Kabluey, one of those twee Indiewood flicks that will make you laugh while tugging at your heartstrings (and give former Friends star Lisa Kudrow a chance to show her serious actress chops) is based on the real-life complications of taking care of a family while the father is fighting a war on the other side of the planet. Those details come from filmmaker Scott Prendergast's experience watching his sister-in-law cope with the fallout of her husband and his brother being deployed to Iraq. Which is believable, but not something I'd milk for laughs.

And it's not the kind of zany premise that gets people into theaters. For that, Prendergast put on a puffy blue suit with a giant, round head — the fictional icon of fictional technology company BlueNexion, which hires his character Salman to stand on a lonely stretch of Texas highway and, inevitably, get into hijinx. To its credit, it looks far more entertaining than August.

Watching the slapstick-and-ennui portrayal of a schlemiel as corporate mascot in the film's trailer couldn't help but remind me of the poor Podcast Pickle, familiar to anyone who's attended South by Southwest Interactive the last few years. The film opened in New York City on July 4, and will be coming to a hip theater near you here in the Bay Area on August 1.