MicroCinema Scene

Casting Adrift is an uneven, yet often very funny comedy about a Britney-esque pop star named Carlin Wilder, played with great enthusiasm by Jamie Day, who decides to make her feature film directorial debut by hiring all of her favorite soap actors from a now defunct soap opera. The actors, all desperate for work and money, agree and venture to Wilder’s Hampton Estate to put the project together.

The cast of the film are New York, non-SAG actors and all very talented. Especially funny are Day, who plays up Wilder’s innocence and stupidity with great glee, and her assistant Blanche, a flaming homosexual played to great comedic satisfaction by actor Dane Whitlock. Of the has been soap actors, Holly Perkins, playing the perpetually intoxicated Samantha and Peter Cavanagh, playing the Scottish actor named Angus shine the most, while both Katy Barker, who plays soap vixen Poppy St. James and Erick Kastel, playing the naive Peter Fagot (pronounced Fah-Go) are solid as well.

The script, which details the humorous events surrounding the professional actors trying to fulfill the creative whims of the air-headed Wilder, has hit and miss comedic moments and a relatively predictable plot, but there are many more hits than misses and, at times, some truly hilarious moments. Director Robertson keeps the pace moving and the story moves along very nicely.

On the technical front, the project, shot on two PD-150s, looks very good on the screen, which is probably due to the $400,000 budget of the film. However, I didn’t feel I saw that money completely on the screen and, in the end, I thought that a budget of that size would do much better utilizing film instead. Of course, this information had no bearing on the success of the comedy and I hope it leads to greater things for the talent cast and director.

Three stars.

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