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INDULGENCE
Produced by Lisa Renley and Jay Bauman
Directed and Videotaped by Jay Bauman
Written by Garrett Gilchrist and Jay BaumanMelvin - Garrett Gilchrist
Kimba - Laurn Burke
Louie - Chris Wade
Doug - Ryan Erke
Sprinkles - Lora Story"There's two muffins in the oven. One muffin turns to the other and says "holy crap, it's hot in here." The other muffin turns and says "holy shit, it's a talking muffin!"
An old joke, but a classic. Delivered by a web porn model with a lisp, it's golden. Of course, the other joke in this scene is what does it even matter whether a web porn girl actually has a lisp or not when she models for a speech impediment fetish site? It's not like the models provide voice over for their pictorials. How is a site visitor even supposed to know whether the models truly possess that hormone stimulating slur, stutter, or stammer?
The beauty in Jay Bauman's work lies in the absurdity of it all. On the surface is outrageous parody, but underneath shines a social satire questioning the often hypocritical, but always fashionable, pop-culture. Plus, he allows for corny improvisations by actresses willing to tell old muffin jokes.
It's been a few years since I've seen any of Bauman's work, but from I remember he appears to have matured as a filmmaker. PERVERT GOES HOME was an often witty, but crudely executed, independent comedy. With INDULGENCE, his eye for coverage has improved, as has his storytelling ability. While both movies possess an episodic feel, INDULGENCE is a more focused, tighter, and fully developed story. Even Bauman's ability to nurture performances from his actors has improved.
With INDULGENCE, Bauman weaves the tale of Melvin, an accident-prone, twenty-something who still hasn't settled on a direction in life. His father, burgeoning porn guru Louie, thinks his son is an aimless schmuck. Louie doesn't even want to bequeath his web porn to his son because he wants his legacy to last.
Melvin's never been in love, real love. To date, his entire life has revolved around cinema, or more specifically, the video store across the street where Melvin spends all his father's cash. Sadly, I know people like this in real life. Their only connection to reality is a movie. Not even one of those stereotypically loud, extroverted roommates can drag these people out of their socially retarded shell. Everything is a comparison or reference to a movie they hold dear.
In his quest for true love, Melvin falls for the charms of the beautiful Nurse Kimba. Unbeknown to him, the lovely, buxom Sprinkles, takes a shine to our hero. But it's Melvin's social inadequacies that foul-up both situations. It's these two relationships that provide INDULGENCE with its more interesting moments as well as the moral to the tale. To win the heart of Nurse Kimba, Melvin wants to indulge in all the sins of life in hopes of becoming manlier. What he doesn't realize is that by simply being himself he already has Sprinkles' heart. The moral? Take your pick: always be yourself, love is blind, if you can't be with the one you love then love the one you're with.
What Melvin doesn't realize is that being worldly and being manly are two different things. Being a man is merely being comfortable in the person you've become as an adult. It's accepting, and being confident in, who you are. To his credit, Bauman does a great job of milking Melvin's pain for humor. The entire story is about Melvin's inability to be his own man and find acceptance, something Melvin has in common with Arlo from PERVERT GOES HOME.
Melvin is played by GODS OF LOS ANGELES director Garrett Gilchrist who shouts his lines like a spastic Ace Ventura spun out on meth. A far better filmmaker than an actor, Gilchrist would do better in the future to stay behind the camera. It's his miscast performance that's the movie's one true flaw. All the other actors play their characters straight, even the beautiful Lauren Burke who portrays the leather-clad, green-haired, anime-inspired, always-perky Nurse Kimba. Gilchrist's over acting might work if everyone were performing on the same level, but among the rest of the deadpan crew, Gilchrist sticks out like last week's Chinese takeout left festering in the refrigerator.
It's hard to sympathize with a character when he annoys the audience. On the bluntly honest commentary, Bauman states how hard it was for Gilchrist to take direction. Perhaps Gilchrist is like myself in that neither one of us are actors but we fancy ourselves in front of the camera whenever possible. In the future both of us should listen to our peers and stick to what we do best.
I wonder what Melvin's story would have been like in the hands of another actor. More sensitive, perhaps? Or possibly more introspective. Gilchrist's take on Melvin is too broad and abrasive for any sort of connection with the audience. It often got to the point where I found myself rooting for Melvin's failures to win out, which is not how filmmakers want their stories to unfold.
Bauman does the best he can with a heartfelt story and a genuinely good-natured sense of humor that makes INDULGENCE one of the more fun independent comedies to come along, despite the miscasting of the primary lead.