Plastic
Utopia (1998)
As Ionesco is to absurdism in the theater
realm, the Zellner brothers are to the form in cinema.
I can think of no other filmmakers, on any scale,
who work with the absurdist paintbrush, none that
do it as successfully as the Zellners anyway.
Consider the plot of "Plastic Utopia:"
A mime with a bad disposition falls in love with a
nun while suffering from hero-worship for his roommate,
a popular, philandering, Elvis-like, criminal poet.
The poet's sister, meanwhile, who has just been released
from a mental institution, loves the mime. When he
rejects her, she falls in love with Corduroy Boy,
a masked hulk who rummages through garbage and may
be the next messiah.
Now that's a plot!
Filmed on film, rather than video,
with no discernable budget, the Zellners create a
netherworld of reality on its ear. David Zellner,
who directs here, plays the Mime, James, as a namby-pamby
dolt who reminds one of Quentin Tarantino in white
face when he gets excited. James just can't seem to
figure out this world he has been dumped into. While
his roommate Frank, played by Nathan Zellner, co-writer
and producer here, comes across as charming Harry
Connick Jr. on steroids, James is consistently squirrelly
and unloved. Frank writes the most ludicrous poetry
that he recites while women swoon. He seems to have
the world in the palm of his hand, much to James'
chagrin.
Using their native Austin as a backdrop,
in a way that almost acts as homage to Richard Linklater's
"Slacker," the Zellners create a universe in flux.
The difference here is that Austin is used to represent
any/every little dirty town in America. Albeit distinctively
Austin, the film is purposefully set in a grubby area
where Zellner's mime can find absolutely no reason
to be joyous. We are in a world of creative people
and James is certainly one of them, but his brand
of negative creativity, of uniqueness, is not accepted,
even in this shabby little burgh of quirky characters.
And like Linklater, the Zellners people
the film with the most unique characters. These are
characters, however, that border on the ridiculous
rather than Linklater's sublime. In addition to the
aforementioned mime, nun and poet, there is a cranky
older woman who sells knick-knacks on a card table;
a roller-skating hulk in a white wig named "Golden
White Boy;" an elderly psychic woman with massive
bullhorns acting as hearing aids who foresees the
coming of the new messiah; her buck-toothed son; and
a plethora of rival mimes who kick James out of their
order for being unruly and argumentative with his
audience.
Somehow, don't ask me how, the Zellners
get 100 minutes out of this story. And although the
film is neither funny nor Particularly interesting,
somehow the complete absurdity of it all draws us
in. We just have to see what will happen next. In
creating a protagonist that is patently disagreeable
and whiny, David certainly gives us no reason to wish
to continue watching. Yet, we somehow see ourselves
in this slacking layabout. By creating a character
that is consistently expected to be joyous, likeable
and submissive, who is instead a disgruntled nebbish
with an ax to grind, Zellner questions the modern
man's inability to mold himself to society's expectations.
The brothers also call into play the
idea that the grass is always greener on the other
side. By giving James a character like Frank to idolize,
a character who is beloved yet evil, charming yet
sinister, James' whole concept of morality is befuddled.
It's no wonder then that James spends much of the
film trying to decide whether he is a criminal, a
mass murderer, the new messiah or just a mime. By
the point he decides to be "just a mime," in other
words: just a normal person, it is too late. His weirdness
has already cost him his ability to fit in and he
can no longer go back.
Likewise, by having James fall in love
with a nun, David creates a character that is consistently
setting himself up for failure and heartbreak. And
it is no surprise that when he tries to emulate the
lover who spurned her previously, he only continues
to fail miserably. By the end of the film, he is hopeless
and dejected yet, in perfect absurd reality, still
alive and none the better. Even his act of heroism,
in a take on the "Taxi Driver" theme, goes unnoticed.
He simply cannot win.
It is these interesting ideas being
discussed by the film, in a very convoluted yet mannered
way, which draws us into "Plastic Utopia." The Zellner
brothers create a world that is just askew of our
own and then tweak it up a bit, calling into question,
pretty much, the entire American ideal, the entire
sociological system at play in American society. It
is for these reasons, and not humor nor cinematics
nor traditional plot, that "Plastic Utopia" may very
well be the most important Austin film since Linklater's
landmark indie epic, "Slacker."
Note:
With Wiley Wiggins in cameo as Jogger
Joe.
