Oconomowoc, the feature writing/directing/producing debut of Andy Gillies, is an amateur success story that will, however, leave viewers confused and frustrated. The "plot" is loosely as follows: angsty doucher Lonnie Washington (Brendan Marshall-Rashid) rejects a job opportunity ("it wasn't in his best interest""”whatever that means) to move back into his parents' house, run by his boozy matriarch mother, and find some direction. His friend Travis (Andy Gillie) convinces him to join his fledgling t-shirt business, and they reluctantly meander through the rest of the film.. There's also a love interest in the form of Mallory (Cindy Pinzon), a local beauty who works at the pharmacy.
If we judge Oconomowoc on its own terms, we can't really discuss plot much more than that. It's a postmodern absurdist story, so the fact that it doesn't have much of a compelling plot is kind of the point. We can discuss the dialogue and the individual vignettes that comprise the film, though"”most of which fall flat. The dialogue seems improvised at times and improvised poorly. The film is dialogue-driven, which is hard to do, especially when the dialogue is just plain wordy and wooden. Just one example is how Lonnie explains the fact that he passed on a job offer ("The opportunity was not in my best interest," he repeats several times in a robotic way). The sketches and scenes, too, are disjointed"”but there are some that produce laughs (the overbearing salesman and the crazy fast food manager were both done well).
The biggest thing that prevents this film from coming together, however, has to be the acting. The actors mumble through all of the dialogue, projecting a reluctant and passive attitude that permeates the whole film. None of them project or play off of each other with a confident sense of presence. Maybe an editing problem contributed to this"”at times the music (mostly falsetto yodeling/wailing over a guitar in the background) distracts.
A lot of these problems come with the nature of indie film"”shoestring budgets, quick shoots, cutting corners. That's why I'd say that Oconomowoc has to be judged not as any other feature film but as a rough draft. Gillie, an amateur filmmaker, had the guts to try his hand at writing a movie and the guts to make it come together and get produced. That's an accomplishment in itself. And the film getting screened and distributed is a feat that they should be proud of. But as far as whether someone looking for an entertaining feature film to watch should check this out, the answer is probably not.
