This is the official, licensed movie of Tao Lin's novel 'Eeeee Eee Eeee'. Let me repeat the words official' and 'licensed'. Okay, once more in capitals: 'OFFICIAL', 'LICENSED', as in having the movie rights as sanctioned by the author himself! I'm making a real fuss out of this, I know, but once – erm, if you ever watch this movie you're going to be in utter disbelief of that statement.
Why? Because this is an... no, the term 'amateur' does not suffice in describing this production. It's more like a rehearsal, I guess? Yeah, 'rehearsal' is a much better term. A rehearsal where no one, absolutely no one – neither actors, director, or editor – could be bothered to take the production seriously. Yet, at the same time it is more than a home video that somehow found its way onto Amazon's DVD-R publishing. Because it's the OFFICIAL, LICENCED movie adaptation of a fairly famous novel!
'Eeeee Eee Eeee: The Movie's cast are the employees of Queens Library, NYC. It seems doubtful that most of them even know what the movie is about and they are openly reading from the scripts. If they mess up their lines, they just go again without stopping the camera. Loud music occasionally obscure the dialogue, wigs fall off and are put back on during the take, Andrew's dog (in the novel) is replaced by a mechanical, barking toy chihuahua, and so on... The utter lack of anything connected to what is generally considered to be 'good' filmmaking is so in your face that it's impossible to take the movie seriously for a single second. The IMDb list of goofs needs just a simple copy/paste of the script, supplemented by the complete description of more or less every action taken during the whole film. This is incredible in the sense that you'll have difficulties believing your senses. - Oh! I forgot to mention the still backgrounds and the green screen... Maddening! But you get the point. Moving on.
How could this have happened, you ask? Why did this become reality? Well, Tao Lin, the author, is himself a filmmaker who started a production company named MDMAfilms (together with a Megan Boyle); the name was the obvious choice when making documentaries while high on MDMA, which is what they do, and filming everything with the camera on a Macbook. Lin is clearly an eccentric man, a very eccentric man, and somehow I guess this... makes the film seem more appropriate to his idiom? At least the film actually makes some sense when considering the book, but more on that in a bit. First, let us finally deal with the plot.
Andrew is best described as a socially inept person, often being compared to a people with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome. The movie does little to promote this view, but the novel is at least pretty firm on this point. He works at Domino's Pizza, has a dog, a friend named Steve, and a potentially fictitious girlfriend/love interest named Sara; he regularly talks to bears who invite him into holes, observe the doings of depressed dolphins, and, for some reason, the hamsters are sad. Joanna is also there, whoever that is, and she needs a ride home together with her pizza, resulting in u-turns. Makes sense, all of this, does it? Hm? No? Well neither does the movie. Neither does the novel, for that matter – or perhaps it does, just no one has been able to properly decode it yet.
The great twist to all of this is that this might actually be the perfect movie for the novel. Yep, you heard me. The movie might be intended to be exactly as poorly made as this! Again, focus on Andrew's lack of social comprehension. Then let's turn to the novel – which seems to be made out of several related, but not necessarily coherent short stories – because it at times makes a fuss out of Andrew's attempts at authorship. Not unlikely this is supposed to hint to that Andrew himself wrote 'Eeeee Eee Eeee'. Thus, making the film look like it was made by someone who does not understand the thoughtrealms of other people, might just be utterly brilliant. Yep, again, you heard me. This might be a brilliant movie!
So, there you have it: The worst movie ever might be better than one would expect. I'm not going to be the final judge of that, though. See for yourself if you like, and then decide. Just be aware of this disclaimer: May induce mental pain (from shocking disbelief) and hearing problems (others in the room will be yelling "what the [...]" repeatedly).
PS. My mind is now so far blown that I'm starting to see talking bears as well. PPS. Is it normal for bears to be named Toby? I hope so...
