My Response to Watching the Movie "Film Geek" Directed by James Westby. Also Discussed, Why I am Also a Geek.

This is my response to watching the movie "Film Geek" directed by James Westby. There are probably some who watched this movie and couldn't get past it's simpleness, but for me, honestly, Film Geek is a truly magical film. It is straightforward in it's story and style but this is what helps provide a good way for the main character to stand out and shine with some hilarious unintended dry humor. This character, and great performance by Melik Malkasian, is what really makes the film a quality experience. His name is Scotty and he is a video store clerk and movie geek extraordinaire.

There are so many parts of this movie where I laughed so much I almost cried. It gave me that feeling one can get when you can't stop laughing and you are filled with so much joy, you feel released or something. It's what makes me love art, this power to move people. I like how despite everything that anyone else might say to Scotty, he always replies back with some already-ready obscure comment about an old French movie or his opinion on a random actor's performance from the past. It's like you're talking to some kind of odd fortune teller who is wearing retail worker clothes and who speaks in metaphors.

Watching this movie for the first time was one of those rare experiences that happens when I watch a really great film. It gets to you in a way that creates a new experience, or the feeling of one. Or the feeling of something familiar coming back. Like when you get lost in a new patch of forest for the first time and you're not sure of the way back or forward. Excited and nervous. That kind of newness can be conveyed in a quality movie I think and Film Geek did that for me.

Like Scotty I was a serial video store clerk, and before that I have him beat, because I was also a movie projectionist at age 16. Like Scotty I was also socially awkward and often when attempting to interject in a conversation, would make an obscure comment about a film director's style only to get an awkward stare in reply. Like I speak a foreign language. Upon reflection it's not the other person's fault of course, for not understanding, it's my fault for not having better social acumen. Obviously I can relate to the Scotty character. Not that I am a film geek to his master level, but there are some all too real and funny moments in this movie.

At the beginning of the movie when we see Scotty working at the video store (an out-dated construct), we see him sniff the newly shrink-wrapped videos. Whenever I get a new piece of paper to paint on or a new wood canvas stretcher bar, I always smell it thoroughly. I am trying to smell where it has been, even the tree when it was still in the ground. I know that sounds odd, I am trying to smell the original smell of the tree from which the paper or wood came from. I want to know that paper. It's like Scotty wanting to know every aspect of his movies. 

At one point in the movie, Scotty is on a sort of date, seeing an obscure movie at an old vintage movie theater called The Clinton (complete with old school tile billboard).  Scotty and the girl are the only ones there and they comment on the old smell of the theater. (I know the smell of an old movie theater read my post Tribute to the Trailridge Dollar Theatre). Sidenote: that is something Scotty would say, noting a reference to an essay he had written about the subject.

Well Scotty and his dream girl are waiting for the movie to start, alone in the center of the room,... the lights dim and he turns to see the old projector light up from behind the glass, shooting it's ever widening cylinder of light from up above and behind their heads. All the pieces of dust within the lit cylinder of light in the dark room are made visible, swirling in the air through the cone of light as it projects the movie onto the screen ahead. The dust looks like tiny fireflies, caught in the light of a car's headlight, in a frenzy of a midnight summer's sky.

In this moment the movie is so simple; it's brilliant. That moment,... THAT moment is so good. To elaborate on my experience noted earlier, I was a projectionist at an old dive theater that had outdated projectors from the 70's. So I like when we see the old school projector shine it's cylinder of light through the empty, dark, and seemingly ancient room. The usher closes the door, the smell of old candy, pop and popcorn think in the air, a slight stickiness when walking with your rubber sneaker on the floor, (no matter how hard you scrub it won't come out),  mixed with a musky scent of dust and decades past. Creaky seats and a choppy film spliced together reel by reel by the sketchy long-haired projectionist.... lol. Anyways. This was a great movie.

Scotty has his webpage, Scottysfilmpage.com, and a ballcap he always wears with that text simply displayed. It should be known at this point that I have t-shirt(s) with my art webpage on it - edsartworkshop.com. He has his essays on obscure movies of the past, and I have my essays here on this blog, over 250 worth about weird artists from the past and my approach to the creative experience and culture. This is just one of the many ways I can relate to the Scotty character.

At one point in Fim Geek, when Scotty is hanging out with that same girl, and she asks him, "why do you like movies". Scotty starts a nobly, but somewhat monotone sounding speech about why he does. She responds, "that was well thought out." He replies back, "Yeah I wrote an essay titled Why I like movies on my webpage, ScottysFilm Page.com". This movie has me written all over it.

A simple movie, but one which creates an amazing character, and admirably captures a brief moment in human history. A moment when once,... people would have to go to a store to get a movie to watch. And someone there would have to be the one to rent it to them. An obscure moment of culture to be sure. Lost in time - the video store clerk, ramblings of a madman?