Package

“Package” is a story about a boy who gets his dick chopped and dropped off a cliff. Now his friends need to find it and bring it to the hospital while he has limited time until they can sow it back on.

Not just the premise but the film itself reminds me of the late 90's early 2000's gross-out-comedies. “There’s Something About Mary”, “American Pie”… That sort of thing. In that sense, it is a little out of place in today’s comedies. But maybe that is one of the reasons it works.

Gross-out comedy is one of those dead genres. I don’t think anybody is trying to revive it, especially not with “Package”. What’s going on here is this film (which is direct to Netflix) is made for a niche audience.

Now this is a little weird and out of the ordinary. Because nowadays studios are owned by insanely large corporations and how these corporations work is by making a product that sells to as large a market as possible. That’s the reason we get movies that are quite safe, intellectually drought, exempt from any social/political criticism unless it is already tested with the focus group and convinced everyone it will not create some sort of uproar. Basically, everything in a big studio movie needs to be something the general public will approve or be neutral towards. (Neutrality is quite often the preference.)

So we have this film made for a niche audience. I hesitate to define who that audience might be but it’s certainly not the general public. So we can easily call it a niche audience. This brings me some hope about the future of cinema in North America and probably the rest of the world because best films are the ones made for a niche audience.

Netflix, is not the blockbuster, high quality movie house they wish to be. But without realising, they are becoming a platform for movies made for more niche audiences.

I thought this was an interesting trend I needed to put out there.

Oh, and the movie is quite good. What sells it is the honest and confident acting. The great chemistry between the actors is definitely the secret sauce of this film. Also they are not afraid to compromise themselves. Which is always good for a comedy film.

It’s a really fun 90 minutes you can enjoy with your friends and appreciate how wonderfully niche they decided to go with it.