Karma ( Carol Lee Sirugo) is a serious, very straight laced associate editor of a fashion magazine.  The Love child daughter of the once infamous hippie Chanel “Lollipop Fields” Fontaine ( Karen Lynn Gorney), she has chosen to live on the path of the straightened arrow of practicality and order.  Her favorite pastimes are shopping and rejecting the same poem from one unique diehard who resubmits his poetry every week, confident of its brilliance. This particular summer, Fate seems to side with the lowly poet; piece by piece, first her job, then her apartment; Karma’s life is sudden headed up the creek without a paddle.

Carol Lee Sirugo & Joe Grifasi in "Creating Karma"

Destitute, she arrives at the doorstep of her half-sister Callie ( Jill Wisoff). Callie is a new agey life coach who changes lovers with her mood. She welcomes Karma into her home, even though Karma wants nothing to do with her. But the more Karma tries to find a job at her station and get back to her own life, the more fate pushes back, thwarting every attempt turn. It is only when Karma begins to embrace her more cosmic self (in this case a frou-frou party dress Callie fashions for her) that the universe responds without penalty.  It is her sort-of-half-step father Rajah ( Roland Sands) who reminds her that she once wrote poetry. It is a suggestion that leads Karma right into a wacky world of artists where she meets Vincent ( Rahad Coulter-Stevenson): the poet she rejected weekly. Will Karma ever learn to embrace her inner artist? Will fate continue to kick her in the head off she every makes it back into the arms or corporate comfort?

Jeremy Ebenstein and cast in "Creating Karma"

The thing you have to remember is: it’s all about farce. Farce is a genre where, if you do it right, your movie ebbs and flows comfortable between the ridiculous and the outrageous. And farce in full force is what you will get with the comedy feature Creating Karma. The montage cross dissolving motif employed in the film serves well to toy with time and add a healthy touch of the dreamscape surreal. Jill Wisoff and Carol Lee Sirugo are co-writers and co-stars in this “boobs to the wall” comedy with Wisoff also tackling director duties. CREATING KARMA was awarded BEST FEATURE in the 2008 Broad Humor Film Festival.

Kaka the Puppet (l) & Rahad Coulter-Stevenson (r) on "Creating Karma"

Kudos to Rahad Coulter-Stevenson for his noteworthy performance. The role of Vincent features a sock puppet as a co-star.  Stevenson gives a lovely, balanced, eccentric performance in a role that could have very easily fallen prey to mere "impression of insanity" with less capable actors. The shoestrings of this movie’s budget do show a bit. But what the film lacks in polish, it makes up for with loads of goofiness and charm.

Creating Karma makes its US Theatrical Release this week at:

LAEMMLE GRANDE THEATRE
345 S. Figueroa Street
213-617-0268
Daily 5:10 pm shows; 1 pm matinee sat, sun; 9:20 pm fri, sat

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