Director: David Russo
Screenplay: David Russo
Cast: Marshall Allman as Dory; Jeanette Maus as Amelia;
Sean Nelson as Jason; Tania Raymonde as Ethyl; Vince Vieluf as O.C.; Tygh
Runyan as Methyl; Richard Lefebvre as Weird William; Natasha Lyonne as Tracy
Abstract List
Candidate
[Some plot spoilers]
You guys name the turds you find?'
Little Dizzle is not the best example of unconventional American independent cinema, but is sad David Russo never made anything else as he has a distinct style as a director/writer/animator here that would have been interesting to see progress. He immediately shows, even if this was the one project he ever wanted to make before leaving cinema, his talents with an opening montage of a message in a bottle travelling in super fast time delay footage across the oceans. That it just leads to our protagonist Dory (Marshall Allman) finding said bottle and its message to just be a "fuck you" also states the playful absurdity of the production we will watch.
Dory, whose search for meaning comes with him going through as many major religions as he can and even atheism in search of worth, is a self proclaimed "Data Meister" who, finally snapping, burns his bridges so much his "ashes are halfway to Mars", left with only becoming a janitor for an office complex to work with. To be a janitor, hanging out with people his own age, their boss a cross dressing former soldier who fought in the first Desert Storm in the first Gulf War, is to see the world few do, as explained when the term "janitor" originated from "Janus", "arch" or "gate" and the Roman deity regarded as the doorkeeper of heaven. Among nice people, his life is arguably better now, the initial set up is playful with touches of stranger aspects peering occasionally from under the surface, with the production value afforded just from being able to film in a large building complex. A lot of the film has an amusing humour, such as the funny use of black censorship bars for a sex scene, and how (after some cleaning) the same room will be used for a meeting. You also find some very choice and inspired musical cues too, such as a cleaning montage set to non-English rap music.
The plot is steadily introduced when a company occupying one of the floors are testing experimental cookies which self heat in the mouth to reproduce the "just baked" taste. Such cookies, tested on the janitor staff by prompt of Tracy (Natasha Lyonne), have a very adverse effect on men only. Namely, that they cause pregnancy of strange fluorescent blue fish unable to survive long after their birthing. It is an odd premise, finitely a subversive gender swap, with the most interesting detail being that everyone who experiences this comes from it with a greater happiness. Birth and pregnancy are profound biological and cultural aspects of human beings which cis-males are separated from due to biology; yes, there is clearly a joke that these male characters, as it develops from the digestive tract, are pooping out blue fish rectally when they have gestated, but the experience and emotional bond to their fish is meaningful to them, tragically as said offspring will die soon after.
In terms of whether the fish fully amounts to hidden dept will depend upon whether layers can be found in the film. Certainly in terms of the themes at hand, it takes a big handful of concepts like from a bowl of experimental cookies. Dory's spiritual crisis could be seen as a gag and simplistic, between being now Jewish to wearing a Nietzsche t-shirt, but he fits a type of figure, of a generation, where in the West there is a disconnect from organised religion but sometimes reticence to abandon spirituality, which is befitting of also how alternative spiritual beliefs would grow over the decades such as Wicca. Co-worker O.C. (Vince Vieluf), the other most prominent character, wants to become an artist, his exhibition of toilet related art frankly the last dying breath of taking instillation art seriously, whilst it is ultimately his idea to provide the homeless with coats embroidered with "I'm sorry" on the back, to promote self healing for anyone who reads it, is a very naive and very easy to misinterpret idea, but possible the best one he had.
If anything, Little Dizzle as a film skirts around these subjects, alongside the corruptness of the company behind the cookies, much to Tracy's own horror, with a comic broadness. The weird aspects come from hallucinations caused by said cookies, alongside pregnancy and a desire to ingest salt, such as a sacred animation fish, Dory's shower freak-out done in deliberately fake computer animation, and a lot of manipulation of sound and visuals. Definitely, the film hedges its bets on that initial premise - the blue fish - and imagines the emotional attachment with sincerity and absurd humour.
It feels definitely as much of its era too, from a period when French filmmaker Michel Gondry and many films about young adults trying themselves were common in cinema. Also the musical choices definitely show a point when it was more common to have more "indie" or idiosyncratic choices, probably the best choice in this film a cover of Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft by The Langley Schools Music Project. An outsider music institution, the project was musical performances by four different Canadian elementary school choirs recorded in the seventies, covering songs between the Beach Boys to that song, originally by Klaatu but more famous by The Carpenters, that was released as an LP in 2001 and became a cult gem. It is a perfect choice for the ending, a sweet one where, rather than the presumed conclusion of beating the evil corporation, out lead decides against it because he has gained something much more profound from his misadventure.
Whether the film actually works as a great film is entirely subjective in this case, although there is plenty to admire. Certainly, it is not "abstract", as it never gets to the point the hallucinations warp reality fully. Likewise the blue fish, including the titular notion of the Immaculate Conception, never gets immensely religious and surreal, which could be the one real flaw of the film, that there was a lot left on the table which could have been explored. As it stands however, I admired the film, sad to see that its creator had no really continued beyond this.
Abstract Spectrum: Quirky/Weird
Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None
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