Here are some brief impressions on the two films I saw on Saturday, July 20th:
Zero Charisma
Zero
Charisma is not a
major film by any stretch of the imagination. It won’t go on to win a cult
following, nor will it earn a place of choice in the collective unconscious. In
fact, it pertains to such a specific reality that its rawest worth will
probably be lost on the vast majority of people. You know, those people who do have sex sometimes… Still, despite
its humble means and iffy future, the film remains an honest, somewhat inspired
effort in dramatic catharsis that manages to generate some genuine laughs and
some heartfelt empathy for its reclusive protagonist. The narrative structure
is quite rudimentary, but it finds fuel in a certain sense of urgency for this
protagonist and its creators to find a fair means of representation for a
waning “true” nerd culture.
The story
focuses on Scott, an aging metal-head with an ingrate physique and a past
filled with lashing humiliations. Earning little cash from his job as a
delivery boy, he bides his time until his grandmother dies and leaves him the
suburban house that they share. Being a failed writer, a failed game-store
manager and an abandoned child as well, it is no wonder why Scott entertains
such a serious fetish for his homemade RPG and its world filled with leather-laced
swordsman and sultry goblin princesses. After all, it is only in the dream
world he has created that he exerts any kind of control and that is only where
he has agency over other people. These people are his players, those few other
nerds with whom he can share his life, and whom he can involve in his own
little world. All is well and the illusion manages to persist until one of the
players drops from the circle, fearful that he might lose his wife if he
doesn’t. Scott must then start hunting for a replacement, which he finds almost
accidentally in the person of Miles, a cultivated hipster against whom he soon
comes at odds. When his ringleader status is threatened by the charismatic
newcomer, Scott’s bubbled world starts to crumble, and he comes to make crucial
realizations about his life. This will eventually bring him… right back to
where he was at the beginning.
Romance in the eyes of a nerd...
What is
perhaps the paramount quality of Zero Charisma is its emotional realism, as well as its
realistic depiction of the table top gaming world. Scott may be exactly the
anti-social pariah that you’d expect him to be, but he’s also a real character
here, with unseen depth and some tangible pain. Not far under his uncaring
narcissist façade lies a broken, lonely child suddenly confronted with the
world of adults. Of course, the screenplay constantly pokes fun at his
eccentric quirks, but it does so for a point: to emphasize his childishness,
hence pointing out to his most obvious and self-defining lack: sex. The
narrative is not afraid to tackle this crucial issue head-on without the
recourse to miserabilism or overly crude humor. Thanks to some fairly clever
substitutions, we understand that Scott’s status as game master is not merely
meant to give him agency over his existence, but to give him macho power as the
alpha male. For example, sex is herein sublimated through a sublime war ballet
between his two plastic figurines representing the knife-wielding hunter and
the goblin princess. This substitution is made obvious by the abrupt cut in the orchestral
music made when he is suddenly surprised by his stepfather irrupting into his
bedroom. Interrupted coit. Even more intriguing is how passionately Scott
wishes to pop his friend’s zits, physically overpowering him while in his
bedroom in a strange form of mock foreplay. While boil-bursting obviously entails a similar result, I doubt it has ever been so intelligently substituted
for ejaculation
While he is
mostly a functional character, at once the imaginary nemesis with which Scott
pursues his daydreaming and his cathartic guide to the gates of adulthood,
Miles is nicely fleshed out too. He is cultivated and seems to exude genuine
affection for the bottom-feeding nerds with which he now shares a weekly
reunion. His girlfriend seems equally warm and open-minded. It’s a shame that
things eventually get polarized to the point where Miles becomes almost a pure antagonist. But
it should come as no real surprise here, for the film seems to entertain a
certain bias for the truer nerd, and not merely those who steal their culture and leave them to dry in the lower strata of society. This is emphasized in the climactic fight scene
set at a party during which the indulgent hipsters chase the nerds out after a
mock-duel that sees the latter beaten at their own game. What this goes to show
is that the recent appropriation of the nerd culture by the mainstream culture
has been made much at the detriment of those true nerds, who still remain
misunderstood. In this perspective, you’d think the film would end on a
positive opening to the future for them, but it does not
provide that either, opting for a mostly neutral, harmlessly humoristic
conclusion that offers little hope for change to the slow-evolving protagonist.
