“What Is It?”
Written and Directed by Crispin Hellion Glover
Starring Michael Blevis and Crispin Glover
? out of five stars
Crispin Glover attempts to smack you in the face with a brick in his directorial debut, “What is It?”-A film that defies explanation and shocks with its graphic, abstract and sometimes offensive content and imagery.
However, the film’s title begs a good question-what is it?
For starters, it’s shocking, it’s offensive, it’s confusing and overall it’s simply bewildering.
The film’s story begins when a man kills a snail, and is confronted by the invertebrate’s mother. After being screamed at (by the snail’s mother), he leaves his house, only to find that he is locked out. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
To describe the “plot” of this film would be moronic, seeing as there is no discernable narrative to follow. Yes, I did see it. In fact, I read a great deal about the film before seeing, and talked to Crispin Glover in person, and I still have no idea what it was about.
“What Is It?” features graphic pornographic segments, a man that continually injects his cheeks with dead snail remains in hopes that he will one day become one, Shirley Temple in front of a swastika-sporting Nazi and an overall tone of uneasiness. Oh yeah, and the majority of the cast suffers from Down syndrome.
Glover’s film is surely the most…unique thing to come through Salt Lake City for a while. Unless you’re easily offended, if only for the bragging rights, you owe it to yourself to see it.
You might think it’s genius, you might think it’s racist and immoral, you might just plain walk out. There’s only one way to find out-the last chance to catch a glimpse of the film and Glover in person is today, in association with the Salt Lake Film Society. Check out www.saltlakefilmsociety.org for tickets, times and more.