Kenny (2006)

KennyA review by C J Dee

Kenny (Shane Jacobson) is a plumber who specialises in portaloos. This is his story. No, really. That’s pretty much the plot. A cameraman follows around a guy while he installs, maintains and cleans portaloos.

Kenny takes the term toilet humour and makes a film out of it. If you’ll excuse my potty mouth, the result is a sh*t film. Literally and figuratively.

Poop puns aside, this movie truly was terrible. I don’t have anything against toilet humour. I like a well placed fart joke. The part I laughed hardest at in Bad Grandpa involved sharting. I laughed aloud when Hannah’s boyfriend Adam peed on her in Girls. Kenny just didn’t work.

The jokes in Kenny are cringeworthy at worst, boring at the middle ground, and at best there were two lines that invoked a weak laugh. You know the kind, you laugh through your nose and might even have a small smile. Anyone passing by could mistake it for a sniffle.

Throughout Kenny the same tired angle is replayed. We get it, people think his job is gross and he enjoys it anyway. The movie could have been cut down to 80 minutes without breaking a sweat. It wouldn’t be a masterpiece, but it would be shorter and far less repetitive.

Shane Jacobson does a decent job of acting like a plumber going about his day to day life with a camera crew following him around. Found footage films and mockumentaries do a lot to excuse awkward acting and wooden performances.

This is one Kenny that should have been killed before it even began filming.

‘There is a smell in here that is going to outlast religion.’

Director: Clayton Jacobson
Starring: Shane Jacobson, Ronald Jacobson, Jesse Jacobson, Clayton Jacobson
Other notable appearances: The creeping realisation that you will never get these 99 minutes back
Running time: 99 minutes
Watch this if you liked: The Castle, The Nugget
Rating: full starEmpty starEmpty starEmpty starEmpty star 1 out of 5 stars