Chris Marino
Combover: The movie

THE REVIEW

WARNING!!! PORNOGRAPHIC SCENES!!!

Ok, after grabbing attention (especially from minors), I will now elaborate on this initial outburst...

In 2004, Chris Marino picks up a camera and begins touring the United States. Is he looking for kids bringing guns to school? To expose the corruption of the American political-economic system? To see the effects of replacing water with whiskey on the liver? None of these, this is a journey across America in search of the nation's best comb-overs, the most ridiculous and conspicuous remedy for baldness...

52 minutes trying to outline the whys and hows of this ancient practice, from the comb-over "to avoid sinusitis" to those who make it a distinctive feature, to Donald Trump's hair tricks...

Chris Marino is a true comb-over hedonist, in his quest for the "Holy Grail of Comb-Overs" he is driven to long journeys simply by "hearsay," and here immediately comes to mind what Umberto Eco said about pornography... a film is truly porn, for example, if, when the porn actor needs to go from point A to point B before acting, every moment of the journey is documented with precision, only this way is the anticipation built, so here are long journeys, dinners in fast-foods just to ask the waitresses for pointers, miles and miles to see poorly covered foreheads, add to this the fact that whenever the director sees a nice comb-over he literally goes into orgasm...

But what about the moment of the "climax"? You might call it a quickie... some footage of the "masterpiece" and a few questions that don't fully satisfy the viewer's curiosity, mainly technical questions, almost as if Marino (an important detail, probably: long black curly hair) places himself on the same level as these people, there is no satire, or rather the satire is latent, there is no usual satire on today's effeminate man, all mascara and botox...

In the end, here is the "Holy Grail of comb-overs," Ray Ortiz, discovered through the word-of-mouth of a Texas town, a meticulously crafted yet ridiculous comb-over, admiration skyrockets but even here, when everyone would like to know more, it ends with a breakfast offered to this gelatinous old Texan...

The film closes with a requiem for the comb-over and hilarious slow-motion images of hair in the wind... leaving us exhausted... like a porno...