Rating: B-
Dir: Curry Barker
Star: Curry Barker, Cooper Tomlinson, Adlih Alvarado, Jonnathon Cripple
This micro-budget found footage film has been getting a lot of buzz lately. I first learned about it from a Reddit post, but it has subsequently blown up to the point that Variety had an article about its making. Creators Barker and Tomlinson have had a YT channel since 2016, but this is the first I’d ever heard of them. I can see the duo parlaying the YouTube success of this (the film is currently available there for free, and has racked up 739,000 views since being uploaded six weeks ago) into feature work before long. It’s a path similar to that taken by the makers of Talk to Me, and shows how the lines between traditional and new media are increasingly being blurred.
In terms of plot, it has stuck somewhat close to home territory, with the pair playing housemates and YouTube personalities Milk (Barker) and Seven (Tomlinson). However, rather than sketch comedy, in this film they specialize in playing pranks on each other for content. It begins at Milk’s birthday party, where Seven stages a fake shooting. However, Milk has a plan of his own, hiring an actor (Cripple) to play a disturbed neighbour, whose actions push Seven increasingly close to the edge. That’s not the only twist, because Milk has a secret of his own – albeit one you could probably figure out from the title and poster. I was amused at the implicit suggestion that pranksters and psychopaths are not so very different.
For what it is, this is decent, helped by a running time of little more than an hour, which ensures things keep moving forward. The performances seem credibly realistic – to what extent they are simply extensions of their characters, and how much ‘acting’ was involved is uncertain. I’m hoping more of the latter in the case of Milk, particularly. It is a set-up where the found footage approach feels justified by the structure, though as is often the case, far more gets captured on camera than would ever be in “reality”, even allowing for Milk’s… tendencies. It also definitely feels – again, par for the course – that the approach offers a convenient excuse for rough edges, such as editing done with a weed-whacker.
It does have a nice sense of progression too, with the audience’s perception and position shifting on multiple occasions over the course of proceedings. I also appreciated Barker reining in the queasy-cam, and keeping things generally a) stable, and b) in daylight. He shows a good grasp of the basic fundamentals of cinema; admittedly, you could argue this is operating outside that medium. As a calling-card, it’s undeniably impressive, and despite my disdain for found footage in principle, I am curious as to where Barker and Tomlinson go from here. I’ve a feeling their next feature isn’t going to be posted for free on their YouTube channel. But I imagine the advertising income there has easily covered the eight hundred dollar budget, and then some.