The DC Independent Film Festival kicked off last night at the UDC campus. Here’s a look at three films playing there this weekend (all films showing in the UDC auditorium, bldg. 46):
Intellectual Property (81 min. — Sunday, March 4, 6:55 p.m.)
Intellectual Property, from director Nicholas Peterson, is a grimy paranoiac thriller that should seem familiar to fans of Dark City, Pi and Memento. Set in a claustrophobic McCarthyite society that could be the past or future, the film follows the story of Paul, a child prodigy who mentally unravels as he flees those who would betray him and steal his revolutionary inventions.
The cast boasts a few easily-recognizable faces. Richard Riehle and Kathryn Joosten are on hand in small roles, adding an air of familiarity. But most recognizable is Christopher Masterson (of Malcolm In The Middle fame), who plays Paul. Hiding behind coke-bottle glasses and a nerded-up voice, it’s hard to fault Masterson’s commitment to the role. But his appearance and vocal mannerisms make him come off as an ungodly Doogie Howser / Emo Philips hybrid, which works about half the time and is distracting for the rest of it. Rounding out the cast is Lyndsy Fonseca, who seems raw but charismatic and lovely as the female lead. Although her character is somewhat shallow and unbelievable, the role suffers more from writing than performance.
Unfortunately, the subpar writing isn’t limited to Fonseca’s character. The production of Intellectual Property is just as slick as you’d expect from a director with a visual effects background like Peterson’s, but that experience doesn’t pay off in the script, which he co-wrote with Hansen Smith. As a result the movie is heavy-handed, pocked with plot holes and occasionally downright silly. Worst of all, it fails to provide the genuinely ambiguous atmosphere of paranoia that’s essential to the sort of psychological thriller that the film aspires to be. When it isn’t being undercut by not-that-funny jokes, Paul’s mental disintegration is surprisingly clear-cut — until, of course, the inevitable twist ending, which makes very little sense at all.
Still, Intellectual Property is indisputably a well-made movie; one gets the sense that if it was cut differently its makers could have a fine film on their hands.
