The Patsy

The Patsy proves that The Bellboy was no fluke and that Lewis really did have a special gift for unusual comic staging as well as using colour to enhance humour. While the laughs are scattershot, there are plenty of clever ideas, and when the jokes land they do so with full force. There is a brilliant wordless flashback sequence, a hilarious scene of a clumsy Lewis in an antique filled room and ironic meta moments that demonstrate his understanding of the medium's inherent artifice.

It’s quite beautiful to look at, but made me think a lot about the audience. In a lot of ways, most men will probably relate to certain moments in this film, the failings of this buffoon at all typically masculine things being something most men will have experienced at some point. But from a female perspective, it was almost a horror movie, watching such a character get the girl, and knowing how depressingly realistic those low standards are for the limping sympathetic lambs among us.

watched: 2014, 2023

"The Patsy reflects a genuine affection for the artisans and jacks-of-all-trades that make careers like Lewis's possible." - Eric Henderson