My Name is Buttons
Rental
Opening disclaimer: I am acquainted with and/or good friends with most of the major creators on this film. I state that at the outset so you tabloid vultures don't come out with some article in Variety and some kind of nepotism kind of accusation. That said, I screened this with multiple friends and am presenting as unbiased a review here as I can.
What began as a misguided parody of Patch Adams transmogrified into a shrewd commentary on American consumer culture and the overall dumbing down of everything in order to passively retain some illusion of happiness. All aspects of the film dealing with this latter theme are keenly clever, funny, and cunning. The problem is, they forgot to perform a PatchAdamsectomy on the new script. The result is a mutant movie of extremely enjoyable satire and extremely painful (and untenable) parody. The unfortunate truth is the battle between the two is won by the latter, and the character we grow to love in the "good parts" totally betrays himself as soon as the movie is no longer his own.
I have to openly admire the innovative ways the film crew worked around their lack of budget. When the story is working (I am thinking of when they are being chased by dogs) we don't need the expensive elements to get the point across. We can completely suspend our disbelief; the filmmakers ask us to a lot, but they deliver plenty of implied information effectively. When it is not, it is only the words that aren't working, and no ILM creation can mask that.
Basically, Hunter (writer/producer/director John Merriman) is your modern day liberal angst maven, eschewing anything corporate, branded, or even popular, in favor of aggressive free thinking and defying even the expectations of common sense. He and his friends (writer/producer/director Courtney Davis and T'Chaka Sikelianos) all get fired from their corporate bookstore job thanks to Hunter's anticonformist shenanigans, and they all end up in a medical research facility for extra cash. Austinites will not need to work hard to figure out which one they mean. The first 15 minutes could probably be more like 7 minutes in order to establish our characters, because we don't need or get much more than we have in this segment. Once they are admitted, however, the real comedy begins. Sikelianos and Davis have amusing scenes of their medically endorsed torture, and Merriman ends up in the study with Dr. Lamb Williams, the Patch Adams guy.
Dr. Williams' study is basically a reverse Flowers for Algernon (you know, Charly); if you are stupid, and baa baa with the rest of society, you will be happy. Luckily, these filmmakers caught wind of this before the upcoming big Hollywood two-fer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Paycheck. So Hunter, via his treatment, becomes Buttons. Merriman is really inspired in both personae. As Hunter, you can almost smell the patchouli wafting off him like rage. As Buttons, his simple enjoyment of the most banal things in life is both funny and sweet (and scary) to behold.
Frustratingly, some characters (the Time Out closet guy) and plot details (Jennifer Bryan as nurse Jenny's wavering loyalties and romantic interest) are introduced and die and just serve to confuse. A favorite of all of us was Joe Kulhavy as the doctor who tortures Davis in her sessions (nothing personal, Courtney, we just thought he was the funniest). Acting-wise, Kulhavy had the perfect tone for this film, as did Merriman and Sikelianos. They played it completely straight and seriously, with total belief if what was happening to them, and it worked very well. While some of the shots were a little static, rendering some scenes unnecessarily talking-headish, overall the closeness of the camera work was very effective for the sense of disorientation and hiding the budget.
We interrupt this plot to irritate the living crap out of you with a very poor impression of Robin Williams doing a drunken, unfunny impression of himself playing Patch Adams. The "ask your doctor if Pharmex is for you" music in his scenes that are supposed to have heart is either intentionally funny or unintentionally ironic. Then we continue to develop this crazy side plot until it actually takes over, crushing the effective climax of the Buttons storyline, and then broadsiding it into the dust.
Personally, I would love to see a cut of this movie where Dr. Williams is completely removed. I don't mean any disrespect to Lowell Bartholomee, because much of what he had to work with just was in the wrong movie and for the wrong reason. But if you have a chance to see it, check it out just to see Merriman's Buttons.
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at: http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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