Relaxer

An interesting point that smacks of the 90s but judging by its thin content it would have served better as a short film.

Not sure what to make of this movie journey. Is it about doing inconsequential nothings in life; addictions/obsessions; submission to others; sitting out the coming Y2K event of supposed doom when tech can't handle a date change. Anyway, totally filmed in a slimy, grungy, filthy small one room apt. we have one brother confined to his couch (by orders of older bro who appears sporadicaly) telling him to periodically drink from a gallon of what is probably soured milk while trying to break a Pac-man video game record of level 256. As time goes by he sits & ages, mostly alone, not going to an actual bathroom; somehow surviving on small scraps of disgusting food, as the game plays on in the background.

This film gets two stars instead of just one from me because I sat through all of it to see how it would (could?) end. Otherwise my singular thought, when it finally did finish, was to regret not knowing where I first heard of it so I could ignore their recommendations forever into the future. Sorry if this offends anyone who enjoys "unique" films but I used to think I did too. Until this one.

Potrykus is one of the most talented and well known directors to come out of the West Michigan film scene. I haven't had a chance to see his first film "Ape" yet but his sophomore offering of "Buzzard" is a delightfully funny and rebellious workplace punk rock anthem for the everyman. "The Alchemist Cookbook" certainly caught some off guard with its change in tone from his previous work but it is a decent horror film with some really special moments in it.

Having seen both of these films, I was really primed to see some thing more than unique when I got to go to a special screening of "Relaxer," in conjunction with this years ArtPrize.

I didn't know anything about this film going in but within a minute the premise is being set coyly with a wink and a nod. Sure the challenges that Cam throws at Abbie are extreme and cruel but the idea that Abbie, or Joshua Burge, would take the ludicrous challenge to sit in one spot on the couch for six months seriously is even extreme enough that you can almost feel the director winking into the camera saying, "That's right. We ain't movin' and we ain't gonna cheat. We are doing' this."

The entire movie, one of the characters never moves their butt off their seat. This really impressed me. On the one hand, as a film maker I know that the grind of moving locations every day can really wear a crew down. Being at one set the whole time would sure be nice. But then again, I can imagine it might start dragging a bit after a while. Day after day in the same place. Clocking in and clocking out. I mean, half of us in this business do it because we dream of breaking out of that kind of routine.

That's where the movie is subtly brilliant, probably unintentionally, but if not, Kudos to you, Joel. Even the way that it gets made is a sort of commitment to break out of the normal, the thing that is holding us back. I have never gotten a chance to talk to Joel but I bet that even like the smallest of us film guys, he lament's that we can't work on the scale we want, for the rates we want, and with all the time we want.

We make sacrifices and before you know it we are back on the couch. Wasting the days into the new millennia. At the very least, watching this film made me want to fight the things that keep me down. They may not be as gross, or funny, or outlandish as in "Relaxer," but they still need to be taken down.

Cam gives his slacker brother Abbie one last challenge before he's kicked out. To beat Billy Mitchell at Pac Man. If he clears level 256 then he wins $100,000. Cam adds that he can not under any circumstance leave the couch. And if that's not bad enough, the Y2K apocalypse is on the horizon. As weeks go by he begins to deteriorate. Surreal, weird, and gross at times.