Lurking In Suburbia
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C+
I just am always amazed when I meet guys in their 20s
complaining that they are getting too old.
Really? Then what is young? How do they gain this strange
perception? Mitchell Altieri’s Lurking
In Suburbia (2003) tells the tale of the supposed horror of turning
30! Has the shallow version of an
already problematic, youth obsessed culture really caused this kind of
distorted thinking? Apparently, yes,
leaving already unambitious generations even more vegetative and idiotic.
The film is supposed to be a comedy, but you will only
laugh if you are stupid enough to agree with its brand of misery. Joe Egender is Conrad, the host of the
proceedings, talking to the camera all the time. He is making observations that seem sound, but upon closer
examination are not as valid as they may first sound unless you are the kind of
person who peaked in high school and especially do not know why. Yes, the device offers some ironic distance,
but it also tries much too hard and the overall result is a long series of
missed opportunities to tell a more important, intelligent, mature and deeper
story about how and why this is happening.
Conrad is a writer who wants to be successful, but with
the limited capacity for original observations, you can see why he is stuck in
his living hell. The film tries to take
on the subject of homosexuality (a rumor haunting their old quarterback) and
falls right on its face in the process.
The women are never three-dimensional, allowing one to easily tell this
was written and directed by men with only so many clues. As compared to superior films on the subject
like Say Anything…, My Bodyguard, Real Genius and like
films about the generations before that this film could have been the age 30s
equivalent of if it stopped to think about its situation instead of trying to
laugh it off. And to think it is not
even that funny, not even knowing what “growing up” is or is not. The result is a big miss of a film.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and has
limited color and detail, which makes sense from being shot on a Panasonic
digital camcorder. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo has no surrounds and is a decent recording for an independent
production, but nothing distinguished.
Extras include a “drunken” audio commentary, trailers for other this and
two other Heretic Indie releases and deleted scenes that have the same tone as
the scenes kept.
- Nicholas Sheffo
