Rating: B
Dir: Ian Tripp
Star: Ryan Schafer, Mickey Faerch, Augie Duke, Karl Backus
Well, I think I have reached my 2025 quota for pure, unadulterated cringe. To be clear, it’s entirely deliberate, and rarely has a director been so aptly named. I think I came to that conclusion, when I was watching the main character fend off a giant fly in a nightmare (above). Or something. Not sure. The film begins and ends with suicide attempts by said character. Saul (Schafer) is a 26-year-old ultimate sad sack, who has vowed to kill himself if he remains a virgin on his 27th birthday. He lives with his grandmother (Faerch), who is waiting to die, and spends whatever money he can get from selling things at his local comic shop, on cam-girl Beckie Baby (Duke).
Yeah: odds of that virginity going away? Slim, especially after he sends granny’s debit-card to Beckie. That goes about as well as you expect it would, when we’ve seen behind the cam-girl curtain, into the cavernous warehouse she shares with other online sex workers. There is hardly anyone in the whole movie who does not feel like an outrageous caricature – again, quite consciously. Yet it’s scary how I recognize almost every element of Saul’s character, from his video game rages to his suicidal impulses, in various people I’ve known over the years. They’re just combined here into one massive ball of nightmare incel fuel. The same sense of vicious exaggeration to dramatic effect goes for just about everyone else, bar the brief appearance of Elizabeth, Saul’s cousin. I wanted to yell “GET OUT! SAVE YOURSELF!” at her.
The visual style is bleakly grubby, and appropriate to the content. The film was shot in black-and-white and on digital, but then got printed up onto 16mm. That gives it a raw and authentic, yet also surreal feel, like a poorly Xeroxed fanzine (Kids! Ask your parents!). There are similarities to Eraserhead – fortunately, without the excess of surreal flourishes. Here, Tripp saves all of them for that fly-heavy sequence in the middle, which fully merits this movie’s inclusion in the WTF category. It feels like a grim and cynical satire on modern masculinity, and there’s precious little evidence of light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is out for their own self-interest, with genuine caring for anyone else notable by its near-complete absence. On the evidence here, the director’s faith in human nature is scant.
I’m not quite sure if it’s intended to be a period piece or not. Elements like Saul’s combo VCR/TV and the text-based video game which frustrates him, suggest it could be. However, other elements are clearly contemporary, and it may just be an indication of Saul being developmentally and emotionally frozen in time at the age of eight. It makes for a uncomfortable, occasionally disturbing experience, and I’m not sure it’s one I would want to go through again, any time soon. As a one-off though? I won’t forget it in a hurry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will be over here in the shower, scrubbing myself energetically with a Brillo pad.
The film is available on VOD from today.