Rating: 14/20
Plot: Artists dick around with people, sending them on a wild goose chase sans goose. Thousands of participants try to figure out what to believe and trust from the mysterious Jejune Institute, the titular organization which might be a cult or a game or a little of both.
I guess what frustrated me was that I wasn't sure what the heck I was supposed to do with any of this. Was I supposed to figure something out? Was I supposed to be enlightened somehow? Was I supposed to laugh or cry? It sort of feels like a puzzle that's already been assembled for you. You open up the box, and the puzzle pieces are already almost where they're supposed to be. But only almost because things seem askew or incomplete. This wasn't great storytelling, but it's hard to tell if that's part the point. The participants interviewed were descriptive enough about the experience that their feelings behind the whole virtual reality deal were clear. However, I never really got a grasp on what was going on, and just couldn't piece any narrative thread together. If the point of that was to make the viewer of this documentary feel as lost and/or confused as the participants in this little game, it didn't really work well enough. There were times when I was a little bored rather than delightfully befuddled. Still, I really like the idea of the whatever-it-is in general, and a few of the characters were a lot of fun to watch. An actor/self-help-guru who came along at the end and helped bring everything to some sort of conclusion played his role perfectly, and my favorite part of the documentary might have been when he cracks a little joke at a seminar. No, my favorite part was the part with the guy in the red jumpsuit dancing to music coming out of a boom box. Of course, if a guy dancing to music coming out of a boom box is part of any movie, it's likely to be my favorite. And that's especially true if a Sasquatch is involved or if there's a mention of inter-dimensional hopscotch. This could have worked a lot better, but it was an interesting enough movie about an interesting social experiment and worth watching for people fascinated by that sort of thing.
Question: Is the "Eva" mentioned in this even a real person? It all feels so hoaxy, but if this whole thing was really put together as a tribute to an actual person, I might have a little more respect for the whole thing. I don't know why because I respect a lot of absolutely meaningless things.
First of all, the "home videos" of Eva are totally, obviously phony. I don't know if the guy with his face blacked out was fake or not, but the only real part I could gather were the willing participants (who all spoke very nonchalantly regarding their experiences) and the creator/affiliates (who all spoke realistically and cognitively).
ReplyDeleteThe participants all admit to having a great adventure. Some of them even had transcendent moments. But what really got me was that none of them admitted to it being entirely life-changing. The ending was unanimously described as a fizzle-out dud. It was just a glorified social experiment that hipsters can tell their hipster friends about (or an overly-curious director who thinks he has a big story to tell).
The creator (bald guy in a blue shirt) and his affiliates seem pretty legit. They all admitted to this thing not being that much of a big damn deal. All spoke about it being fun and whimsical. They just wanted people to look at the world around them differently, and see the wonder around their everyday surroundings. I do think that Eva was a real person. The creator was inspired by this person of his youth, and recognized her spirituality (however she defined it..."nonchalance" bullshit). He wanted to share that a-ha, lightbulb, epiphany moment with others.
Again, the Eva diary and home movies were all fake. The Jujune Institute, Evil Professor guy, and crafted shenanigans were all fake, too. I even think that guy with his face blacked out was a phony.
My favorite part was when the participants were told to answer pay phones by Commander 16 (or whatever the voice's name was), and after picking up the phone, were told to "dance, DANCE MOTHER FUCKER!!" At which point your aforementioned boom box-carrying black guy in a red jump suit and Sasquatch came out to join them in the rhythms of house music. That part was pretty brilliant. The rest of the "treasure" hunt was more blase than "nonchalant."
Right--Eva was real, I think. But there was stuff created that wasn't real Eva. And I didn't know what to think about the guy with the blacked-out face. I suspected he was with Jejune, which sort of makes the whole thing a little annoying.
ReplyDeleteMy brother really liked this.
i loved the sense of wonder in this movie. i've not done any interweb research on this to see if any of it is real or not. seems all fake to me but the idea still appeals to me. the dude with the blacked out face talks about knowing eva which doesnt make any sense, and the bald guy seems like a really bad actor at times. i am putting this in my fake documentary list with american movie. this world needs more magic so even a possiblity that this happened makes me hopeful.
ReplyDeleteOh, the game or whatever you want to call it really happened. It's a real documentary.
ReplyDeleteAnd so is American Movie! That guy's real!
But you're definitely right that the world needs more of this sort of thing. Humans are stuck in ruts.