I admit to being drawn to films that are difficult to describe, explain or compartmentalize. It was only partially clear from the description what to expect from Canadian feature, Spice It Up, and that intrigued me. And it has three directors! I am so curious as to how they created this together.

Rene is a shy and somewhat awkward film student who receives negative feedback from her advisor on her final film project. He can’t seem to make any sense out of her film, also titled Spice It Up, and suggests she take a week to change as much as she can to make a coherent feature. He dismisses her desire for the film to follow seven characters; a film can have one or two protagonists, tops, he says. He also misquotes Robert Browning to her, suggesting that her reach should not exceed her grasp, when the poet actually said the opposite. Be mediocre, be safe, is what she is being told. Rene actually loves her film as is (she frequently laughs while watching her own work), but she is eager to learn and to please, so she moves into friends’ apartment while they are out of town and hopes the change of setting will inspire her.

Throughout the film, segments from Rene’s student film are intermittently spliced into the overall narrative. Spice It Up, the film within the film, is admittedly somewhat bizarre, but none of the male experts who give her advice (and the guy across the hall who ducks out before watching to the end) seem to have any idea what Rene was going for. An editor suggests he can definitely cut it into a viable web series. Another consultant wants to project Kantian and Greek philosophy upon the story. The VIFF description suggests that student footage for Spice It Up has been shot on a GoPro - I don’t know what that looks like but the effect is something like a wide-angle or fish eye lens, and I wondered if that signalled that Rene has made amateurish choices about many technical aspects. Many scenes go on way too long but in context of the film, this is hilarious, and shows Rene’s particular vision and lack of adherence to rules of filmmaking (intentionally or unintentionally).

So what is so odd about Rene’s Spice It Up? Seven best friends are randomly given a failing grade by a vindictive or uncaring teacher so they fail to graduate from high school. They can’t go to university and want to stay together and decide joining the army is the way to accomplish this. They engage an unlikely trainer. A pervert takes obviously unusable passport photos for them. None of the girls seem like a typical army recruit. They celebrate recruitment as other teens would gush over meeting a pop star. But wait, a twist! A hidden identity, a secret rendezvous, a revelation about the leaders of FLQ crisis, a surprisingly easy recruitment to terrorism, a bomb plot, and the most hilarious scene of one girl smashing her laptop over-dramatically again and again: suddenly all hell has broken loose.

Even though Rene’s story is shot in a realistic style, the two stories in juxtaposition create a languid and somewhat dreamlike atmosphere, with moments of true surrealism. The few autobiographical details (that Rene was supposed to join her sister in the army but could not due to health reasons) are actually unnecessary. I would have preferred less context and not casting Rene’s teen characters as her own wish fulfilment.

The critique of the ‘culture industry’ is clear. Spice It Up skewers film school, where ‘experts’ patronize Rene and don’t engage with her creativity or give her any useful feedback. It asks the question: Why can’t we accept and reward originality and vision?

Rene’s film is reminiscent of outsider art, except that she has been extensively trained and educated by cultural institutions. Is her work all the more meaningful because she has defied expectations, or is she simply a terrible student who has failed to learn even rudimentary elements of storytelling or filmic conventions? I don’t think the films answers this question and I found that satisfying. Rene is strong-willed and clueless at the same time.

Her film is like something made by someone who has never actually seen a film, and in this way reminded me of the music made in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s by the group of sisters called The Shaggs, who were forced by their father to spend their teenage years creating music despite not having any frame of reference or being taught how to play their instruments. No one liked their music at the time, but people had to admire their determination. Some consider the result to be genius, others find it bizarre and unlistenable. Likewise, I found the student film within the film so funny (though perhaps sometimes unintentionally so), but unlike the infamous “Best Worst Movie,” Troll 2, Spice It Up is not over-the-top, ridiculous or deluded. Rene is achievement-oriented and just won’t give up on making her film.

Often films about creativity, or more specifically about filmmaking, can be somewhat dull and self-indulgent. Spice It Up avoids those pitfalls because of the unconventional and unpretentious way the film is structured. Utterly charming, disorienting, original and hilarious.

Friday, September 28, 2018 at 6:00 PM International Village 8

Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 8:30 PM Vancity Theatre