PRANK CATEGORY: MOCKUMENTARY
Drop Dead Gorgeous
1999
Genre: Comedy
Language: English
Director: Michael Patrick Jann
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkin, Denise Richards, Amy Adams, Kirstie Alley
What's it about?
This criminally underrated mockumentary follows a group of plucky Minnesota high school gals vying for the coveted Mount Rose American Teen Princess crown. Amber Atkins (Dunst) is a keen tap dancer with her eyes on the prize, but she doesn't count on the underhanded tactics of a former winner who wants her tone-deaf daughter (Richards) to carry on the family tradition.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
2010
Genre: Documentary
Director: Banksy
Starring: Thierry Guetta, Banksy
What's it about?
Ostensibly, Exit Through The Gift Shop is an observational doc about a dodgy videographer and wannabe graffiti artist ("Mr Brainwash"), directed by notorious mystery man and mischief maker, Banksy, as a way to expose a hacky copycat. Dig a little deeper, though, and you might smell a rat. Maybe, just maybe, it's a documentary that chronicles one part of a well-conceived and elaborate prank Banksy has pulled (and continues to pull) upon the art world, by "creating" a hacky copycat and watching his career take off.
PRANK CATEGORY: PARODY
Manitou's Shoe
2001
Genre: Comedy, Western
Language: German
Director: Michael Herbig
Starring: Marie Bäumer, Sky Dumont, Christian Tramitz, Michael Herbig
What's it about?
Feeling silly? You're in the right place, with this German spoof of Westerns. Brash and bawdy, it's an equal opportunity offender as it tells the convoluted story of a ranger and an Apache chief who become Odd Couple blood brothers and ride off into the sunset to decipher an ancient treasure map.
JCVD
2009
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: French
Director: Mabrouk El Mechri
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Francois Damiens
What's it about?
The muscles from Brussels plays a downtrodden version of himself in this dark satire. He's an unemployed actor engaged in a nasty custody battle, when a visit to the Post Office changes the course of his life. JCVD walks in on a robbery but the authorities mistake him for the perpretrator. A weird blend of fact and fiction, JCVD works as a fun satire and a engrossing drama.
[link title="JCVD Review" url="node/4567"]
PRANK CATEGORY: RUSE/TRICK
Seducing Doctor Lewis
2003
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Language: French
Director: Jean-François Pouliot
Starring: Guy Vaillancourt, Rita Lafontaine, David Boulin, Raymond Bouchard
What's it about?
This light Canadian comedy has a group of remote villagers go to increasingly desperate lengths to try convince a doctor to take up full-time residency and in so doing, land them a big-time factory contract. The villagers devise a scheme to make Dr. Christopher Lewis a local with a bit of seductive subterfuge - a tapped phone, a hastily assembled cricket team, and something called Festival de Beef Stroganoff.
Beautiful Lies
2010
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Language: French
Director: Pierre Salvadori
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Nathalie Baye, Sami Bouajila
What's it about?
A trick with the best of intentions is still a trick and French minx Audrey Tautou is the trickster of this rom-com. She receives a beautiful, anonymous love letter and uses it as a way to ignite a spark in her widowed mother (Nathalie Baye).
[link title="Beautiful Lies Review" url="node/5539"]
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
1985
Genre: Comedy, Family, Music, Romance
Language: English
Director: Alan Metter
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Lee Montgomery, Helen Hunt, Jonathan Silverman, Shannen Doherty
What's it about?
This retro classic features Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt as two high school besties desperate to get their break on the live special of their favourite TV show, Dance TV. If the words "Tune in Tokyo" mean anything to you, then you know why we've included it in this list. If not, watch it and get in on the terrible but memorable prank.
Janis and John
2003
Genre: Comedy
Language: French
Director: Samuel Benchetrit
Starring: François Cluzet, Marie Trintignant, Jean-Louis Trintignant
What's it about?
A dodgy insurance salesman convinces his wife that they should start impersonating Janis Joplin and John Lennon, to cheat an acid-addled cousin out his inheritance. As you do. Hilarity ensues.
Welcome To The South
2010Genre: Comedy
Language: Italian
Director: Luca Miniero
Starring: Alessandro Siani, Claudio Bisio, Angela Finocchiaro
What's it about?
Frustrated postal manager Alberto (Claudio Bisio) is looking for a transfer to the city of his dreams, Milano. He concocts an elaborate ruse to force the hand of management but it backfires and for his penance, he is demoted with a posting to a backwater in the south. This comedy of errors confronts prejudices, in the vein of French fish-out-of-water hit, Welcome To The Sticks.
Dating the Enemy
1996
Genre: Comedy
Language: English
Director: Megan Simpson Huberman
Starring: Guy Pearce, Claudia Karvan, Matt Day, Lisa Hensley, John Howard, T.J. Ramini
What's it about?
Because body swap is the ultimate prank, right? Claudia Karvan and Guy Pearce headline this local take on the genre. They play two halves of a doomed relationship, who get a unique opportunity to walk in someone else's shoes. Karvan and Pearce have a lot of fun grabbing and gawking at their 'new' appendages, in Megan Simpson Huberman's battle-of-the-sexes Aussie comedy.
