route and who indulges him in his desire to be a ‘creative person.’
One day she mysteriously disappears and her front door is opened by her estranged son Carl (also Jack Plotnick) who has a somewhat silly and implausible excuse for his mother’s sudden absence.
Phil doesn’t believe the story at all and so turns into an amateur detective to find the truth which actually for once gets him beyond his usual writers’ block and gives him something to actually write about for a change.
It’s a silly wee plot and like every good musical bursts into song as often as it can. There is a lot of talk about Phil’s sexuality with everyone thinking he is into men, but he refuses to be pinned down by old labels which is an excuse for one of his best songs in the film I’M Not Gay.
The Mailman is played like a quirky high-school musical but what it lacks in depth it makes up in its infectious charm. It does, after all, have Jack Plotnick, who in our eyes is one of the most underrated comic actors of his generation, and the only one to our knowledge who has ever won a Best Actress Award (2003 The Comedy Arts Festival). Plus the film’s Executive Producer is Gus Van Sant, which must be the ultimate seal of approval for this wee queer film.
PS It is streaming FREE on YouTube
Labels: 2022, film, Jack Plotnick, Mailman, review
