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“WHY AM I IN A BOX?” (2009)Starring: Rachel Grubb, Brooke Lemke, Derek Dirlam,
Mike Rylander, Matthew Feeney, Heather Amos, Landyn Banx, Nicole Kruex,
Josh LeSuer and Lisa Pechmiller Polly Staffle Rating: ***“How you uh, how you comin'
on that novel you're working on? Huh? Gotta a big, - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy Ellen Farnsby is a writer. Well, she wants to be one, but seems to never get around to writing her big novel. Lately she feels boxed in. Why? Brooke Lemke’s character Paige gives an innocent enough explanation at the opening of Rachel Grubb’s “Why Am I In A Box?” “Once upon a time there was a girl named Ellen,” Paige says. “One day she awoke in a strange white room.” What Paige is leaving out is she is the reason Ellen, played by Grubb, is in the room. Paige is a struggling writer that is sick of her manuscripts being rejected. So now instead of torturing herself to write a novel, she has decided to torture Ellen. No, Paige is not just a Stewie Griffin pestering her version of Brian about a novel. Though she maybe just as cute, she’s a psychopath. Paige drugged and kidnapped Ellen. Now Paige has Ellen chained in a white room a la “Saw,” only this room is a lot more sanitary than any Jigsaw ever put his victims in. Paige feeds Ellen nothing but Ramien noodles and health shakes, so that Ellen can remember what it’s like to be hungry. “Do you remember when you were in college and you had that dream of being a great writer?” Paige asks. “If you want to write this novel, you need to think like a starving artist.”
Paige gives Ellen a typewriter. Paige will serve as the Ellen’s motivation, reading the novel as it is written. And if Paige doesn’t like what she reads, she will rough Ellen up, possibly cut off her fingers, cut off the fingers of her acquaintances and eventually kill her. While Ellen deals with her situation, various other artists struggle with their creations as well. There’s Jeremy (Derek Dirlam) who works at a video store. One day he is going to make a movie or photograph something great or perhaps even paint something wonderful. Then there is Ted (Mike Rylander, reminiscent of Will Ferrell) who is clueless about pretty much everything, but claims to be a writer. There is also a homeless man (Josh LeSuer) that recites poetry behind Jeremy’s apartment building. One day Jeremy is going to film a documentary about him. Jeremy has a crush on Ellen, but is too scared to talk to her outside the video store. He lives with his female friend and collaborator in art Malea (Heather Amos), whose parents make high end sex dolls. Ellen has a crush on Jeremy, but she lives with Ted, who takes three days to notice she is missing even though he doesn’t work. All these slackers make up the weird non-art scene in Grubb’s film, but throw a rock in any town and you’re sure to hit a few people just like them. They’re all in boxes. Why? Because they always say they “will” or “want to,” but they “never do.” They’re always looking for someone else to help pull them out of their boxes. Oddly, the homeless man, who probably lives in a box, is the only creative person in “Why Am I In A Box?” that isn’t in a box. He is a poet and he performs readings daily for anyone that will listen. Before the film closes, Ellen comes out of her box, as does Malea. (Gee, that sentence just doesn’t seem right for a review of a non pornographic film.) The film hints that the whole experience may help bring Paige out of her box as well. But I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Ellen’s problem as a writer is she hasn’t lived enough, according to Paige. Her deadbeat boyfriend and dead end job in a cubicle all day are holding her down. So Paige allows Ellen to leave her white room for a lunch date with Jeremy. While the luncheon goes on, Ted befriends Detective Lydecker (Matthew Feeney), who is a self proclaimed “student of people.” Back to the white room Ellen goes to write and all the quirky characters and plot lines unfold like a Charlie Kaufman script. Ellen begins talking to her protagonist. Her writing improves and she finishes her book. Meanwhile. Jeremy first gets accused of murdering Ellen, but then teams up with Lydecker to save the day. In the end what you have is an edgy arthouse comedy and a pretty solid directorial debut. For those that don’t know, Rachel Grubb is an actress on the rise in the indie horror world. She has been involved with more than 30 projects and has a following that continues to grow. She is best known as a Scream Queen for bloody, sexy and campy films like “Terror Overload,” “13 Hours in a Warehouse,” “Strip Club Slasher,” and “Cave Women on Mars.” She is also a pinup model that has been compared to Bettie Page. But before any of this, she was a writer. “Why Am I In A Box?” started out as a novel and ended up being Grubb’s first screenplay. She won the Best Breakthrough Screenplay award at the New YorkmInternational Independent Film And Video Festival with her script in 2000. Then her acting and modeling careers took off. Along the way she met Brooke Lemke. They formed an all female production company Silent-But-Deadly-Productions. “Why Am I In A Box?” became the first feature the company produced. Currently making the rounds at film festivals and in the process of being distributed, Grubb’s feature recently won six Creative Spirit Awards, including golds for low budget feature, original comedy, originality and film feature.
What I like about “Why Am I In A Box?” and why I think most writers and filmmakers will relate to it, is it looks at a rather boring and uncreative subject matter — not being able to create — and delivers a fun and weird little tale. As a writer of scripts, movie reviews, newspaper articles, etc., etc., I know how hard (and how easy) it can be to write. I also know how easy it is not to write, though I don’t function very well when that’s going on. Writers that can’t or aren’t writing are sort of like fish that can’t swim. All creative people are this way. What “Why Am I In A Box?” basically says is make the time, put the effort into it, push yourself as if someone is holding a gun to your head. If you get stuck, write about how you’re stuck and just like everything in life, find a way to creatively get yourself out of the box you’re in. On the downside, “Why Am I In A Box?,” at just 77 minutes, was a little short and wrapped itself a bit too quickly. I would have liked more struggling from Ellen. I also wanted more evil and torture from Paige. Fans of Grubb will most likely agree on both accounts. The film is inspirational as is, but had Ellen’s character had a tougher time surviving her challenge, I think it would have been a lot more uplifting. Having said that and knowing this is a comedy, I realize Grubb might have backed away from venturing too far into the realm of horror; possibly not wanting to be boxed in as someone that only does scary movies. And I can respect that because being in a box can suck. - CCF, March 2010 |
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