Ebony and Ivory is screening as part of Fantastic Fest 2024, which runs from September 19 to September 26.

Ebony and Ivory is absolute nonsense, and that isn’t entirely a bad thing. Imagine a biopic about the creative experience behind one of the best-selling duets in pop history (the Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder song of the title), then pay a back-alley surgeon to lobotomize that idea out of your brain forever. What remains might be Ebony and Ivory.

Jim Hosking, the director behind the divisive cult gross-out film The Greasy Strangler, brings the two legendary musical icons together in a cabin in rural Scotland, only to ignore all semblance of historical accuracy or logical patterns of human social interaction. Over the course of serving tea, Stevie (Gil Gex) and Paul’s (Sky Elobar) temperaments vacillate wildly, and turn on a dime. Wonder curses through gritted teeth like he’s possessed by a demon. The pair bark at each other as the conversation circles around utter triviality.

And this is how the film progresses, with each scene ostensibly a discussion about mundane, tedious concepts and everyday objects. The question one poses to the other regarding whether they should partake in recreational drugs results in a minutes-long game of telephone regarding a name that rhymes with “whoobie” (hint: it begins with the fourth letter of the alphabet). Paul sings an entire song about veggie nuggets, followed by the two of them eating a plate of veggie nuggets, culminating in Paul using the “nugget slide” to propel the final veggie nugget into Stevie’s mouth.

What I’m describing is a form of humor that some abhor. It is the “deep-fried meme” version of mid-2000s Adult Swim content, in that it comes off like a Tim & Eric sketch stacked with so many layers of deadpan irony and non sequitur that by the time it reaches your eyeballs it is barely recognizable as legible comedy.

I will admit to liking this reflexive, recursive anti-comedy style. That said, it is a blend of humor that can easily and rapidly turn sour. With Ebony and Ivory, that comedic curdling occurred for me around the end of the pair’s first night together, when the phrase “you are most definitely not alone” is repeated for minutes on end toward no reasonable conclusion. Though, I would be lying if I said that I was not charmed by the “hot chocky” odyssey that more or less serves as the emotional centerpiece of this buddy film. (Gex’s line delivery when he bemoans how quickly dreams fade from one’s memory is one of the funnier things in recent memory for me).

I admire the film’s nonsensical ambitions. I prefer the musical biopic that takes the piss to the musical biopic that pretends it’s interesting to film actors lip syncing to classic songs. To wit, this being an 85-minute shit post (literally) about how bad the song “Ebony and Ivory” is makes it a greater triumph than, say, Oscar winner Bohemian Rhapsody, even if the central joke of it eventually falls flat.

Ebony and Ivory: B

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)