The story centers around Howard Original (Kevin Sean Michaels), an alcoholic, racist, misogynistic, screenwriter who is looking to sell his feature film script Space Cats to a major studio. The script is a sci-fi drama set in a universe where space cats attack humans and computers are more advanced than women. The film depicts many scenes featuring cringy and extremely awkward audition sessions between Howard and the actresses. After recent tragic events in his life, particularly with two failed relationships (big shocker), Howard begins to question his life and its meaning. He later secludes himself to a cabin, in hopes to find closure from both, while drinks away his writer’s block. Only, Howard finds himself in a state of reality and an altered universe when he finds an abandoned cat named Blue (Katt Balsan) while reflecting on his life. 

That breakdown is far more cohesive than the method the film uses to present its narrative. Howard Original is based on the 2017 award-winning short film of the same name. The film is an independent and low budget, created directly out of the cast and crew’s passion for the story. I found the editing and general flow of the film very difficult to follow. The film crudely jumps from scene to scene, sometimes we flash backwards in time, sometimes we flash forward to more awful audition scenes. Another editing issue with the film is the narration, which is extremely poorly implemented. The narration serves as the “voice(s)” in Howard’s head. The narrator frequently overexplains Howard’s mental state and reiterates his actions, taking away any sense of subtlety to the film. I was confused by the purpose of some of the flashbacks in the film. While some of them felt necessary to understand the deeper threads of the plot, they appear so regularly that it is easy to lose track of the timeline.

If you are able to get past the very choppy storytelling, annoying amounts of narration and bizarre visual style then you just might enjoy this film. What this film is successful at is displaying the true predatory nature that can exist within the power dynamic between a director, producer, or casting agent and a desperate actor. Howard Original puts this dynamic front and center. The character of Howard is a pathetic and disgusting screenwriter, but even worse the character of Howard is a scummy person. Some of the audition scenes are truly difficult to watch because of how insufferable Howard is. There are many stories of big name screenwriters, directors, and producers who displayed similar predatory traits to Howard, however, Howard lacks any kind of talent to remotely justify tolerating any aspect of his abusive behavior.

A scene that does work and the comedy actually lands, is Howard’s discussion of “how much gravity is on the spaceship,” actually got a decent laugh out of me, Howard and the Audition #2 girl, Nikki Ramierez (Alessandra Mañon), actually have some good comedic chemistry in the scene. One of the strongest performances in the film is the off-camera Casting Director, who for the most part is the voice of the audience, telling Howard to shut up whenever his creep factor makes both the other characters and the audience extremely uncomfortable.

In conclusion, Howard Original is by no means a perfect film, however, it does create legitimate commentary on the dark underbelly of the film industry. However, the film falls flat at most of its attempts at comedy. I believe the film would have worked better devoting to playing it straight as a drama and thriller or doubling down on making Howard a full-on Anti-Hero. Rather than investing itself as a self-aware satire that misses the mark. 

4.5 out of 10