THE ALCHEMIST COOKBOOK (2016)

10/11/2016 - Alchemist Cookbook (2016) - 3+/4-/10

Boring and bizarre. Potrykus has a strange fascination with those on the edge of society, who see the world completely differently, strange social identity/interactions, and are scheming towards some quick & easy leg up without regard or empathy for others. There is an enjoyable stylization to the film/direction and the whiff of impending dread, be it psychological or supernatural, but the film as a whole is a let down. It is messy incomplete portrait of something, but there is too much unanswered to say what that something is.

The initial vibe of glimpsing an isolated man on the edges of rationality and psychosis has potential, but it devolves, especially as the supernatural hoves into vision. Relying on impressions and muddled motivations, it fails to isolate what is is saying and about whom.

It also has a popular pseudo-80's nostalgic pretense, which was fine, until the end scene which pulled the 80's horror cliche. Might have seemed fun to the filmmakers, but I thought it was trite, unneeded and undeserved. Cheap heat.

I wanted to like this film but it just wouldn't let me. It had potential and intrigue, yet it delivered on neither. Not a bad film, just a letdown.

*Side Note: What is it about his main characters sloppily eating while staring into the distance that Joel loves so much?