I don't think anyone who attended the premiere screening of Park at Cinevegas was too terribly surprised by the fact that it won the Audience Award for 2006. True it didn't hurt matters that the audience was comprised of many of the talented people who took part in making the film (during the titles, cheers erupted when the grips and gaffers names appeared). Still sitting among so much excitement as many of those involved witnessed the film for the first time, was a fun place to be. I also hasten to mention that I'm sure I would have enjoyed the film just as much had I not been sitting amid such a partisan crowd.

It is a bit unusual for a flat out comedy to snap up a film festival award, but I think the atmosphere at Cinevegas is a little less stuffy than most and Park is truly a laugh out loud affair that keeps 'em coming fast and furious. The film is also somewhat unusual in that every frame takes place at one small location and in theory all 10 characters would have been within 50 yards of each other. You might call it a claustrophobic ensemble piece, a sort of Altman in Dogville. And before you let your imagination conjure up a regular Park, with lush green grass, walkways, Frisbee-throwers and a pond - writer/director Kurt Voelker uses the term loosely here. This is more a Park in the sense that everyone in the film "parks" their cars.

It actually takes place in one of those lover's lane type hidden-away spots in the foothills of LA - the kind of place teenagers would come to party or make-out. It does have a picnic table, but beyond that it's nothing more than rolling hills with a road and dried-out, yellow whisker-wheat. Why I'm belaboring this point I'm not sure, I guess it's because the bizarre events that transpire at this "Park" could not possibly happen amid picnickers and Frisbee-throwers. It is seclusion that all of these people are after and unfortunately for Billy Baldwin, today he's drawn an audience.

Aside from Baldwin, Ricki Lake and Cheri Oteri, the rest of the cast aren't household names by any means, which lent a measure of reality to situations that might have come off too implausible and heavy-handed, had they been played by Tom Green or Tori Spelling etc. Recognizable faces would have hurt the genuine feel of all but the vignette where Baldwin plays a philandering lothario whose sexual performance seems dependent upon his tricked out SUV. One of the bigger laughs finds his mistress having to resort to reading sexy passages from the vehicles owner's manual. I'm sure that might sound silly, but the way Voelker builds to it, is masterful. Voelker also gets some great comic mileage (if you will) by cutting quickly back and forth between vehicles during one passionate interlude - the audience was literally roaring at this point. Funny stuff.

Again by using Lake and Oteri for their characters worked perfectly, they were more or less Hollywood types playing Hollywood types. In fact all of the casting in Park seemed inspired. Everyone in the cast does remarkable work particularly as broad comedy is perhaps the toughest kind of film-making. Credit Voelker for taking an enormous amount of implausible over-the-top gags and pulling them off remarkably well. Perhaps the best example is the grand "SU V for Vendetta" climax. This is generally the sort of gag that takes a ton of disbelief suspension, but by the time the scene was underway the audience is so caught up in the fun that I doubt anyone in the house was having any trouble with the believability of it. The way Voelker allowed the scene to build it really comes off without a hitch. In any case the scene will be awfully cathartic for anyone who's been the victim of a cheating spouse. In fact a couple of women seated a row ahead of me actually high-fived during the scene.

As for the rest of the cast, Dagney Kerr was a hoot as the hapless suicidal, who was constantly forced to politely ask others for instruments of death, and when she meets her assisted suicide Romeo (Dave Fenner) I think everyone re-discovered their will to live. Rather than getting any further into the rest of the characters and how they all eventually inter-relate, I'll not spoil anymore of the fun. The story behind the making of Park is interesting and inspirational and wouldn't it be cool if Park turns out to be the next Napoleon Dynamite? There's no reason why not. In spite of it's unusual staging, it's really a pretty conventional comedy - it won't have the detractors that Napoleon Dynamite did (such as Ebert and Roeper who both thumbed it down) the saps. It's got a little something for everyone and Voelker allows us an unqualified happy ending. Nice work everyone and we'll be happy to champion your film.