Quentin Tarantino's career arc from video-store clerk to adjective may be an inspiration, but it's also an exception. It's the passion of obsessives like Scotty Pelk (Melik Malkasian), the title character in the perceptively hilarious rock-bottom-budget indie comedy
Film Geek, that supplies video outlets with a renewable workforce. James Westby's loving and self-aware homage to mouth-breathing boys who worship Wong Kar-Wai and can't talk to girls is the opposite of Tarantino-esque: It's Westby-ish, interspersing settings of biting social oafishness with spasms of film knowledge. The movie has the unstyled swing of a cult pic in its no-frills production values. And in Malkasian, Westby finds a muse with Buster Keaton eyes. Scotty's website gets no traffic, his lack of tact costs him his job, and his sex life is in his head, with assistance from his hand. But Westby never mocks or
Napoleon Dynamites his hero; he even introduces Scotty to a chick (Tyler Gannon) arty enough to talk about David Cronenberg and decent enough not to be mean. Which, actually, makes her truly cool. B+
--Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
FILM GEEK is the perfect film for anyone who loves movies. Touching and wonderful!
-Bill Plympton, Animator (I Married a Strange Person!, Mutant Aliens)
THIS IS A REALLY SWEET MOVIE!
-Jeffrey Lyons, WNBC-TV
FILM GEEK is a delightful, sad, witty, scorchingly satirical film.
-moviepoopshoot.com
VERY FUNNY!
-Alison Bailes, Reel Talk
I LOVED THIS MOVIE!
-Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me
WW PICK! Westbys go-for-broke filmmaking style pays off with an unlikely mix that crosses Taxi Driver with Chuck & Buck.
-Willamette Week
Many filmmakers have been labeled the new Quentin Tarantino, but FILM GEEK director James Westby makes a strong case.
-New York Post
FOUR STARS.
-Hollywood Bitchslap
B+! For the geek in all of us!
-The Oregonian
Tribeca Film Festival 2008: The Auteur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLjfYGDmCyM
