Where to watch: ‘Stanleyville’ is now playing at the Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.
What happens when you put five strangers in a room and force them to undergo a series of challenges in order to win a coveted prize? That’s the question that Canadian-born writer/director Maxwell McCabe-Lokos poses in his dry, dark comedy Stanleyville. Highlighting the worst of humanity’s selfish, “every man for himself” attitude, Stanleyville‘s absurdist tale is equally depressing as it is comically truthful.
Maria Barbizan (Susanne West) is apathetic about everything in her life. Her frustrating family, that dead-end job, her overall well-being… nothing seems to matter as she dumps out the contents of her purse into a trash can and walks away from the only life she knows. This lack of passion makes Maria the perfect target for a recruiter (Julian Richings) who offers her a chance at happiness by promising total transcendence and an understanding of the meaning of life. This, plus a more tangible prize: a new orange SUV–if she agrees to take part in a contest. She has nothing to lose, so she accepts (apathetically, of course).
The recruiter tells Maria that she, along with four other contestants, were hand-selected to participate in this unique competition. Maria meets the other quirky contestants–one woman, three men–in a nondescript conference room. The recruiter explains the rules: win most of the eight one-minute rounds, and the car is theirs. The challenges seem innocent enough, like blowing up a balloon and writing a song. But as that shiny new car becomes substantially within their reach, the contestants turn more animalistic in their desire to win at any cost necessary.
Stanleyville has a Lord of the Flies-inspired plot that juxtaposes nicely against its muted, beige aesthetic. The mental and physical tests the contestants go through cause them to unravel more as each round passes, much to the discomfort of the audience. Yes, Stanleyville is strange, but that’s the film’s charm. It is intentionally weird and self-aware.
McCabe-Lokos’ feature-length directorial debut acts as a not-too-unrealistic interpretation of what people will do in order to “win “(case in point: Walmart shoppers on Black Friday). Though Stanleyville‘s release will no doubt be intimate and its impact fairly modest, what it lacks in terms of blockbuster appeal will be met tenfold by arthouse enthusiasts who can’t get enough of obscure, absurdist indie films with a unique, strange and singular vision.
89 minutes. Distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories.
