Film Geek

i can't say enough good things about this movie. It reminds me of Napolean dynamite except i liked it even better. Partly because its got a more complicated story,and people who are more weird and screwed up in it. i loved all the characters and excuse me for saying so but scotty is hot!! i thought it was so adorable how he knew so much about the movies and everything. The actor who plays him lived in Portland well I guess he's going to be famous now since the movie is gonna play at more theatres then in portland soon. i wanna see the next movie hes in I can tell you that! What a hottie. long live the film geek! there should definitely be a sequel.

Film Geek is a film that comes around once in a lifetime. Director James Westby's grasp of Cinema is overwhelming. The film is everything that Napolean Dynamite should have been. The lead is a dork, loser type, but played to brilliance by Malik Malkasian. If the distributor of this film has a brain, they will roll it out on a grand scale. The movie is short, only 75 mins. But in that time frame, I laughed, I cried, and I was so deeply drawn into Westby's world, that I hoped the movie would go on forever.

If you get the chance to see this gem on the big screen, don't miss it. Westby and Malkasian could be the next Scorsese/De Niro.

5 Stars, A+, A perfect 10!!!!

Film Geek, from writer/director James Westby, has all the hallmarks of a film that has been made with absolutely no compromises at all and as such comes off as an incredibly self-indulgent exercise on Westby's part. He got every scene and line of dialog he wanted but didn't really bother to let the rest of us in on the joke.

Scotty Pelk (played by Melik Malkasian) is the titular geek whose life we are supposed to find fascinating. Everything from his monotonous droning about movies to his box sniffing is supposed to endear us to this man but succeeds in doing nothing more than reminding us why it is most people who are labeled geeks are social outcasts. He's not funny, he's not charming, he's not sweet, he's not anything but a pain in the butt and we get to be subjected to his nonsense for almost two hours.

And while Scotty is most certainly in the running for the title of Most Annoying Thing About This Movie, the winners, far and above the tepid acting and predictable plot line, are the little bits of dialog that rear their ugly heads from time to time to remind us that Westby has a horribly overdeveloped grasp of melodrama. The only thing worse than hearing Scotty drone on and on about movies is hearing Scotty drone on and on about his dreams and aspirations.

Perhaps if somebody had told Westby (preferably at the script writing stage), "You might want to try to entertain someone other than yourself," it would have been a better film. Since this movie is supposedly based upon Westby's days as a video store clerk, it's easy to see where this narcissism comes from.

I saw Film Geek at the Longbaugh Film Festival in Portland, OR not knowing what to expect, but I found that I discovered a wonderfully entertaining and quirky little gem of a movie. Melik Malkasian gives an incredible performance as Scotty Pelk the film geek who is a socially lacking, movie-obsessed video rental store clerk. When he is not at work, he spends most of his time serving as webmaster for his movie review website which hardly gets any traffic, masturbating, and obsessively watching movies alone in his apartment. The rest of the time he pathetically lusts after the bratty Kaitlin and and the icy-blonde Cindy who both despise him. Being as utterly clueless as he is he continually pursues them despite their rejection of him. In one of the funniest scenes in the whole movie life hits the bottom of the barrel for Scotty when he is fired from his job at the video store. He goes crazy running about the store turning everything into chaos. For this scene alone Malkasian should garner some awards attention. He combines the perfect balance of humor and quirk that is nothing short of brilliant in this scene.

Despite the low point Scotty has reached it also turns out to be a turning point when he meets the captivating Niko. Niko is a cool, Portland-hipster who loves movies (almost) as much as he does. Unlike everyone else in his life she doesn't mind discussing them with him and connecting with him in general despite his nerdy ways. Scotty soon realizes that he might just have met the love of his life. One of the main problems is that her scummy boyfriend just isn't going to let go so easily. Will Scotty's eventual fame at having his website be discovered enable him to win Niko in the end? Or will his clueless ideals and delusions just keep getting in the way? James Westby does an impressive job with his direction, writing and heartfelt realization of the many memorable and engaging characters and situations that make up Scotty's odd, crazy, hilarious and yet at times somewhat sad story.

Wow....two weeks later and I'm still amazed at how good Film Geek was. It's just good clean and sometimes not so clean fun. If I had a DVD copy of it I would rearrange my collection and place it right in-between Rainman and Napoleon Dynamite. What a character study. Scotty was a believable little weirdo the entire movie. He's the kind of character you just fall in love with. I found myself at the video store where the director works "Videorama" searching for a movie and I thought to myself, what would Scotty rent. A must see for anyone who loves a good off beat character study....checkout Film Geek. I want to watch it right now, I guess maybe I have a little bit of Scotty in me. Hurry up and get it to DVD!