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 nsaniac" is one of those movies that I really
admire, but at the same time wonder why it was done at all. In the final
analysis, the film comes up as 10% ambition and 90% crap. I believe the entire
movie was shot on Super VHS, and as a result the film doesn't look too great.
Running at just 80 minutes, "Insaniac" tells the story of Autumn
(Robin Garrels, who also wrote the screenplay and co-produced the film), who
must take a journey back into her past to discover what had transpired a year
earlier, and why she can't remember it.
Whatever happened to her had apparently been bad enough
that poor Autumn has ended up in a sort of mental hospital, although it's not
too hard to see that the "hospital" is really an office building. The
hallway of an office building, actually, with one of the offices sitting in for
the doctor's office. "Insaniac" is as low budget as they come;
actually, calling it "low budget" is an understatement. The film is no
budget, which makes its ambitions all the more respectable, if not a little bit
perplexing. The film has everything against it, from amateurish acting, limited
locations, and no budget to speak off, and yet it's still better than it has any
right to be.
Lead actress Robin Garrels, who besides contributing the
screenplay probably served lunch and Gatorades to the limited cast and crew
in-between scenes (I'm just kidding, of course), is the film's one -- and only
-- bright spot. Garrels is a natural actor, and since she's working from her own
script, her Autumn is very believable. Unfortunately everyone else has confused
"Insaniac" for Amateur Hour, and as such the film takes a drastic
nosedive into the abyss of bad filmmaking every time Garrels is offscreen or has
to share screen time with her less talented colleagues.
"Insaniac" opens in the past, then shifts to the
present where Autumn is in Dr. Lumen's office discussing her progress. Lumen is
played by director John Specht, who unfortunately doesn't recognize that he's
not much of an actor. Not surprisingly, Specht's dialogue delivery is atrocious
and has all the emotion of a tape recorder -- only less effective. He's so
awkward on camera that it's a mystery why he didn't just hire someone else to
play the part; maybe the guy Specht borrowed that office from could have proven
to be a better actor, since he couldn't possibly be any worst than Specht.
Parts David Lynch insanity and parts Tim Burton nuttiness,
"Insaniac" spends most of its time supposedly traveling through the
memories of its lead. Because Autumn has blocked out the memories of what
happened, she has to go all the way back to every trauma in her life in order to
gain the strength to face the truth of what occurred that night a year ago. This
affords Specht and cinematographer (and I use the term loosely) Jeff Atwater to
go all "Twin Peaks" on us. This trip through Autumn's head makes up
the best parts of "Insaniac," as the more "real" segments
are just terrible in every respects.
I first said that the film seems to have been shot entirely
in Super VHS, but that may be giving it too much credit. Sometimes I had the
impression they were just using plain ol VHS. The images are mostly grainy and
lifeless, which is the prime reason why filmmakers don't use video of any
kind anymore. Another reason is that the uncontrollable background noise
vibrates throughout the scenes where there's no soundtrack present to hide them.
Visually speaking, the segments inside Lumen's office are probably the worst.
The scene is cut essentially from three perspectives -- a wide on the office and
a close up on Autumn and another one on Lumen. The scene intercuts between the 3
takes, with the background noise being louder in the wide shot than in the
close-ups.
Blessed with a strong lead in Robin Garrels,
"Insaniac" could have been much worst than it turned out to be. The
trippy vibe from Autumn's journey through her own warped mind is the film's
highlight. For a film shot on video and using the apartments of the cast and
crew, some borrowed time in an office building, and talent composed almost
entirely of part-time amateurs (Garrels being the exception),
"Insaniac" is better than it has any right to be. But even so, it's
still quite bad.
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