FILM REVIEW: Ebony and Ivory at Calgary Underground Film Festival
Few art forms have more in common than comedy and music. In addition to performers going up on stage baring their souls (whether through music or comedy), there’s an inherent rhythm to the cadence of comedy. It’s why even you can laugh at the most skilled stand-up comedians from all over the world, as even if you can’t understand the language, the beat of the words being said can still strike a chord. British filmmaker Jim Hosking takes this philosophy to the literal forefront with his latest film, Ebony and Ivory, which tells the imagined backstory of when Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder recorded their #1 hit song of the same name in 1982.
The script for Ebony and Ivory on the page would read as a lot of repeated words and phrases like “scottish cottage” and “doobie woobie,” which aren’t inherently funny, but as performed by Sky Elobar (as Paul) and Gil Gex (as Stevie), they find the musicality in these inane, silly phrases. There are no real “jokes” in the film, the humour stems from behaviour, performance, and yes, the musicality of these goofy phrases. At times the film feels like a meditation with repeated mantras, and once composer Andrew Hung (founding member of Fuck Buttons) joins in to score these ping-ponging banter sessions with ‘80s electronic sleekness, it almost feels like you are witnessing an experimental sound collage show.
Do Sky Elbar and Gil Gex resemble or even try to emulate Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder? Not at all. Outside of the reference to The Mull of Kintyre, some of the wardrobe choices and the repeated references to them being “true musical legends,” this is a story at its heart of a bickering odd couple (recalling Neil Simon’s’ The Sunshine Boys) who in the end, as the titular song goes, live together in perfect harmony.
Brace yourselves for a lot of male nudity, gross-out moments and a film that eschews plot for Weirdo Vibes (do not expect to see even a recording studio in the film). Ebony and Ivory, like all of Hosking’s work, is a bit of an acquired taste, similar to the boxed breaded veggie meals that Paul offers Stevie in the film. I don’t even know if I loved it, but I do know for certain that there is certainly no other film like it. I envision Ebony and Ivory being a lot of people’s favourite movie, while I also envision other people being turned off by it almost immediately. Like the best kind of art, it provokes a reaction and response and that is reason enough it demands to be seen. In a world full of focus grouped, edges-sanded-off studio films, thank god for a film like Ebony and Ivory, which is a singular vision of a filmmaker presented unencumbered for viewers to discover.
This screening of Ebony and Ivory premiered at Calgary Underground Film Festival on Saturday, April 19, 2025. For the full list of films screening at CUFF between April 17-27, visit www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org.