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RATING:   
SINGAPORE : Variety magazine called it “an overlong attempt at a satire on business and media greed that’s played and helmed with a sophomoric enthusiasm”. But what do western critics evaluating “Malaysia’s first Manglish comedy-musical” really know? Not the self-reflexive inside jokes, that’s for sure.
Fresh from winning the Altre Visioni Award from the 65th Venice International Film Festival and its recent “in-competition” screening at the 22nd Singapore International Film Festival, former lawyer/ad exec-turned-filmmaker Yeo Joon-Han‘s "Sell Out!" is a post-modern pastiche close to the heart, and the Malaysian’s debut feature is a well thought-out lampoon of society and culture that tickles both the brain and funnybone.
Taking potshots at everything from commercialism, capitalism and South-east Asian societal quirks and irks, "Sell Out!" tells the story of innocent well-meaning Eurasian Eric Tan (Peter Davis), a product designer who gradually learns that it doesn’t pay to be creative. Together with Pong (Jerrica Lai), who rises from being a bottom-ranking arts show host to capitalise on reality show fever by interviewing people on their deathbeds, they both work for Fony, a multinational conglomerate that tests their integrity to the point of selling out.
Leads Lai and Davis amble along competently, but it is the singing CEOs (Kee Thuan Chye and Lim Teik Leong) who steal the show, delicately handling the almost ridiculous slapstick humour without pushing it over the edge.
While the film could tighten its pacing (at nearly two hours, it’s a tad long), it cleverly pokes fun at itself and skates between surreal absurdity — like having karaoke lyrics a la "Rocky Horror Picture Show" - and sassy script satire. The fact that it doesn’t take itself seriously elevates "Sell Out!" to a whole refreshing entertainment plane. - TODAY/ra
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