This debut feature from writer, director and actor Jay Alvarez is, as the publicity enthusiastically tells you, the first feature film composed entirely of cell phone calls. In principle, this novel approach is a brilliant one. For the one thing, it gives the characters the chance to vent their spleens outright. Much like the confessional diary entries of protagonists in found-footage films, no time is spent dilly-dallying around plot points and introductions, we cut straight to the case. Secondly, the approach is favourable because it encourages the idea that films can be made with minimal resources, and that with a great cast and with great writing, dialogue can prove enough to carry any story. This is a most refreshing stance in the current era of filmmaking, and one that we want, so much, to work well.
Unfortunately, multiple problems mean the film just does not live up to these hopes. We open with a conversation between Sean (played by Alvarez himself), a protagonist of sorts, and Jake (Will Hand), a bumbling neurotic caricature whom Sean, in this first conversation, will convince to move to the big city, to escape oppressive small time life. The film loosely follows the story of Jake struggling to find footing in this new environment, with Sean, his only friend, gone AWOL on a series of amusing projects and other diversions that provide much of the film’s entertainment. Other central characters Erin (Megan Kopp) and Zane (Alexander Fraser) are outsiders to this central plot, serving as antagonists or points of reference from which we gain further understanding of Jake and Sean. Erin and Zane lack any real characterisation and are distinctly less developed than the principle leads. No one, of course, is given as much to say as Sean, curious considering who plays him. Not to say that Alvarez wanted to hoard all the good parts for himself, rather you get the feeling that he is Sean, that these cell phone vents are the direct words of Alvarez himself, not of Sean at all. This feels unnatural and uncomfortably self-aware.
At times, the film is reminiscent of Slacker or, perhaps only for the black and white aesthetic, of Coffee & Cigarettes, but without the charm and, most significantly, without the brilliant characterisation in those features. The talk in I Play With The Phrase Each Other is so self-consciously poetic, that it is impossible to imagine them being rooted in any sort of reality. Who are these people, what school did they go to?! The fact is nobody talks like this, unless we’re just hanging out with the wrong sorts of people. Good dialogue is good because it feels natural and it belongs to the character that spews it. No fault here lies with the actors, who all deliver consistently good performances, particularly Megan Kopp who stands out in charm and wit. Watching the actors’ lips move you can almost see Alvarez scribbling the words, perhaps in a leather-bound black sketchbook, deliberating over ever phrase, over the pentameter.
Not to say that there aren’t some brilliant moments here, because there are. Curiously, these, the most memorable moments, are the most playful scenes. Take the scene where Sean sets up an elaborate trap set to rob an unsuspecting Craiglist user, which we gather is Sean’s way of earning cash in the hard city. Or the wonderful scenes in the office of Jake’s ex-manager, a comically uptight jobsworth, who spends his days obsessing over customer reviews, looking for excuses to exert his meager authority over his typically disillusioned staff. Everybody had a manager like that, and this reference to a general reality is what, if applied to the rest of the film, would make it more successful. Despite it’s shortcomings, watching the film is strangely addictive, perhaps because there is a sense that, any minute now, in these apparently personal conversations, something will happen. Some unifying theme or event will arrive and it will all have been worthwhile. Sadly, this expectation is never fulfilled and the film leaves you feeling deflated, cheated almost, if only because of the knowledge of what it could have been.
[Rating:2/5]
I Play with the Phrase Each Other is playing at Raindance Film Festival 2013
