ViewGuide

Created Jul 14, 2013 12:34AM PST • Edited Jul 14, 2020 05:24PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Film Geek would be a perfect film school project, yet is merely Very Good in open competition. That said, Very Good means worth watching, especially if you’ve got some film geek in you, or any kind of geek really.

   Scotty – the film geek of the title – personifies the Geek’s Dilemma. He asks obvious questions and answers unasked ones. Loser. But since this is a movie, he meets a cool girl. The movie’s about answering Does he get the girl?

   This well-constructed, albeit basic story supports basic comedy bits done well, making Film Geek worth a one night stand. Film school or not, it’s an earnestly enjoyable movie.

   On a personal note, James Westby’s movie is said to be semi-autobiographical, making him a real-life Viewguide. Even I’m not a real-life Viewguide. That’s why I created Viewguide.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Melik Malkasian is Scotty Pelk, film geek. No doubt there.

   Tyler Gannon made her last acting job a memorable one as Scotty’s crush, Niko. She’s way above him in every way other than trivia retention, as the nearby video shows. No wonder he was smitten.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    James Westby deserves lots of credit for apparently channeling his own life into Film Geek.

    Observations

    • Postcard to Portland – light rail, tattered hipsters, artistic outlook
    • Ironically not widescreen. So don’t need letterbox.
    • Scotty’s Film Page, a rudimentary ViewGuide, is no longer up, the URL now resolving to a page that returns Kanji or some such symbols. Tough to keep it up.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.0

    Autoeroticism is the most erotic activity in the movie. Sadly. It is discretely filmed. Happily.

    All the rest of the naughty behavior is in the video excerpt posted above. Think of it as the good part.

17. Sex Titillating 1.9

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

    Scotty is well but imperfectly drawn.

    Idiot savant, yes, except film geeks gotta have some sense of humanity. Then there’s his utter lack of sophistication, unlikely juxtaposed with his love of sophisticated cinema.

    Otherwise Westby nails it, drawing his geek as a socially dangerous outcast prone to lots of self-soothing. Given all that, it’s hard to determine which he might value more: a shot at a real girlfriend, or male bonding over film trivia that leads to slamming beers around the keg with some new buddies.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Glib 1.4

24. Physical Natural 1.0