Eight Great Films at BAMcinemaFest’s Opening Weekend
The Alchemist’s Cookbook
Directed by Joel Potrykus
Potrykus performed a kind of evil alchemy of his own when he brought back the thankfully unfashionable indie slacker comedy with his first two features Ape and Buzzard, and somehow succeeded with original, witty, abrasive flair. Buzzard’s contempt for cubicle life is here exchanged for something more fantastical, though the infatuation with junk food (Doritos replacing Bugles) and outsider music (Smoking Popes, Detroit rapper Esham) remain. Ty Hickson’s Sean has sequestered himself in a trailer in some godforsaken Michigan woods, attempting to get rich with dubious experiments supposing to turn metal to gold. It’s funny at first, especially when supply-bearing cousin Cortez (Amari Cheatom) shows up, gamely choking down cat food tuna on a dare, but turns taxingly dark when Sean’s medication runs out and the isolation overwhelms. Hickson’s largely silent performance is superb (in the kind of complex role not typically given to black actors in modern horror movies), never overselling his creeping madness. Some throwback analog creature FX involving a possum typifies Potrykus’s different-thinking approach, to the world and to cinema. Justin Stewart (Screening June 16, 9:40pm, followed by Potrykus Q&A and preceded by Jacqueline Castel’s short The Puppet Man, featuring John Carpenter; Oscilloscope Laboratories will release the film theatrically)