Before I begin proper, this is a particularly tricky film to review as it works so much better if one of the main elements that is worth writing about is a surprise. As such, this is far briefer a review than it deserves to be and I’m probably concealing information that’s public knowledge.

Blood Cousins, staring, written and directed by American sketch comedy group Comedia A Go-Go (Reagan Arevalos, Larry Garza & Jess Castro), revolves around 4 close cousins (Joel Settles, Arevalos, Garza & Castro) who decide to go on a road trip to visit their grandmother’s grave before one of them moves away. However, as with all families, there are secrets, and secrets only remain hidden for so long.

Seeing as how Blood Cousins revolves around 4 guys on a road trip for most of the run time, chemistry is a must and it was delivered. I was reminded of a film like Swingers, not so much in content but purely in how naturally the 4 (especially the 3 Comedia A Go-Gos) interacted. While some of the line deliveries were off, the tone of the conversations and rapport means that the nature of their relationship is never thrown into question.

While I’ll not say too much about the nature of the main 3 supporting cast (Roy Lopez Jr., Rodney Garza & Gloria Sanchez) or how they come into play, they are all scene stealing performances and it’s a great shame there was not more of them. Despite this, the final punch they pack is startling.

You can tell that these are seasoned comedians and not just some guys trying to make a comedy. It avoids anything goofy or silly in favour of a more natural and believable sense of humour. It is so easy to mix genres by doing a spoof or something tongue-in-cheek, but this maintains the integrity of all genres at play to benefit one another.

There is play with some very striking imagery and some real visual story telling. While in the first hour it is simply keeping such a limited film interesting to watch, by the last 20 minutes the camera work shows flashes of the meaningful, bordering on powerful.

Blood Cousins is a film of peaks and valleys, but the highs are so high that the lows, while not forgettable, are forgiveable. Slightly amateur in some aspects, but exquisitely weighted genre mixing and wonderfully surprising.

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