I found Onur Tukel's Summer of Blood pretty funny, but it didn't prepare me for how blown away I'd be by his latest, Applesauce. Tukel has a gift for making the most uncomfortable situations hilarious, especially when they have no right to be. He will build on a dramatic scene, causing us to squirm and cringe and wait for the shit to hit the fan and then...a joke is thrown in that catches us completely off guard. This type of comedy is attempted often, yet rarely works because the filmmaker is not able to find the right tone. Between this movie and Summer of Blood, Tukel is proving to be a master and one of the freshest voices in comedic (and suspenseful) cinema in many a moon.
The set up is deceptively simple. Ron (Tukel) calls into a radio talk show to confess the worst thing he's ever done (and apparently never told anyone). The opportunity, though, is cut off by his wife (Trieste Kelly Dunn), so when they get out to dinner with best friends Les (Max Casella) and Kate (Jennifer Prediger), Ron finally spills the beans. While confessing might have seemed like the right call, Ron's life becomes a Hellish whirlwind once he starts to receive disturbing packages in the mail. To reveal any more than that would take away the surprise and delight of watching Applesauce. There was never a moment I could anticipate where this deeply twisted movie was going.
Tukel taps into the lowest depths of human nature. His characters are selfish and manipulative people who do horrible things to each other, mainly just to see if they can inflict worse damage than was done to them. It's amazing how even the smallest of misunderstandings can spiral multiple lives out of control and bring out inner demons a person never even knew they had. Applesauce finds original and almost always uproarious methods of exploring this scene after scene. The movie loses a little steam as it draws towards the finish because there are so many disastrous situations packed into the narrative. Even still, Tukel manages to maintain control, leading to a final moment that is as pathetically funny as it is deliciously wicked. Applesauce is one of my favorite movies of 2015.
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