Waydowntown

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!

This movie was hilarious! Simply put, it is purely great humour. Practically anyone will like this movie for it's many very realistic characters who all seem to go insane! This movie sits somewhere between reality and fantasy, for it uses both aspects in a beautiful way, somehow finding a perfect point between the two.

It's about these people who make a bet that they will not go outside of this connected office building complex in the heart of downtown CITYX which looks sorta like Calgary. Anyhow, it shows their lives, interactions, and trying to live a human life in the strange box they call home... It makes for a weird, but interesting scenario, and the main character's ant-farm clearly parallels the film's main scenario.

This film not only has excellent acting, but the directing was great too. The script was intelligent and well written, and everything about this movie screams WELL DONE! I mean, for the small little Canadian budget they had, they did excellent! I wouldn't be surprised if this movie becomes an underground classic. Or gets rereleased by a bigger company to rake in the dough at the box office.... frankly, I am surprised how little anyone knows about this movie. Well... See this movie if you havn't yet! It is not to be missed! I reccommend to all, for you will all love this movie. SEE IT!

P.S.

Oh, and the superhero scenes are just awesome! You'll know what I mean! *L* :) Ahh, just thinking about this movie makes me want to start laughing, it's the funniest thing I've seen ever..... in a movie at least. Watch and enjoy. Don't miss it!

One of my top 20 movies for sure.

The characters are what make this movie. And the touch or surrealism. The premise is that four coworkers make a bet that whoever is the last to remain inside wins a month's salary. Until then they live their entire lives inside this bubble.

One of my favorite props is that even the smokers can live their entire existence indoors; they smoke in these little tubes inside the building.

Some of the characters are a kleptomaniac boss, a suicidal cubicle slave, a directionless young office worker, and the initiator of the bet, who had succeeded living indoors for something like a year.

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.