Film Geek (2005)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

James Westby

Writer:

James Westby (writer)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

His Knowledge is your misery.

Plot:

The story of Scotty Pelk, a socially inept video store clerk who gets fired from his job and becomes a sensation as an online film critic. |

Plot Keywords:

Video Store | Video Store Clerk | Nerd | Kinky Sex | Videotape

Cast

Melik Malkasian	...	Scotty Pelk
Ritah Parrish	...	'Days of Heaven' Customer
John Breen	...	Mr. Johnson
Dennis Adkins	...	'Letterboxed' Customer
Tara Walker	...	Kaitlin
Taylor Nida	...	Taylor
Daphne Carver	...	'Godard' Customer 1
Kristen Torrianni	...	'Godard' Customer 2
Michelle Garner	...	Cindi
Michael Ramirez	...	Video Store Customer
Jack Ryan	...	Mr. Mooney
Kim Hill	...	Video Underground Manager
Tyler Gannon	...	Niko
Leslie Taylor	...	Temp Agency Counselor
Tony St. Clair	...	Virgil

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Portland, Oregon, USA

Company:

Parkwood East Productions

Trivia:

This is a semi-autobiographical piece on writer/director James Westby's life.

Quotes:

Kaitlin: [as Scotty sniffs the video boxes] Oh my god, he's sniffing the boxes again!

Movie Connections:

References O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

A movie in dire need of entertainment value

Film Geek, from writer/director James Westby, has all the hallmarks of a film that has been made with absolutely no compromises at all and as such comes off as an incredibly self-indulgent exercise on Westby's part. He got every scene and line of dialog he wanted but didn't really bother to let the rest of us in on the joke.

Scotty Pelk (played by Melik Malkasian) is the titular geek whose life we are supposed to find fascinating. Everything from his monotonous droning about movies to his box sniffing is supposed to endear us to this man but succeeds in doing nothing more than reminding us why it is most people who are labeled geeks are social outcasts. He's not funny, he's not charming, he's not sweet, he's not anything but a pain in the butt and we get to be subjected to his nonsense for almost two hours.

And while Scotty is most certainly in the running for the title of Most Annoying Thing About This Movie, the winners, far and above the tepid acting and predictable plot line, are the little bits of dialog that rear their ugly heads from time to time to remind us that Westby has a horribly overdeveloped grasp of melodrama. The only thing worse than hearing Scotty drone on and on about movies is hearing Scotty drone on and on about his dreams and aspirations.

Perhaps if somebody had told Westby (preferably at the script writing stage), "You might want to try to entertain someone other than yourself," it would have been a better film. Since this movie is supposedly based upon Westby's days as a video store clerk, it's easy to see where this narcissism comes from.