A battle between resturants in Westridge County turns from humorous to very dark.
I missed this film when it played at Fantasia last year, however I've caught up with it for its theatrical release and all is right with the world. This film kicks ass.
Told as a series of commercials and news clips from a VHS tape the film begins as a funny send up of local TV commercials and news reporting. However as time goes on the random commercials take the form of a narrative of live in Westridge County. The battle between a sandwich shop and an expanding buffett take spotlight but there are other troubling threads here. What was funny becoes disturbing.
Think of this as a YouTube series on steroids. This is the sort of alternate reality tale that many You Tube creators put out there set in a seemingly real but slightly off center place. However instead of running a few minutes it runs 90+. (And apparently there are hundred of more commercials that weren't included).
This is a film that is right in my wheel house and the fact that it works as well as it does really shocked me. Very often the You Tubers lose focus after a half dozen clips, but the film has dozens and dozens and it all holds together. What I love is that looking back there are no missteps. I will have to go back through the film a couple more times, but if I'm correct any thing I thought was a problem is corrected by something that follows.
This is brilliant on so many levels. If you want to see a group of filmmakers working at the pinnacle of their game this is it. What they are doing here is technically as good as it gets and should be in the running for an Oscar (no, seriously, this should get at the very least a nomination for editting).
The best part is thatthe storytellingis so assured and so perfect that even though we only get hints and glimpses of things, and very little is conventionally explained, we get the whole story. Talk about craft and trusting your audience.
If you want a wickedly off beat scifi comedy thriller see BUFFET INFINITY one of the great finds of the year.
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