Improv is a comic art form that has long had trouble being celebrated on the big screen. Most people will know from the television series whose line it is?, Which is based on games and limited time scenes (aka, short form improvisation) that perfectly match bite-sized TV clips that go viral on YouTube.
However, the newest hit from Amazon Prime Video, Deep Cover, wants to change that. As a former improvisation leader I am happy to see it.
If you don’t know, Deep Cover three budding improvisation strips (Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom & Nick Mohammed) follows that are hired by a rogue detective (Sean Bean) to infiltrate a drug gang in London.
Peter Mountain/© 2024 Copertura Productions Ltd.
Although their enthusiasm for embracing the unknown is an advantage on stage, applying to dangerous, criminal scenarios escalates very quickly. The film premiered last week at SXSW London and will be on June 12, 2025 on Amazon Prime Video.
I learned for the first time about improvisation of the aforementioned whose line and was immediately addicted. As a theater student, the idea of being freed from learning lines and the opportunity to have a scene where you and your fellow actors wanted, incredibly liberating.
I was lucky to train in more complex types of improvisation (ie long form) at comedy schools such as Hoopla and the Free Association. I then took those findings back to my own group at the university, where I gave weekly lessons and various showcases, including various 24-hour shows called Improgathons (which I am still exhausted, just thinking).
It does not matter the type of improvisation that I have carried out, in which group I played, there was an important theme – your colleague actors trusted and did not force your own agenda or wishes on a scene. This is a central theme in a deep cover and is touched both literally and figuratively.
At the start of the film we meet the character of Dallas Howard, Kat, who gives an improvisation class in the iconic comedy shop of London. We see an example of a character that blocks a scene, that is, refusing to follow the ‘yes and’ rule by not accepting the claim of another artist and forcing a new job on them.
Kat explains how this stops a scene from flourishing, as her future detective partners, marlon and hugh, in. Taking risks and rolling with the punches is all part of improv, and this was something bryce highlighted as a them on the set of the movie in a Q & A after the movie: “… What I Take Away is the Value of Teamwork, and Howe Listage, and Dat You’re, And Dat You’re, And Dat You’re, And Dat You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And Dat You’re, And Dat You’re, And Dat You’re, And Dat You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re, And You’re. point ”.
“… Just to be someone who is really able to have the spirit of that beginner and play with another person, without an agenda … You know you won’t win the scene, you just try to play.”
But how does that apply to the detective work in the film? What starts as a simple copy of fishing for information with our three heroes in newspaper products that get out of hand very quickly.
Although Kat’s experience enables her to keep her cool, wrestling actor Marlon cannot help but add unnecessary details about the growing upbringing of his character in the average streets of Manchester (rackwisites on the accent, bloom, of a warringtonian), while Hughoop, the group of the ‘yes and’.
They are then led to the den of ‘Fly’ (Paddy Constantine), a notorious figure in the scene responsible for huge amounts of product and money within the drug trafficking.
Peter Mountain/© 2024 Copertura Productions Ltd.
The three are in one way or another to make their way to look like important figures themselves, exchange for product, now stay sober when weapons come out and continue to show their knowledge of the drugs themselves-the dedication of Mohammad in one scene had the cinema in stitches.
It is this trust between the three that leads them deep in the drug scene of the British capital and places them face-to-face with some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. Although the plot requires a lot to suspend disbelief, that is often what the improvisation needs for the public to go aside – when scenes completely evolve into their own jokes, take a new life far from where they started.
The Q&A did confirm that, although director Tom Kingsley has a lot of experience with improvisation on sets with shows such as Stath Lays Flats, there was actually not much room to get off the book: “It is a really tightly worked out script, as if it is going a minute per minute – it is really complicated.”
Although that feels a missed opportunity in a film All About Improv, the Love Letter to Art has never been lost. As mentioned at the start of this piece, it is very difficult to cover improvisation on the screen outside short games. But finally, here is a film with Hollywood A-Listers who pay tribute to an incredible art form.
As an improvisator it is something that I had never thought I would see … and I am so happy that it exists.
Deep cover will be on Amazon Prime video tomorrow. You can register here for a free trial period of 30 days.
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