The Age of Commercialism

Pretty Good

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Besides some pretty good cinematography, this movie's a mess. Is it a serious thriller or is it slapstick? The premise is preposterous, or perhaps I should say, insane. Thomas (Doubting Thomas?) is a lefty loon who runs a coffee house-bookstore who thinks the CIA blew up the World Trade Center. Some of his dorky friends start turning up dead. Because he's on to the Awful Secret the shadowy conspirators are tracking his every move. They follow him everywhere and peer into his windows with night vision equipment. They follow him on his bike and they're even placed hidden cameras in his living quarters. They can't kill him outright because he's in possession of the MacGuffin, a hard drive salvaged from the supposedly infamous "Able Danger" project. (Able Danger was in reality a data mining project for detecting terrorist activities.) He wants to get this "drive" to the media but first he has to elude the shadowy army of assassins. The hard drive will prove the CIA engineered 9/11. There's a shot of the "drive" in question. It looks like a graphics accelerator card.One doesn't know how seriously to take this movie. It's full of references to 'The Maltese Falcon'; in fact whole scenes look to be lifted from that classic and there's a some of tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in. For example, in one scene a woman is singing a protest song on the stage of the coffee house, off key and banging on an out of tune guitar. "...Violence begets violence!..." she sings, just then a guy stumbles through the front door with a bullet hole in his chest and dies on the floor after knocking over a rack of books. The shadowy conspirators have struck again. Or is it the blond Teutonic religious lunatic who's waiting for the Twelfth Imam? Or is it the spacey Russian girl? Whose side is she on? It would be pretty funny, except it's played as if you're supposed to take all that conspiracy stuff seriously and as such would only appeal to the deranged or the dimwitted. There just aren't that many intentional laughs in a setup which is ripe for satire. A few years ago you couldn't go to a party and not meet some nut who believed he knew the truth about 9/11. And no doubt all of them thought shadowy men in blue suits were after them.So, is it slapstick or is it supposed to be a serious thriller? As a thriller it has its moments, but the plot is so absurd you can't take it seriously. Also, there's was something sick and malicious about those conspiracy theories--they don't make for good comedy, in the same way as jokes about the Holocaust aren't funny. Is Thomas a paranoid schizophrenic and the whole drama is in his head, like Russell Crowe in 'A Beautiful Mind'? That's one possibility, but even then it's not fun to watch. Basically this movie is a downer no matter how you slice it.

I liked this film. It was sharp. Not everyone will get it. But those who do will love it. Elina Löwensohn is a gem, a real star and the supporting cast is overall very good. Michael J. Burg doing his best Udo Keir/Peter Lorre is sinister, yet tongue in cheek fun. I thought the film noir style was well done. I mean Bogart would have been better than Adam Nee, but so what. Mr. Nee is a star of tomorrow and he was awesome. Not sure everyone in the audience got the MALTESE FALCON homage - but I did. Loved it. Too bad more indie directors don't get the money to create, thats what I really liked about this movie - it clearly was a new director's vision brought to life without studio crap bogging it down. I hope the internet conspiracy guys find this movie - they will love it's humor. Project Monarch? Awesome.