dir. Tony Kaye
USA, 2024, 95 mins
August 9, 6:30PM
Genesis Cinema
Jack Flex is broke, buff, and wildly delusional—but he’s got a dream: to sell his absurd invention, the Heavy Hat, on his mom’s favorite shopping channel. When a desperate producer gives him a shot, Jack’s web of lies—celebrity clients, Hollywood fame—starts to unravel. With just one week to turn fiction into fact, he sprints through L.A. in a chaotic quest for credibility, hope, and a shot at stardom.
Maverick director Tony Kaye goes comedic with this absurdist romp across L.A. following penniless, musclebound “creative genius” Jack Flex as he maniacally pursues his dream to appear on his mom’s favourite home shopping channel and sell the Heavy Hat, an obviously dangerous fitness gadget that apparently “increases the flow of Hope Molecules to the brain.”
Decades after his sobering and boundary pushing American History X, director Tony Kaye returns to the big screen with the sweat-drenched, teeth-chattering and pupil-dilating The Trainer, a madcap ode to the rogue fringe industry of hucksters, chancers and dreamers surrounding Hollywood. Featuring an outrageously audacious cast of over 59 names with a combined star power of a supernova, The Trainer in many ways asks the same question one raises about The Final Film Festival itself; How did they get away with that? This is the only Odyssey you need to see this month.
This event will be preceded by the UK Premiere screening of 'Mirror Mirror', directed by Emma Kaye (10 mins).
This UK Premiere will be followed by a video Q&A with director Tony Kaye. (~20 mins)
- Kit Ramsay
starring —
