Tom Munaco’s first feature film, Out of Order, is an in-your-face, court room who-dun-it, featuring a vile but strangely lovable coke dealer, a cavalcade of adolescent reject-witnesses, a very weird female prosecutor, a perpetually over-boiling judge—and a toilet.
The so-called serious basis for the setting of Munaco’s story is the trial of one Luke Foley (Taylor Torrringa), a career dealer of cocaine, who stands accused of first degree murder. The tools used to recreate the crime and nab the perpetrator is a set of surveillance cameras. The primary camera is strategically placed in a bathroom with a non-flushing toilet, and the other is in an office within the same building.
Unfortunately, what could be a very interesting, darkly comic exploration of the trials and tribulations of contemporary youth culture, when it butts heads with the establishment (all done before of course, yet always a captivating cinematic study), falls flat, very quickly.
Why?
Because Out of Order tries too hard to compete with an Animal House-meets-Richard Pryor mentality, and is neither funny nor poignantly horrific, but instead—- just plain annoying.
After about 10-minutes into the film, it becomes very trying to watch a bunch of young folks over-acting their way through a stagnating saga, unable to speak except in expletives. And really folks, how many human-turd jokes, complete with graphic examples, can spectators take?
Still, it’s not so clearly cut, when it comes to reviewing Out of Order, because there are a couple of very strong points in the story that are very alluring. These include jury tampering at the hands of court officials, and, of course, that very hot button provocateur these days, surveillance cameras.
As with any movie, the charm of Out of Order is purely subjective, and will appeal to certain groups just as strongly as it will scare off others. I guess it all boils down to patience, and how much or how little viewers have, in their effort to sort things out, and still manage to be entertained.
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