There’s a line from Gummo, Harmony Korine’s enigmatic debut feature that goes a little something like this: “I knew a guy who was dyslexic, but he was cross-eyed too, so it all worked out.” That’s the tripped out sort of logic that the independent film Patsy also seems to work under at times. It’s a film so filled to brink with strangeness that, well, it kind of negates itself, leaving an audience with no other choice but to accept it as normal.
It’s a bizarre, disjointed amalgamation of a film, sewn together by the hands of a first time filmmaker with nothing to lose (Anton Jarvis, who also wrote, edited, produced, just about everything elsed). It’s a trainwreck of slapstick comedy, noir-ish mystery, romance and character study. It’s not a perfect film but it isn't a boring one either and displays the beginnings of a promising new filmmaker and cast to look out for in the future.
Brett Golov as Lenny Rose
The story goes something like this: Lenny Rose (Brett Golov, who also produced) is the kind of guy who feels that getting up most days isn’t worth the effort. He is a terminally depressed case who basically sleepwalks through life. He works at a clothing store with his could-be-gay actor friend Skip (Ryan Bollman) and Carl (Michael “Son of Dom” Deluise). Carl is a real piece of work. He apparently was a professional surfer whose body returned from an accident without it's brain. It doesn’t help that he smokes himself stupid in the washroom and then wraps himself in tin foil to do Iron Man impressions.
Then one day, Patsy (Christine Lakin, who many won’t remember from The Hottie and the Nottie) runs into the store and into Lenny’s life. Who is this mysterious woman and where did she come from? She seems to have two agent types following her and Lenny is eventually told that she may be an escaped schizophrenic.
But there is an almost instant connection between Lenny and Patsy as their paths keep crossing in mysterious ways. Did they know each other in the past, does she even really exist? All of these questions are left up in the air for the audience to decide.
The film thus spins a complex narrative labyrinth as Lenny tries to find out just who Patsy is, while constantly coming into contact with a slew of strange characters along the way.
For Fans of David Lynch
If such a plot description seems elusive, well that’s because so is the plot. There is really no such thing as a linear narrative in Patsy. Rather in plays like a collection of random encounters that don’t quite seem to add up until a final revelation that will not be given away here (although one of the film’s potential loopholes is that, if such a revelation is true, it renders just about everything that has gone before it without merit or meaning).
The film is thus not a story but an experience. It is an explosion of sights and sounds, of strange imagines colliding into each other and spinning around into new directions. Fans of David Lynch should admire Jarvis’ narrative techniques.
There are moments however, when the films ambition tends to overwhelm the content of the story; as if it has given up on logic for the sake of pure stylistic excess. But then again, ambition is the very thing many films lack these days. Patsy isn’t without its flaws, but it’s a reminder that there are still young artists out there willing to push the boundaries of what filmmaking can achieve into that of the avante-garde.
For more information visit Patsy on IMDB.com or the Official Patsy Website to find out where it will be playing next
Mike Lippert - I am 22 years old and am currently living in the small town of Walkerton Ontario. I Spent fours years at Wilfed Laurier University in ...
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