Spoiler Alert
“Spoiler Alert” takes the internet critic/filmmaker relationship and takes it to its’ darkest aspects, going all “Swimming With Sharks” on it. Admittedly it took a little bit to get into it- vitriolic anonymous film bashing of the level portrayed here (the type that typically devolves into someone being called Hitler) has never been my favorite to read.
However, when director Harrison Kane (Lars Stevens) shows up at the basement apartment of thegeek-cave.com proprietor Brad Zuhl (Daniel Bartkewicz) because of a beef with his evisceration of his last film “Bones of the Dead,” the film becomes something entertaining and a real comment on Hollywood and geek culture. See, we do have some value at times.
Zuhl and his writing partner Walt (Jarred Kjack) have just sold their script about vampires vs. zombies, even though the producers are getting ready get it rewritten, much to Zuhl’s displeasure. Walt, however, works at a studio and knows what the situation is. After a night of trashing films, though, Walt heads home. Not long afterwards, Harrison Kane shows up under the guise of someone wanting to interview him, but soon, his real motives are revealed.
What happens in the next hour is a chess game that looks at the dark side of movies, a deal with the devil (in the form of the Hollywood studios) that gets Zuhl in the door (and buries Harrison), and what really gets lost when money gets in the way of creativity and passion. Don’t expect much in the way of spoilers from me about this film- I wouldn’t dare run the risk of ruining things for the curious- but if you saw “Swimming With Sharks” (the 1995 dark comedy with Kevin Spacey and Frank Whaley) you’ll immediately have a pretty good sense of the vibe writer-director David Rakowiecki pulls off with this film. (And how did he get away with using classic tracks from “Signs,” “North By Northwest,” and “A New Hope?” Awesome stuff.) The same goes for the movie, which engages and gets to the heart of the matter with how things can go very wrong when people lose their passion to making shit loads of money.
