Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Shane Jacobson, Eve Von Bibra,
Ronald Jacobson, Jesse Jacobson,
Chris Davis, Ian Dryden, Morihiko Hasebe
Written by Clayton & Shane Jacobson
Certification UK 15 | Australia M
Runtime 103 minutes
Directed by Clayton Jacobson
Look out Rob Reiner and Chris Guest — your reign as kings of the mockumentary is over. The new prince on the block is Kenny, a little comedy from Australia … about shit. The star is plumber Kenny Smyth (Shane Jacobson) who works for Splashdown, a company that supplies portable toilets for outdoor events such as music festivals. Kenny is the sort of bloke who would, I guess, be called a working-class hero. He's big and beefy, divorced and has a young son he adores. He has a tough job to do, but doesn't complain. He realises it's a job that somebody has to do, and he just gets on with it. As he says: "I don't know what all the fuss is about, it's 80% water... and we've got chemicals to take care of the remaining 20%."
It's the one simple, undeniable fact of life that we can't deny or avoid: like it or not, everybody poos. And everybody is more than happy to leave somebody else to sort out the mess after we're done. And nobody really likes to talk about it. But Kenny is more than happy to chat on about his number-one subject — number twos. He's laconic, easy-going, optimistic and blessed with a self-deprecating sense of humour and, unfortunately, a slight speech impediment. But that doesn't stop him waxing lyrical about subjects ranging from religion to marriage — "Cut out the middle man, find someone you hate and buy them a house" — to world affairs as the camera crew follows him on his daily routine, installing and looking after portaloos at outdoor events ranging from the St Kilda Festival to Melbourne Cup day at Flemington racecourse.
Kenny is, without a doubt, the funniest, most life-affirming film I have seen in a very long time. Yes, it's funnier than the big Hollywood comedies that everybody has been raving about over summer, Knocked Up and Superbad. Kenny is one of the nicest, warmest most genuinely decent blokes I've seen portrayed on the screen ... well, ever. He's genuine, dinky-di, down-to-earth true blue Aussie, with a great line in ockerisms and a thirst for the odd beer or 20. But his bright, cheery outlook is surprising when you consider that as well as cleaning up everybody's shit, he also has to put up with a lot of shit — from his ex-wife to his miserable old father ("Dad's emotional bank account had all of two cents in it"), his well-off brother to the very public who don't seem to appreciate his efforts to supply them with somewhere decent to go when they need to go. Through it all, Kenny saighs, grins and just gets on with his job. And after a while you realise that he's not just the lowly "glorified turd-burglar" that his father calls him, but a man who goes about his life with a quiet dignity and pride in a job well done.
Kenny took a couple of years to make and was a real family affair. It was co-written by Melbourne stand-up comedian Shane and hs brother Clayton, who also directs. Their father Ronald is in it, as is Shane's son, Jesse. And their mate Glenn Preusker owns the real-life company Splashdown, and gave them unlimited access to its operations and crew. The script itself is a real work of joy, although I did wonder just how much of the dialogue was adlibbed. I suppose the film this will be most compared to is Borat, but nothing could be further from the truth — the only pisstaking here is when Kenny empties the septic tanks. And I'm sure Kenny will be compared to those two other world famous Aussie "characters" — Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin — but again, nothing could be further from the truth. Kenny is a genuine one-of-a-kind; it may be a film about shit, but it's definitely not a shit film.