Series 7 Review
by "Harvey S. Karten" (film_critic AT compuserve DOT com)January 12th, 2001
SERIES 7
Reviewed by Harvey Karten
USA Films/ Blowup Pictures
Director: Daniel Minahan
Writer: Daniel Minahan
Cast: Brooke Smith, Glenn Fitzgerald, Marylouise Burke, Michael Kaycheck, Richard Venture, Merritt Wever, Donna Hanover
Given the extent to which the television industry-- particularly its enhancements by cable and video recording equipment--has cut into potential theater box office receipts, it's only natural that the studios would strike back by parodying the shows that have distracted us from the big screen. Game shows have been a popular genre for satire, and no film has done a better job of mocking their corruption than Robert Redford's 1994 "Quiz Show," which focused on the scandals of the 1950s programs particularly the then fascinating $64,000 question--in which answers were given to the contestants beforehand. Daniel Minahan's derisive view of both game shows and, in a larger sense, the growing violence within American society, is by contrast adolescent, literal-minded and virtually humorless, spotlighting a mostly unattractive cast of people who are so unsympathetic and banal that we in the theater audience have a difficult time caring about them a whit. The entire production seems to have been conceived, directed and performed by a group of college kids knocking out a project that they believe could get them into NYU film school rather than invented by the fellow who co-wrote the far more engrossing "I Shot Andy Warhol."
Spoofing the current trend toward reality programs as well as game shows, "Series 7" is a 24/7 TV marathon in which six contestants are chosen by random from a smiling lottery- type woman gazing closely watching the spinning balls. The aim of each contestant is to outsmart the other six not in the ability to guess the identify of the country's ninth vice president by the competence in killing the others before they can nullify him or her. The last gladiator standing is the winner, who gets to compete in the next marathon. The prize, other than permission to live and continue firing rifles and pistols, is not reported.
The current champion, the very pregnant Dawn (Brooke Smith), is pitted against a religious nurse, Connie (Marylouise Burke); Tony (Michael Kaycheck), an overweight man with family difficulties; Lindsay (Merritt Wever), an eighteen-year- old who is encouraged throughout her mission by her parents (one of which is played by New York's own Donna Hanover); Jeff (Glenn Fitzgerald), Jeff (Glenn Fitzgerald), a young man dying of testicular cancer; and Franklin (Richard Venture), a chap who gets little development, who uses a metal cane to kill rather than a gun. The gimmick in this story is that neither Dawn nor the now-married and dying Jeff can bear to pull the trigger on each other since they were lovers back in high school in the small Connecticut town in which the action takes place.
As killing follows legalized murder, I couldn't help thinking not so much of the reality exhibitions or quiz shows that are being set up for parody but of Jules Feiffer's far more sophisticated and witty play which was adapted for the screen thirty years ago by Alan Arkin, "Little Murders." That black comedy about life in nightmarish New York City evokes a frightful ambiance which has citizens gunning down their fellows at random for no particular reason--an intense, devilishly amusing foreshadowing of the chaos enveloping parts of the world as gangs become the invisible government of prosperous urban areas. Notwithstanding the modest budget of "Series 7," the film could have been saved by a greater lyricism in the writing, but though the scripting is said to be tight, the action appears improvised with Mr. Minahan seeming all too often to settle for a first cut of each scene.
Rated R. Running time: 85 minutes. (C) 2000 by
Harvey Karten, [email protected]
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