deadCENTER review: “Simmons on Vinyl”
“Simmons on Vinyl”
Directed by Mark Potts
deadCENTER executives have stressed the importance of showcasing locally-produced films to promote the growth of arts within the state. University of Oklahoma students Mark Potts, Cole Selix and Brand Rackley are three such filmmakers and (judging by the film quality and logistic constraints) probably operated on the tightest budget of any feature-length shown at the festival.
But that’s not to say the film isn’t any good, quite the opposite, really. Director Potts isn’t trying to direct “Avatar” here. He plays to his strengths, constructing a simple premise that showcases the trio’s slightly raunchy but good-humored ‘dude-versation’ to permeate the film, a refreshing and funny exercise built around the universal truth that guys will go to moronic and senseless lengths for girls.
Zeek (Mark Potts) is your typical lovable loser with goofy friends and a colossus crush on a girl who doesn’t return his 20 or 30 phone calls. When said girl asks him to run an errand for him in exchange for the possibility of a “mid-afternoon get-together”, he immediately enlists the help of womanizer Dwayne (Brand Rackley) and settled-down Dwight (Cole Selix), who has a kid “that’s cooler than an XBox”.
The trio’s exchanges compose the bulk of the movie, which follows them through a night of hijinks including a funeral for a cat (featuring that mystery wrapped in an enigma that is OU Vice President for Student Affairs and sometimes improv actor Clarke Stroud), a kidnapping and the lowest-budgeted dance contest in the history of cinema. Regardless, the exposition of the guys’ friendship -rife with hysterical pop culture metaphors- and the stop-start cadence to Zeek’s quirky delivery make this film one of the best of the fest.
Grade: 3 stars out of 4
–Carney
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