As a fan of the good people at Troma's work and ideals, it was on visiting the Troma site that I stumbled on this gem; a mockumentary about helping the homeless by giving them lollies, Lollilove is a sharp satire about helping those less fortunate and a strong debut from Jenna Fischer, but not without flaws.
The characters are well written, and the cast are believable and funny. Even Lloyd Kaufman, in one of his stronger role, as Father Lloyd. James Gunn gets most of the laughs as the ridiculous artist husband, making a number of very un-pc statements - his character is improved for it. The editing, though, is the films trump card, making the film hold together better than most mockumentaries (and a lot of the Troma back catalogue for that matter), looking a lot more professional than its meagre budget justifies. Though Lollilove isn't your average Troma picture and probably won't please all Troma fans, this does share the Troma independent spirit and the dark macabre humour.
That said, there are flaws, the major one being its length; a 65 minute running time, which for a feature film is not long enough to be truly satisfying, at least to this cinephile; yes, the deleted scenes on the DVD would have harmed the film had they been included, but Lollilove would have benefited an extra day or twos shooting, and 10 minutes more the running length. One clumsy directorial choice was the bleeping of swearing, intended to make Lollilove more like a TV show, but seems out of place given the dark nature of humour. Also, a couple of points in the film the joke ratio isn't as strong as it could be, especially when compared to the work of Christopher Guest (a tough comparison point, being that he's an auteur of this genre).
Though not perfect, Lollilove is a wicked satire, a promising debut, and a good Troma title to boot. Perhaps to fully appreciate this film, it is necessary to note the low budget production values, and the work done between husband and wife Jenna and James Gunn. This is worth further investigation if your a fan of mockumentaries, and have a dark sense of humour.
