Backgammon (Sci-Fi)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Main Program: D

 

 

Nothing is more unfortunate than a film that tries to show us a dark future and fails miserably in every way it tries to do this.  Ziri Rideaux’s Backgammon (2001) looks like it is influenced by bad TV and Jean Pierre Jeunet’s Delicatessen (1991), thinking that confusion and confusing editing is sufficient enough to show a dark future.  Only wacky “non-conformists” can survive, but too bad this is in style, not substance.

 

Dressing to be different is not the same as being so, but this video-shot project just keeps moving on to the next thing, as if it is creating a world that is dark and disturbing.  We also get the consumerism clichés, i.e., if you are eating and using too much, you are a criminal, which in these cases is always justification for stealing and other violence.  It is being Communist/Socialist without knowing what that is, but worst of all, is being anti-Capitalist (more likely knowing that just enough) just to be hip.  Fortunately, this was not shot on film!

 

I felt very bad for this cast, having to go through.  Rideaux actually tries to explain the work inside the DVD case, but it still does not match what he made, except for him to complain that he has seen people suffer and barely survive.  So why make a dark joke of it?  Some would say you have to laugh, but that is always distraction and denial in actually doing something about it or taking adult responsibility to make any kind of difference.  It is actually the kind of condoned, complacent immaturity that helps make fascism and dark futures possible.  Wallowing in something is not the equivalent of dealing with it.

 

The full frame video images want to be taken seriously enough, despite the works attempt to be a “black comedy” of some sort, which is really an excuse these days to cover up a lack of anything to say or talent.  It is a mess and has no kind of relevant form outside of pseudo-hip styles, which is very bad for a film that is supposed to be making a statement.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 remix (dubbed “5.2” on the back of the box, as if that existed) just moves around the far-from true 5.1 audio.  There are no extras, so Rideaux is not put in the position to even attempt to explain this mess.  Especially when it is of a subject so important as the future gone wrong, saying things only the director understands is a very bad thing.  For a dark future involving gambling (which Backgammon is actually NOT about), if the original Rollerball or Logan’s Run are not masterworks enough for you, they are as compared to this.  Those who think this is some kind of intellectual achievement should consider Robert Altman’s Quintet (1979).  In all those cases, at least they were ambitious, sincere films.  If you are still not convinced, compare to any Michael Moore documentary.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo