Customer Reviews

Film Geek

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Somewhat autobiographical tale about a young man w/ an encyclopedic knowledge of international film. This robotic young man's fascination w/ film is shared only by him, as he swiftly spews forth the info on varied popular and esoteric films and directors. He irritates people, though he means no harm. He actually is a "nice" guy. Alas, he loses his job as a clerk at a video store. Now he's faced w/ greater social isolation and the challenge of building a life outside of film alone. This film will appeal to anyone who's ever been on the outside, considered a geek or nerd, or who loves film. The Film Geek (Scotty) is worse off than Napoleon Dynamite because, unlike Napoleon, Scotty doesn't have ANY friends or family. Film is set in Oregon, shot on location, in a documentary type style, but well-produced. Bonus features: interesting notes about the cast and crew in a making of feature, and a hilarious spoof starring Malkasian (who played Scotty). In the spoof (referred to as a short film in the menu), Malkasian shows off his acting skill playing an Italian porn film director who's giving the DVD commentary for one of his films. Funny because such shallow material is treated w/ such seriousness. Worth your time. Trailers for 3 other indie films: most noteworthy: Mongolian Ping Pong (drama about what happens when children in an isolated tribe of Mongolian indigenous people find a ping pong ball), and Agnes & My 4 Brothers (German comedy about a sex-addict)

Watching something like FILM GEEK makes me feel good. Sometimes I sense my social skills slipping, but watching Melik Malkasian play Scotty Pelk in this flick boosted my confidence several rungs. You see, I'm into films, too (pretty obvious, eh?) Undoubtedly, I compared some aspects of the Pelk persona with myself. Thankfully, I couldn't make many connections (Whew!)

Pelk is a video store employee with an encyclopedic knowledge of film and film history. Trouble is that's all he knows (he even has a zero-hit website devoted to film reviews, film history, and comparative film theory). He drives everyone around him nutso. Employees. Store patrons. Passersby on the street. No one is immune to Pelk's social ineptness. And dark days are headed his way. He's fired from the video store and is forced into a job at an auto-parts warehouse where he continues his film history harassment to anyone within earshot. But then he runs into Niko (Tyler Gannon, THUMBSUCKER), a funky artist who takes a strange liking to Pelk. They meet. They go out. And Pelk becomes enraptured to the point of stalking. He's so infatuated with her that he masturbates daily into his bathroom sink while staring at her picture. Obviously this isn't going to work. When Niko's old boyfriend shows back up, Pelk is on the outs again and has a meltdown. He tears up his little apartment and falls back into more masturbatory behavior ...only to have his phone ring. On the other end is a newspaper editor who wants to do an article on him and his website. The FILM GEEK becomes an overnight success, his website gets massive hit numbers, and movie-goers comment on his accurate film assessments. Even Niko comes back to him ...or does she?

Director James Westby lets us make up our own minds about what happened in the end. Did the FILM GEEK actually become popular? Or was his mind spewing forth fantasies while he let loose his physical emissions into the sink? The dark humor is deftly handled (no pun intended) and the scenes involving Pelk's discovery of his own social limitations are pulled off very well.

Comparisons to NAPOLEON DYNAMITE are appropriate here. Both movies had limited budgets. Both had quirky characters with poor interpersonal relationships. Both main characters succeed (?) due to the very thing that makes them so dysfunctional.

Although FILM GEEK had lower production standards than Napoleon Dynamite, FILM GEEK certainly ranks up there with it in terms of script, acting, and freaky character development.

We all remember when in Rain Man the toothpicks fell... Well as I watched Film Geek, I was thinking "Scotty is Rain Man, if movies had fallen before him". Scotty has NO social skills. NO ability to talk about anything beyond films. Ask him about songs and he will tell you only of ones that played in movies. Ask him of news and well if it wasn't in a movie he surely didn't hear of it. So working in a movie store is perfect for this guy, no? No. He drives everyone crazy as he's too helpful. He'll go off on movies you didn't ask about, act insulted if you don't know about an obscure director or genre, etc. But then, he meets a girl, loses his job, and all hell breaks lose and he tries to adapt to living life as he's never known it before.

If you or someone you know is an uber geek about anything, is socially awkward, or lives in / has lived in Portland (it was filmed there) you'll probably find something to appreciate in this movie.

I thought i was going to like this. I selected it filled with positive expectation. I like the premise, a guy completely into film and film history. I can identify with this. for sure. I liked his room, filled with boxes upon boxes of VHS tapes with blissful close-ups of their titles:The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/The Ladykillers/Notorious etc. His walls adorned with film posters and art-house schedules. His cool website where you can clik on and read his film reviews, top DVD of the day, film essay's etc. And his job, a dream job working in a video store among the films he loves. Chatting with customers or co-workers about actors, directors,original versions of remakes and on and on. I even love watching him melt the shrink wrap onto previously watched VHS boxes.

.......and then, the red flags begin to crop up. Firstly, with the adoring shots of him from the rear 'doing his business' in his sink. Secondly, this guys whole demeanor, sort of like, unable to scope out how to act with others.

A little bit of this is natural and harmless but this guy fastidiously pushes it without consideration. Almost like, i have a RIGHT to be as obnoxious as i WANT to be. This personality grated real quick and shut my affection down for this guy pronto. Without the introduction of a cute also-film-loving girl he meets on the bus one day I can't imagine how I would've made it through this film-which i barely did. I found it extremely interesting to watch how Niko(played by Tyler Gannon)endures the presence of Scotty(Film Geek). His overt geekiness does not repel her or if so, only to a mild degree. On a date with him she shares some of her pot resulting in his infantile drooling. This is probably her biggest test and still she seems not very flustered by him. So i found her patience and acceptance of him to be extraordinary. I'm pretty sure this falls squarely within the category of 'only in the movies'. Aside from the essence of the story, i found the namby-pamby music to be grating after a while. Not the individual 'songs' which i liked but the additional music.

I stare in disbelief at the praise this movie generated...from the dvd's box:"GOLD!Hollywood take notice"..."Sly, Affectionate!"...."Spot-on/very funny!" I found the hero of this movie to be a real bore. And sad. Funny? um, no.