Waydowntown

I'm going to be honest. I saw Fab Filippo on Queer As Folk and wanted to check out some of his other work. Yeah, he's gorgeous, but that isn't the only thing I liked about this movie. It's so funny, and so well done that it has become one of my favorite indie films. If you've ever had to work in a cubicle and felt like a rat in a maze; if you've ever had co-workers you were sure would be starring in a hostage negotiation; If you've ever let someone continue to call you by the wrong name because it's just easier, WayDownTown is about YOU. The bet that these 4 co-workers have undertaken requires that they stay indoors for 24 days and counting. Their voluntary confinement combined with that all-too-familiar daily grind has resulted in a wicked sort of "mall buzz". Tom (played to absolute perfection by Filippo) carries the movie along with running narration that we hear as he tries to multi-task while stoned. He runs into an assortment of difficult people and to make matters worse, he's starting to hallucinate. The head trips he's pulled on the other 3 involved in the bet are taking full effect and we gradually watch them all come unglued in situations that are funny because of their familiarity. The movie does a great job of making one day run into the next, just like real life. What color is his tie? What color is her sweater? Wait wasn't he wearing a blue shirt? The colors in the movie are used to enhance the stifling artificiality of the office and the attached mall. You won't be able to resist trying to figure out who the Bradley in your office is...

Very funny independent Canadian film that shows what happens when four people make a bet to see who can stay the longest indoors. They all work in an office tower that is linked to malls , other office towers and their apartment buildings by closed-in walkways. The film begins on day 24 and the four are starting to show signs of cracking! All that lack of fresh air is taking its toll. I especially liked the main character, Tom, who is having a hard time keeping everyone focused. What makes the film so funny is that we can all easily identify with the co-workers who share office space with these four. There's a great scene where one of the four tries to have sex with a co-worker in a very narrow bathroom stall!

Overall, a great film to see if you are in the mood for something just a little different.

What a wonderful little movie! Almost every office worker can relate to the atmosphere of staleness in an office tower. Interesting make-up job they used... dark on greenish pale faces made everyone look like walking dead zombies, which from a little office work experience, is not to far from real life in some places. This movie kind of reminded me of Isaac Asimov's planet, Trantor, in the Foundation novels and his depiction of New York hundreds of years in the future in the Robot novels where Asimov refers to as living in "caves of steel." (Interestingly, Calgary's skyline has been described as one of "steel and glass")

However something somewhat disturbing is that much of North American society will grow more and more comfortable indeed with living and working indoors all the time. This may have been alluded to when one of the characters (I won't give it away), stepped outside for a refreshing breath of of air and finds the outside air instead very unpleasant to breath from the city's pollution. It's a scary thought in that if the way things they're going now with the environment continuing to deteriorate, many of us may have to find refuge waydowntown ourselves.

Oh, I watched this movie the day before I started my first fulltime job in an office setting. I just graduated from university with a commerce degree. Man, how depressing since the character, Tom, is also a commerce grad with his first job. I think it'd be really funny if they showed this movie to all commerce students. Maybe then they wouldn't worship corporations as much as they do now.

Alas, (to quote a local weekly) Waydowntown has been the best argument I've seen to date AGAINST moving to Calgary!

A hilarious psychological comedy where 4 Calgary coworkers bet on who can go the longest without going outside. The exaggerated personality degradation and hallucinations are funny and successful at drawing the audience into their warped world. There is a glass ant farm that is shown often as an allegory to the people living in the channeled tubes of sky walks & high-rises, and it serves a narration at a couple points. The actors did convey a sense of disorientation from having been indoors for 24 days, but it seemed from their behavior that they were indoors somewhat longer. The story takes place in one fateful day when several big events occur that they can't fully handle because of the bet induced stress, but a critical enlightenment is also realized. In this 18 day low budget shoot, the location and background information are left fuzzy intentionally as are the costume changes that occur randomly. This was shot in DV which made the post production effects much easier on a budget, so they are used with good results throughout the story. Film maker Gary Burns feels that the sky walk system "ruined down town Calgary," and even the title is part of his film statement of "modernization gone terribly wrong." This movie is worth going to see if you can find it.

if you've ever worked in an office tower, you can sympathize with these characters. trapped in an inhumane and unnatural setting all day can be excruciating, but these 4 genXers try to take on this mantle 24 hours a day.

the writers have tried to make an analogy between the hostile environment of the modern corporate world to young minds and the closeted world of calgary's plus-15 network of above-ground enclosed walkways between downtown towers. the surrealism of office kowtowing is matched with the narrator flying thru colour-saturated mall displays.

the director and co-writer sat for a question and answer session after the screening at calgary's (first) international film festival and they made a valid point that the +15 network has decimated the downtown pedestrian life that is the core of other larger cities. personally, i like the +15 network, especially when the temperature outside is in the -40 degree range.

the fault for the lack of pedestrian life in most downtown cities should instead be laid at the choice of acquiescing quietly to the ascendance of car culture. when people are presented with the option of dodging traffic or walking safely high above, the result is predictable. the film does have a very funny scene showing how accidents can still take place even in the +15.

if you've seen and enjoyed mike judge's 'office space', you will enjoy watching this film. look for it in wider release at a theatre near you in late 2000.