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THE GOOD BOOK
Directed by Matthew Giaquinto
Written by Matthew Giaquinto and Barry Gerdsen
Produced by Barry Gerdsen
Director of Photography Anthony Della QuintaDrop Dead Films’ The Good Book, owes a lot to George Orwell’s 1984. In that book the government watches and controls every move of the populace. In The Good Book, “Big Brother” uses the internet to achieve its means. The world governments have united to form Geographically Viable Control, a.k.a. GVC to help prevent the destruction of society after ecological disaster. The people have been divided into two groups, those controlled by the government who live under its designated protection zones and those who live outside the zones without government protection. Those that chose to live outside the zone have de-evolved into zombie-like creatures.
The film centers around Joseph Sirus (Brian Campbell), a GVC computer tech who services people’s life line to the internet, their home computers. The story follows Joseph during a seemingly routine day on the job as he goes from home to home fixing internet connections. Soon he’s contacted by a being claiming to be God and asking for help in bringing about the destruction of GVC. Against the will of his supervisors who are trying to kill him, Joseph does what he can to stay alive and sort out what is really going on.
When I first watched The Good Book I felt blessed. Most of the Shot on Video features are nothing more than excuses for T&A mixed in with a little gore. With The Good Book, story is key. The action has a natural progression and realistic flow. Given the circumstances, none of the character interaction seems heavy handed, forced, or excessive. The acting is better than your standard SOV feature. While Brian Campell played Jeseph a little stiff at times, the supporting cast in much better.
The Director of Photography, Anthony Della Quinta, did a wonderful job giving the film a distinctive look. While the colors are very muted with a seasonally Fall-like feel, they retain a uniform color and crispness. There are only a few times when the film was underlit and grainy. Since they are only expositional driving scenes they could have been cut.
Overall, The Good Book is nice, little story driven feature that surpasses its competitors and I recommend it over many of the titles recently spotlighted in various genre publications such as Alternative Cinema.
Order: Drop Dead Pictures
E.I. Cinema