ZAPPER!
(director/writer: Nick Gatsby; cinematographer: Skye Armenta; editor: Nick Gatsby; music: Nick Gatsby, Julie McCarthy; cast: Skye Armenta (Lucy/Alice), Nick Gatsby (Daffy), Phyllis Ramie (Center Woman), Andrew Scott Dixon (Left Man), Laurel Kathleen Barrett(Hoop Girl), Christopher James Taylor (Owsley), George Bruner (Potato Gang), Mikey Armenta (Potaro-voice), Evgueni Mlodik (Grey Shields), Moye the Great (Haze), Dustin Shelbourn (Floyd Lennin), Sedjro Alladadin (Club Patron); Runtime: 89; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Nick Gatsby, Skye Armenta; Gatsmenta Films/Tubi/Apple TV; 2023)
“Makes little sense.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The Colorado-based actor and video-filmmaker Nick Gatsby’s first feature film as director is this playful, surreal sci-fi film and psychedelic crime caper that makes little sense and has only a slight plot. As an experimental comedy, it’s tuned into the vibes of the acid head crowd who are depicted as gods. The inspired visual features some zany gangsters using bananas as laser guns and using cans of soup as hand grenades.
In the surreal universe, an elite group of celestial beings play their annual game that somehow makes the world a better place, whereby in this one there’s a bunch of wacky gangsters who go against one another to claim a mystical relic called “The King’s Board.” Both gangs use zappers to locate four puzzle pieces placed all over town and when pieced together into one piece it becomes a mystical longboard (whatever the fuck that is!).
The joke seems to be on the viewer who thinks he knows what this nonsense is about. Since the filmmaker offered no explanation, I certainly didn’t know what’s going down and felt zapped.
As for the strange visuals, the sight gags, the colorful kaleidoscope moments, and its childish melodramatics, this is an indie film that’s made for acid heads who only wish they can keep trucking without going on a bad trip.
It’s an LSD-laced film with a lot of fun visuals for those stoned viewers in love with weird films, who either have no taste, or too much taste, or who have only a taste for bladder acid.
REVIEWED ON 10/28/2023 GRADE: D