As Orson Welles once said, “I have wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox, which is a movie. And I’ve spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It’s about 2 percent movie-making and 98 percent hustling. It’s no way to spend a life.” Never has this utterance been so accurately captured as it is in Mel House’s Inbetweening.
Eric Linson (Brandon Cole) is a 30-something who delivers pizzas, sleeps in some dude’s garage, teaches film-making to kids, and writes scripts, all while struggling to pull the pieces of a rapidly disintegrating movie-making career from falling into darkness. But the work/life balance is non-existent, the promise of early endeavors has failed to launch, and now, regrettably, Eric’s part-time jobs have become his lifetime life as everything creative in his heart has been stepped on and kicked in the face by reality. The truth is, he was once full of hope and passion until he had the chance to see behind the curtain and realized that credits dominated the movie business, and money. That plus a boatload of talentless fools looking to fail upwards whilst riding the coattails of the gifted and discarding them when the numbers land in the red.
“…struggles to pull the pieces of a rapidly disintegrating movie-making career…”
So, with his life and career on the fritz, Eric struggles with the pressures of reality, the lure of creativity, and the refusal to just pack it in and get a real job, thus forgetting about dreams of cinematic expression and glory. In a game where you’re only as good as your last movie, and when said movie is a double-digit sequel in a low-budget horror franchise, you’re going to have to compromise. Unfortunately for Eric, his entire existence has already been severely compromised. The only thing he can do is keep dashing forward, juggling like crazy, trying to keep all the pieces from hitting the dirt. Still, with his world collapsing in on him, Inception-style, Eric is thrust into a confrontation with each of the events and the characters connected to them, which have contributed to his breakdown, plunging his existence into free fall.
Inbetweening takes Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry and Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and toss them into a blender you end up with this handsomely shot, brilliantly written and dynamically staged picture which drifts from drama to animation to puppets singing with narrated storyboards to construct the madness which is the pursuit of a career in the film industry. Featuring a heartfelt and harrowing lead performance by Brandon Cole, and supported by an excellent and eclectic ensemble of supporting characters, including real horror icon Debbie Rochon and musician Angelo Moore as himself.
Funny, dizzying, and deliriously inventive, Inbetweening is not so much a movie about making movies as it is a, albeit wittily fanciful, glimpse of the mountains of guano one has to climb to realize their dreams on silver screens. Told from the outset their work is genius, then watching helplessly as the money people change it all, in order to make it more like something else, just so it’s easier to market.
Inbetweening is crazy, and it makes little sense, but if you hang in and don’t quit, you just might get a movie out of it.
For screening information, visit the Inbetweening page at the Upstart Filmworks official website.
"…is crazy, and it makes little sense, but if you hang in and don't quit, you just might get a movie out of it."
