Imagine you found an old VHS tape from when you were a kid and popped it into a VCR. What nostalgic magic would you find? That’s just part of the fun in the new movie VHYes.
Directed by Jack Henry Robbins, VHYes is a genre-spanning, anthology comedy about a young boy whose family gets a camcorder for Christmas. He soon realizes not only can use it to record people but television as well. The film then plays like the raw VHS tape, flipping from channel to channel, with shows that get increasingly weird and funny, all while keeping that main story intact.
Here’s the trailer for VHYes.
Yes, that’s Thomas Lennon. And Charlyne Yi. And Tim freaking Robbins. Those are just a few of the cameos in VHYes. The director is the son of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, so there’s no shortage of star power in the film—but that’s not what it’s about.
I saw the movie earlier this year at Fantastic Fest and felt, though it has that Hollywood DNA, it’s purely the vision of a raw, up-and-coming talent. The movie is manic and funny and goes to some very weird, sometimes even scary, places. It also has heart (the trailer hints at this in the form of the footage of the boy’s parents), and while ultimately I felt the movie didn’t maintain its energy and surprise all the way through, it was really fun to watch such an original and cool idea, executed with care and joy.
VHYes will have special advance screenings at multiple Alamo Drafthouses on January 12 before opening wider on January 17. Tickets for the Drafthouse screenings, and more, are available at vhyes.fun.
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