CCJ returns with another exciting video pick:
2 hr, 1 min
"Surreal"... "Awesome"... "Liek seroiusly the best movie ever!!!" are some of the terms being used to describe Enhancer on MySpaces and FaceBooks across America. Like other cult classics such as Donnie Darko and Garden State, Enhancer features enough meaningless catchphrases, '80s nostalgia references, and philosophical blather to entertain even the most choosy pseudo-intellectual high school student.
Tim (Cal Ficus), a teenager in Empress Falls, Michigan, is referred to the school psychologist after attempting to burn down the bus garage. The psychologist diagnoses him with a mental disorder, and when he returns to the family carrot farm six months later, his mother (Jenna Hanfjswavr) has married Mr. Carpenter (Ric Smithson IV), Tim's former algebra teacher and an alcoholic. Tim begins helping Mr. Carpenter rediscover his love of geometry. A Puerto Rican drifter who quotes Yeats and eats pecan pie appears for no apparent reason. As Mr. Carpenter prepares to embark on a speaking tour, the entire family is suddenly killed by a falling cable television satellite.
Director Hunter Kellison explains the film in the audio commentary of the DVD. Apparently, Tim and Mr. Carpenter were just Artificial Constructions of the Parallel Universe, and were sent through the Portal of Causation to prevent the destruction of time. Unfortunately, the Third Force (Time) and the Fourth Force (Space) created an Interference Vortex, pulling apart the Secondary Universe and undoing the cause of the actions. However, in the visual of this commentary, Mr. Kellison can be seen drinking at least six bottles of NyQuil, casting this interpretation into doubt.
This is a film that must be seen many times to be appreciated, leading to its less-than-stellar box office performance (negative $55 million gross). However, hilarious lines like "I don't even like your mom" and "Why?" can be heard at Dance Dance Revolution platforms and in Hot Topic outlets every day.
Enhancer is not a family film. The "f-word" is used approximately 71 times per minute. Also, an incredibly explicit sex scene, which is not connected to the plot and features none of the characters, was spliced in because director Kellison thought it "looked neat."
We weren't sure about Enhancer, but at the end, as Tim struggled to free himself from the satellite antenna he was impaled on, there wasn't a dry eye in the screening room. That might have been due to the pesticide used on the carpets several hours beforehand, but I tend to think it was genuine emotion. Two stars.
