In the Name of My Peace is a baffling yet well-meaning short film about a man’s quest for love, friendship, and anything in between. In the vein of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, Rolando Felizola’s twenty-minute project has a So Bad It’s Good quality that inspires a lot of laughs, headshaking and groans, in the best sort of way.
Alex makes a fountain wish and receives a vision of a woman who will end his loneliness. This wish leads to an unhappy relationship with an unhappy heavyset woman who only loves him for his food. Weird Al said it best, “Girls just wanna have lunch.” Their break-up spirals into an odd kinship with a bird named Edna which stumbles through a storyline with a shaman of sorts who runs her practice out of a beautiful suburban house.
The film’s protagonist, Alex, is played by Felizola with a genuineness that makes it impossible to hate the guy. This genuineness transfers over to the filmmaker himself making it impossible to hate the film as well. You just sit there, with a quizzical look on your face, wondering what the hell you’re watching. “So, the witch doctor didn’t kill his best friend/pet chicken? He should get his $1,600 back too.” Technically, the film is proficient and while the score screams STOCK MUSIC, it goes with the look and style of the film so complaining about it is moot.
This sweeping com-drama (that’s possibly experimental?) will leave most wondering if the director was in on the joke and as The Room proved, it’s a question better left unanswered. From its awkward narration and strange vignette transitions to the film’s non-ironic use of the term “Talk to the hand,” In the Name of My Peace makes as much sense as its own title. But there’s definitely something here worth viewing… I think.
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