Notable Cast: Kevin Singh, Claire Theobald, Donovan
Workun
Much of modern storytelling, through whatever media you
choose - whether it's book, TV, movie, or even the internet, is being built on
nostalgia and meta-narratives. For many of us, remembering what something was
like in the media from 20 or 30 years ago is ripe for analysis and
exploitation. Releases like ‘legacy sequels’ or shows like Stranger Things aim
to evoke nostalgia and meta commentary to sell their material. Remember how we
felt about Star Wars? Or the old Steven Spielberg films? Remember when Rosanne
was one of the best sitcoms on TV? Try out The Connors. You’ll feel the
same.
However, there’s a sect of artists out there who use these
same tactics to weaponize those concepts against their viewers, creating
intriguing slices of art. The Adult Swim segment Too Many Cooks used the
opening credits of an early-90s sitcom to kick-start its own descent into
unnerving territory. Watching that on my phone while riding on a train in the
middle of the night certainly added to it, but there was a bold, artistic, and
often satirical slant to it that left me unnerved.
It’s been over a decade since I saw that segment, and this
approach to undercutting nostalgic elements is only finding more footing. Take Buffet
Infinity as the prime example of such. This instant cult classic uses local
commercials as canvases to paint a narrative around the horrors of capitalism
through a cosmic-horror lens. Yes, you read that right. Buffet Infinity
is an entire film made of clips of fake commercials for small-town businesses,
news segments, and infomercials. Yet, it’s incredibly poignant in its tone,
sociopolitical commentary, and razor-sharp writing that it manages to be
hilarious, sorrowful, and utterly terrifying - oftentimes within one moment.
It’s fucking brilliant.
Buffet Infinity starts with a simple narrative in
which a new all-you-can-eat buffet, named Buffet Infinity, sparks a
restaurant war with its neighbor, Jenny’s Sandwich Shop. The battling
commercials for the two are both silly and get increasingly intense, and all
the while, director/writer Simon Glassman is somehow inserting other
commercials for things like used car dealerships, local lawyers, insurance,
pawn shops, or mental health advocates that end up fleshing out a broader story
and character arcs for the various people featured in the commercials.
The way that the film Buffet Infinity intertwines the
plots of these various commercials with news segments about missing people or a
local religious cult leader who just so happened to be a singer and a science
fiction author ends up feeling utterly inspired and viciously effective. There are
character arcs for the individuals in these commercials and how each one
attempts to battle the capitalistic monster that the restaurant Buffet
Infinity represents, and it's a narrative choice that I’m not sure I’ve ever
seen. I spent a large portion of the film wondering how one even writes
something like this without getting lost in the sauce, and yet it never does.
Its satire is punchy, often incredibly laugh-out-loud funny, and yet it still
manages to tell the horrifying story of the demise of small business in a small
town.
Yet the true miracle Buffet Infinity manages to pull off is creating this entire plotline that careens into cosmic horror. Not just in the sense that the commercials used in its narrative bleed into one another and the strange, otherworldly atmosphere they create, but also in the sense that it starts to layer in truly cosmic terror. It’s almost as if the film uses Lovecraftian ideology alongside decades-old technological aesthetics to work through its socio-political-economic themes. There are some key visuals and unnerving moments in the second half (a few moments of really intense gore, too, for those looking for it) that carry the final 15 minutes fully into the genre. Not to spoil anything, but even when it gets really fucking weird, Buffet Infinity still manages to pack a wallop. Just be aware that the first thirty minutes, which is certainly unnerving, does eventually build to some wild and often unexpected results.
Truthfully, it’s hard to write about Buffet Infinity.
It’s one of those films that manages to be a dozen things, succeeds at most of
them, and does it so effortlessly that it simply needs to be experienced to be
believed. Particularly when its style is so outlandishly angled that it's not
even easy to picture outside of watching it. Fortunately, it’s a film that has
already found distribution through Yellow Veil Pictures, so that bodes well for
its future as one of the best ‘what the fuck did I watch’ films to ever exist.
And, quite frankly, I cannot recommend it enough. Buffet Infinity is just
as its title would indicate, a smorgasbord of limitless combinations and flavor
profiles that manages to be both overwhelming and utterly fulfilling.
No comments:
Post a Comment