Film Geek

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.

Film Geek (2005)

*** (out of 4)

Extremely uneven but slightly entertaining look at film buff Scotty Pelk (Melik Malkasian) who finds his life going nowhere when he's fired from his video store job. Things start to look up when he meets a young woman (Tyler Gannon) who appears to have a love for movies as well. FILM GEEK, by the title alone, is a movie that film buffs are going to want to check out and while there are some nice ideas scattered throughout, there's no doubt that a much better movie could be made on the subject. With that said, there's no question that I found a lot of it to be charming and even got a couple nice laughs out of it. I'm sure most film buffs will laugh when they see Scotty trying to explain "black bars" to someone who doesn't care or seeing him trying to talk two teenage girls into checking out foreign films. I think the nature of Scotty's knowledge is rather ordinary as far as a film buff goes but it's still fun just seeing someone with a love for film. Throughout the movie we get some text on the screen showing off some of Scotty's favorite directors and their top five movies. With that said, there's no question that there's more heart in the film than actual greatness. The lead character is extremely nerdy to say the least and he certainly has a lot more problems than just his love for movies. They probably could have toned this down some but at the same time Malkasian is extremely good in the part. The supporting cast doesn't feature any great performances but they all fit their roles nicely. FILM GEEK isn't a complete success but considering its budget, the thing kept me entertained.

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.

I wanted to like this movie, but I didn't. It was simply too low budget to be enjoyable. The acting was generally pretty bad and the story was relatively formulaic.

There was a smattering of funny one-liners (most of which involved the word "basically"), but not nearly enough to get me through the 70 minutes without checking my watch.

Of course, as a film geek, I appreciated the references to lesser known directors and films. In fact, I would have loved it if that aspect of the film was played up. Instead, we get to see a corny pseudo-romance unfold and watch countless "Napoleon Dynamite" wannabe jokes fall flat.

The film doesn't work because the acting and storyline are subpar and the protagonist is a caricature who is far too one-dimensional to be even remotely believable. However, the cinematography is decent for a movie that seems to have been made for about $1000. The music wasn't too bad either.

If someone edited this down to only the obscure film references (which would probably run about 10 minutes), it would be funnier and much more digestible.

I wouldn't even recommend this one to cinephiles.

3 out of 10