My Review - 3/5

"Unfortunately I got raped with a cookie by a major corporation and was left to have my blue scaled baby in a restroom."

Welcome to "The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle" and the most awkward feeling you'll ever get after a film.

In the most unbelievably ridiculous nutshell, this film is about a group of janitors who are unwillingly made test subjects for an experimental cookie, which holds a chemical that is supposed to give you the satisfaction of a warm, home baked treat in every bite. The side affects cause the males in the janitorial group of rag tag Seattle (the film was created by Seattleites and is shot on location)"artistic types" to anally give birth to a creature that I can only describe as half fish, half salamander. You'd think with a premise like that, no one could ever possibly enjoy the film. Even a gander at IMDB reveals a 5.9/10 rating and since the movie is 100% indie film, you don't have a rived up discussion board to cross examine points with. It's kind of a lonely feeling, walking away from "Little Dizzle". You begin to realize that there aren't too many people out there who have seen it and if you ever tried to talk about it, you might just lose a friendship. There's no easy way to really discuss the film and its content but I can honestly say it was enjoyable and I liked some of the themes.

We're introduced to our main character, Dory (Marshall Allman), from the get go. A point I'd like to make before I continue though; is it not odd that our main protagonist is named "Dory" and the film is about blue fish coming from the colons of male janitors? Not sure Disney would enjoy the sub conscious connection some folks might get. Dory is standing along a rocky beach, looking out along the horizon at Puget Sound, when a message in a bottle comes floating up to him. Eager to retrieve this mysterious object, Dory leans in and falls straight into the water. Luckily he's able to grab the bottle and pull himself out, allowing for a closer inspection of this rarely found treasure. Sad to say, the only thing inside the bottle is a piece of paper with "*beep* you" written in marker. Something we learn about Dory later than sooner, is that he isn't satisfied with life and feels put upon from the world. There seems to be that cliche' emptiness inside of him and throughout the story his main focus of self discovery is trying out different religions. There's even a point where we see him reading a "for Dummies" edition of Buddhism. Needless to say, falling into a freezing cold Puget Sound, only to retrieve a middle finger in a bottle, sends Dory right over the edge.

This leads into a scene of Dory quitting his tech job due to his inability to handle the mediocrity of life caving in on him, that sets the tone for the rest of the film. A sort of "in retrospect sadness" but over the top hilarity and horror-esque crudeness that never lets up. The scene of Dory's psychotic departure from his company really encompasses the tone; anger, laughter, immaturity, violence, rage, shock and psychedelic imagery. For a film about anal fish, the themes and imagery are far too in-depth. It kind of sickens me. Dory is then given a hint at a possible career opportunity via a (now ex) co-worker, as janitor. Initially he waves this idea away because it's obviously so beneath his inner genius. Though a day or so later the inevitable fact of debt and bills creeps upon him and its now off to get a job, regardless of how degrading. Because as Dory's conscious via a computer program states "Do you have a better solution?" or something along that line.

It's at this point that we're introduced to the rest of the team. You've got OC (Vince Vieluf), the overly eccentric and vulgar, pre-teen mindset, starving artist type with a twist of sheer stupidity. A character straight out of any typical teen comedy from the 90s/early 2000s whose small glimpse of know-it-all street (janitor) smarts makes him tolerable and nearly lovable. Then there's Ethyl (Tania Raymonde) and her boyfriend Methyl (Tygh Runyan), who are both the hardcore punk, meth eating, out of their minds couple whose favorite pass-time seems to be having raunchy sex on the desks of the buildings they clean. Then you've got the leader and founder of the janitorial company, Weird William (Richard Lefebvre). Possibly the strangest character of the group and sadly, has the least amount of scenes. He's kind of a borderline Vietnam veteran (Desert Storm in Will's case); a little cooky and out of his mind but as you watch his character unwind you know he was robbed of what made him a person during battle. It's hard to give the characters applause in this film because they honestly don't do much for it besides being really zany and making crude jokes whenever possible. You begin to love Dory and OC but even their shticks become a little repetitive. The acting wasn't anything to be revered and even at the end of the film I didn't have a connection with the characters. When one of them is lying on the bathroom floor in agonizing pain, I didn't feel empathy for their misfortune. I just wanted to know what happens next.

That is what made this movie work, it keeps you guessing. From the very moment you see Dory walk into the bathroom stall of the building they regularly work and see a heaping mess of blue gunk in the toilet, you want to know the rest. It's disgusting and the imagery might turn some people off but you can't help but want to know. It keeps the viewer trapped in its own realm. You don't see the outside world and the filmmakers did a great job at making Seattle seem like this desolate placed. A big part of the atmosphere came from the majority of the film taking place at night and not allowing the characters to stray too far from the plot's purpose. There's a constant pace and even when one character isn't doing anything particularly interesting, another is and interacting with another character or forwarding the dream like plot.

But you know what? Forget the actors and the majority of the dialogue because neither aspect gets any merits from me. Even the atmosphere doesn't always hold up due to the mind numbingly vulgar *beep* jokes that tend to rain down on the viewer. Regardless, I got something out of this movie because what I saw was multiple themes of human nature and suffering. Dory for example. Throughout the entire film we see the main character struggle with his near worthlessness in life and the idea that reality comes with a heavy toll that you can never really shake from your shoulders. It all starts with the message in the bottle and spins his sanity out of control. Then things seem to pick up for him as he makes a group of close companions through his janitorial job. Things seem great but then the mind altering cookies of science come into play and as the side affects come into play everything goes downhill at a fast rate. During this downward spiral, Dory is using religious beliefs to try and find a path into some sort of salvation. Even though it becomes apparent that he doesn't have any deep seeded beliefs, he needs to find one because without SOMETHING, he's got nothing to distract him from the imminent horizon of suffering.

Then there's the element of only males feeling the side affects of the cookies, therefore they are the only ones who anally give birth to these creatures. On top of that really disturbing biological side affect, the cookies also have hallucinatory properties. The male characters begin to see things, begin to freak out uncontrollably, have sudden dietary urges and even get threshold breaking abdominal pains. After each of them gives birth, all of their problems seem so small because they just released this small, defenseless and alien creature into the world. Only to have them die moments later. The humbling experience of birth affecting men was really fascinating to me. You can't help but bust your gut in laughter during some of the scenes but, typically when the hallucinations are involved, there are some really dark and disturbing scenes that portray the feeling of pain and isolation during pregnancy. The feeling of unknown territory for new mothers and the terrifying aspect of wondering what is happening to your body.

The good parts of this film are REALLY good and I do no justice to the deeper elements the filmmakers tried to convey. I felt robbed at the end because logically, it made no sense but again, blue anal fish, right? Not sure what I was expecting, so maybe its just me. I think most people will understand the end and get the message that came across but I simply felt like it was a little too "indie film". Beyond that, the acting is mediocre, the directing is really good because the pace stays steady and there's never a dull moment. There's some beautiful imagery and really haunting scenes that you'd expect out of a Lynch film. It's not a great film but it isn't bad either. All I know is that for a film with such a ridiculous subject matter, I find myself attracted to it and wouldn't mind another viewing to soak in all the wayward emotions. I'd truthfully recommended this to people who want something different in terms of story and atmosphere but familiar in terms of comedy and characters.

"I haven’t seen this film but its going to be rubbish." - TiggerPromfit