DVD Review: Four Eyed Monsters

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Four Eyed Monsters (2005)–****

I don’t ever really remember not having the Internet. When working at my day job, I find myself emailing co-workers in other states rather than calling them. It’s my first impulse when I want to communicate, though the older coworkers prefer phone.

I’d recommend Four Eyed Monsters to them for two reasons. First, it’s a damn fine film, intimate and funny. Second, it’s a film so aware of life in the digital age that it, more than any other film I’ve seen on the subject, illuminates the personality behind the impersonal nature of 21st century communication.

The film follows the introverted videographer named Arin (Arin Crumley) who has more to offer in lust than he does in ambition. He spends his days ogling women on the streets and sending messages to girls on social networking Web sites hoping for a cyber connection. After hundreds of outgoing messages, one from Susan (Susan Buice) finally arrives in his inbox.

The two end up engaging in a peculiar, but effective relationship where neither person directly talks to the other. Through notes on paper or video messages, the two form a connection that frees them to create the movie we are watching.

That last sentence makes the film appear more experimental than it really is. While Four Eyed Monsters is an avant-garde, uber-modern romance, it’s still a romance, earnest and affecting. The co-directors Crumley and Brice (also the stars) have big things to say here, but they say it with a passion that makes me think their lives truly depended on this film.

Maybe I’m confusing the characters with the filmmakers, but Four Eyed Monsters is personal, bordering on exhibitionistic. I don’t recall any film committing so much energy to understanding the casual cyber communication, while immersing itself so deeply in it. More importantly, the film succeeds without outright indictment or support of the medium.

I do have one concern. I worry about filmmakers whose first features are visionary works with shoestring budgets. Coming from someone who loves very indie films, I can tell you that few of the filmmakers behind those films make it to the next level.

Four Eyed Monsters may have an advantage as a film nominated, deservedly so, for Film Independent’s John Cassavetes Award, as well as one featured in the New York Times. There are eyes on Four Eyed Monsters, which is something quite rare.

Of course, Four Eyed Monsters didn’t have even a minor theatrical run and is only available on DVD through the film’s Web site. It’s appropriate, however, for Four Eyed Monsters to get its major push through the Web and not traditional distribution channels. That’s part of the experience. Hopefully even my analog colleagues can appreciate that.

DVD Extra Features:
• Video Podcast Episodes 1 to 8
• All videos about the film festival and self distribution experience of the film
• Humanity Lobotomy Video on Net Neutrality

The DVD is available exclusively through the film’s Web site www.FourEyedMonsters.com.