Movie Review: Fluid Boy

@TigersMS78 reviews…

Director: Jason Impey & Wade Radford
Stars: Samantha Keller, Dylan Jake-Price, Jason Impey

Review:

I’ll be honest here – I had a hard time writing this review for Fluid Boy, the conflict was in that whilst the film was a fairly nasty piece of underground film making in the August Underground style in that you are witnessing something horrible but it can hardly be called a film, it was effective yet has a relatively unoriginal premise and was devoid of any social commentary of any kind, there is a possibility that the film is deeper than first suspected or I’m trying to figure it out in my head and am giving the film makers for too much credit. I am not sure which.

Fluid Boy starts out as an audition for The Orgasmic Dead with Julie (Samantha Keller) talking to the filmmakers Joe (Director) and Max (actor). Things start out quite dull with Max possibly being the biggest douche bag on earth, I mean 5 minutes into the short 60 odd minute run time I desperately wanted something bad to happen to him, he is that annoying. Joe and Max spend the first ten minutes bickering well actually a majority of the run time – it wears out quickly – and it even grates on Julie, that is until Max knocks Julie out thus beginning the humiliation and pain for the unfortunate girl. (Just a tip for aspiring actors, if you’re at an audition and there is plastic wrap laid out on the floor, kindly decline and then run for your life.)

As I mentioned the setup for the story is quite unoriginal with literally thousands of books, short stories and films have this exact premise, however writer/directors Impey & Radford have added a third person into the mix of what would normally be a two hander. The film seems largely improvised with just a general outline of a script but the inclusion of the director (Impey) as Joe as a passive observer with the exception of telling Max what he thinks of him. The interesting part of this film is the fact that Joe won’t help Julie nor will he help Max, he is just there – which could possibly mean that Joe and Max are two personalities that reside in the same person thus either adding a layer to the film or as something that I have thought about to try and make some sense of a pointless exercise.

Samantha Keller is very brave (sure none of these things are actually happening to her) in her performance, acting terrified is difficult to sell but Keller does it very well. Dylan Jake-Price (who is actually writer/director Wade Radford) plays the very annoying and unhinged Max, kind of like a child with ADHD with inappropriate responses and tantrums abounding. He is disgusting and violent, an amalgamation and perversion of every asshole guy that thinks he is amazing put together. The direction in the film is not too bad either with only one hand held camera, but there are other static cameras which help with changes of angles to keep things from being samey.

Fluid Boy is nasty, disgusting and has a misogynistic streak a mile wide. It’s an exploitation film without a sense of humour, its very dark as it should be. I did think that the film was drawing its way to a conclusion commenting on violence against women but it does not, Fluid Boy ends as abruptly as it starts. So whether or not I was reading anything into Impey’s trimmed up snuff style film is probably beside the point, that fact is that despite the film being a low budget shocker that’ll probably test your hard limits or why indeed you are watching, it is watchable. I am not going to recommend Fluid Boy, it’s something you’ll want to decide for yourself if you want to watch.