Joel Potrykus is no stranger to the slacker/punk genre. His previous efforts include APE, a film about a deranged and broke-as-hell stand-up comedian who makes a deal with the devil, BUZZARD, which entails a low-rent temp employee who schemes his way to a climax involving eating giant heaps of spaghetti in a high-rise hotel and a home-made Freddy Kruger glove, and THE ALCHEMIST’S COOKBOOK, where a mentally unstable, self-taught, cat-loving scientist has locked himself in a remote trailer in the woods of Michigan and summons up a demon. His films are all about severely unstable people with delusions of the grandest of grandeur. They all have unique tones that dance a high-wire act of funny, horrific, gross-out and unconventional philosophical undertones (yeah, you read that right). They are all acted with absolute truthful conviction by the leads, which is usually RELAXER’s star Joshua Burge. His films are singular. Without myself sounding like a pompous ass, his films really do resemble something like if Alex Cox, John Waters, and Ingmar Bergman all exploded into goop and reconstituted into the shape of a Mid-Western man that could only be named Joel.
That explanation sets stage to this film that, although early in the year has already crowned itself king. RELAXER, a film that primarily is set around a man-child named Abbie sitting on his ass for the film’s runtime playing Pac-Man because of an insane brotherly bet, is the best film of the year… so far at least.
How could a movie about something so simple and singular be so good? Well, to start off, the opening scene: a 10-minute uninterrupted take that starts up on the eve of Y2K (the film takes place in 1999, where Prince stated, “Parties weren’t made to last”) during the tail end of a bet involving Tony Hawk Pro Skater on Nintendo 64, milk, baby bottles, urine and a filthy mop bucket that ends in
After this horrific and terrific display of pathetic depravity, we are set up with the RELAXER’s premise. Abbie, an unemployed loser has been coaxed yet again by his brother Cam (the also excellent David Dastmalchian) to perform an insane bet where he must beat Pac-Man score by the new millennium, thus winning $100,000 from gaming God Billy Mitchell. BUT!– Abbie must remain planted in the couch the whole time. He will be unable to use the bathroom, prepare food, fetch water, answer the door, stretch, lay on his side, nothing. He must SIT. He will have to record this all on a handi-cam for proof. Cam will be back to check up on him, later. Cam tells Abbie that he doesn’t stand a chance in hell and will have to get a job. Abbie won’t have it. He has given up on giving up. He is on the road to Shambala.
What follows is 90 minutes of a
