Eccentric actor Crispin Glover makes his feature directorial debut with this Dadaist film experiment about a snail-obsessed boy searching for a way home while struggling with his racist inner psyche. Featuring a cast comprised almost entirely of Down Syndrome-affected actors, What Is It? is the first installment of the surreal "It" trilogy. The second installment, entitled It is Fine! Everything is Fine, followed in 2007. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Glover, who appears in the film as a kind of barbarian dictator-auteur, lacks both the self-imposed ideological innocence and the talent for composing sounds and images of David Lynch.
His directorial debut, What Is It? -- which plays as part of a double bill with a live, enthusiastically performed slide show in which Mr. Glover displays pages from his recent series of books -- is just as unclassifiable as he is.
It's clear that [director] Glover is less interested in narrative than in rekindling a rich midnight-movie/avant-garde tradition that encompasses everything from Maya Deren and Jack Smith to Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch.
It's weirdness for weirdness' sake, and while I disagree fundamentally with a film that has no purpose other than to make you go 'huh ... that was odd,' I do concede that most of the weirdness in this case is at least interesting weirdness.
Intriguing, hilarious, different, and relevant, What is it? is a film that provokes that, and other questions.
September 7, 2010
Ton Q
Beautifully filmed movie that largely takes place in the psyche of a young man with Down's Syndrome as he grapples with his libido and internalized racism. Glover not only directs, but plays a sort of tyrannical id figure (who seems to view himself as sort of "pure" or "innocent", as evidenced by his demand to be
called Shirley Temple). This films touches on quite a few taboos--the least of which is the notion that people with special needs are somehow beyond the mental poison that our culture seeps into all of us, to some degree. (Glover addressed this point when speaking at the screening on his choice to use a cast mostly of actors with Down's Syndrome). Definitely harsh in places--I'd never heard Johnny Rebel before and it turned my stomach once I did, and really, the salt on snails could have been done with CGI. However, I hope he screens this in NYC again or puts it on DVD, because it feels like the kind of film where more could be taken away through repeated viewings.
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