A slim hope shines through, but the sense of urgency in demanding fair
representation has all but failed to bring forth easy answers. And again, life
takes a familiar shade of gray…
Watching
Scott struggling with his castrating mother, I couldn’t help but think of Some
Guy who Kills People (screening
at Fantasia a few years back) and how both these films offered devastatingly frank depictions
of alienated adults. But Zero Charisma lacks Some Guy’s teeth and pitch black humor. It is
merely a bleeding-heart attempt at depicting things as is, in a world so bleak
for some that it needs another world entirely to gloss it over. And for that,
it deserves to be seen.
**1/2 This honest depiction of
alienation is deeper than most people can fathom, but everyone can still enjoy the
film’s humorous jabs at nerd culture and the privileged look it provides into
the dens of eccentric game masters.
This third
edition of the great mass of bad cinema was quite a disappointment, especially
after last year’s wildly eclectic extravaganza. Phillip Spurell’s selection
from the vault of the Film Society was uninspired at best, with three tedious
clips from Paris, je t’aime being selected for the first block and an underwhelming 1950s monster
movie (Terror From the Year 5000) chosen to close the show. As expected, Douteux.org did a respectable job carving up
a thematic clips show for the intermission. Theirs was probably the most
heartfelt love letter to the art of the moving image to be found all night.
Unfortunately
for us all, the main attraction was Neil Breen’s insufferable Fateful
Findings. Wordy and
redundant beyond belief, this self-produced piece of garbage has only a
revolutionary conclusion to keep it afloat. Aside from that, it’s scene after
scene of bland dialogue delivered by unconvinced actors in what appears to be a
single setting (most likely Breen’s house). The blinds are always closed so day
plays for night without compromise to good sense and the diminutive backyard
can even transform in a lofty party area with only the help of clicking
champagne flutes on the soundtrack. There’s a semblance of epic dramatic issues
and several narrative strands run parallel, but they never intertwine in any
meaningful way. The whole thing is just a showcase of Breen himself and the
narrative seems to fluctuate along with his temporary moods. Too bad he’s such
a moody guy…
No delusion of grandeur is too great for
producer/director/writer/star Neil Breen!
The
confused plot involves a little black gem uncovered by a young Breen and his
girlfriend many years back. This artifact seems to hold the key to arcane
knowledge dispensed by shadowy beings (who enjoy toying with Breen’s furniture
as well as making things disappear). But its importance lies more in the moment
of its discovery, a perfect childhood day during which the protagonist fell in
love with the woman of his life, one he would lose for many years (about 15 for her
and 35 for him), but find again over the course of this film. Oh, and there’s
also a life-changing car crash and a far too emphasized hacking into the
government’s most secret networks (which Breen achieves by punching a few keys
on one of his four breakable laptops). It doesn’t really matter at any rate,
for any and all the tribulations merely pave the way for the crowning of King Breen as savior of the
people and discoverer of the world’s most sacred truth: government and
corporate corruption!
While
struggling to endure such a sorry spectacle and desperately trying to draw some cheesy
fun out of it, I couldn’t help but think about Samurai Cop and just how great
THAT piece of schlock was. Then it hit me, the most obvious truth about bad
movies out there: only genre films can be so bad that they are good. It’s all a
question of pretension. Being a would-be serious drama, a film like Fateful
Findings doesn’t even aim to entertain. It merely does so by accident, in those
rare instances where the spectator’s brain is stroked at a certain angle
necessary to elicit laughter or joyous contempt. Sure, it’s entertaining to see
pasty old Breen ham it up as the super-hacker savior of the universe, but its
not nearly enough to help cope with all the painful dialogue, boring locales
and iffy drama contained within. Just look at a picture of the director and you
should find it in yourself to put him in one million funnier situations than
anything in here. Hell, put him in a car chase or a gun fight, and at least you
will get some action out of it. After all, a bad action film is still an
action film, but a bad drama is just plain bad.
Despite it
all, despite the endless repetitions and inane tribulations that led you there,
the film does
provide a satisfying ending, not any sort of great dramatic catharsis, but a
surprisingly vitriolic jab at white-collar criminals. Unmasked in their occult
dealings by super-hacker Breen, a certain number of corrupt businessmen and
politicians are seen apologizing for their crimes and committing bloody suicide
while the protagonist delivers an empowering speech about the evils of
collusion. There’s even the Capitol projected on a green screen behind the
aging hero. It’s all very candid, but at least it is righteous, unlike the rest
of the film…
* For douteux.org’s contribution to
this disappointing nuit excentrique…
