Relaxer (Joel Potrykus, 2018): USA

Film reviewed by Jack Chase. Viewed at AFI Fest 2018.

Despite its non-likelihood of mainstream acclaim, “Relaxer” is an instant classic and future cult-favorite.

A pervasively discomforting yet undeniably captivating and stimulating movie-watching experience, writer-director Joel Potrykus (“Buzzard”, “Ape”) stretches the boundaries, piecing together a narrative that is both laugh-out-loud hysterical and downright unsettling. Its pure, in-your-face brilliance particularly lies in the writing, as Potrykus has produced his most crisp and boldest screenplay to date.

Set entirely in the confines of an apartment in an undisclosed location, we follow Abby, played by Joshua Borge — a longtime collaborator and friend of Potrykus’ — living under the essential regime of his sadistic older brother Cam, played by David Dastamalchian (“The Dark Knight”), who forces him to engage in a variety of ridiculously elementary “challenges.” Its after failing once again that our generally meek, uninspired and braindead Abby requests the apparent “ultimate” challenge in an effort to reaffirm any fragments of manhood through the eyes of his brother: Beating Level 256 of Pac-Man without leaving the couch at any time. It’s then that things, unsurprisingly enough, get a little weird.

With cinematography provided by Adam J. Minnick, another collaborator of the arising auteur himself, we’re given a dingy, fitting portrait of the dingy, toxic state of humanity, zeroing in on the alienated, reduced consumer. In its own form, it hits all marks, stretching fundamental reality into an idiosyncratic, almost mythical satire.

As of 2018, it’s certainly up there with my favorite films of the year. As it is so widely original and simply unique, it’s a film you truly have to see to believe.