Delusions in Modern Primitivism

If you don't like this short film, go see a J-Lo movie or something equally inane. This is a really sharp, well made and executed satire about pretentious, self-congratulatory rebellion. If you thought Blair Witch was convincing (I did not), this picture will put it to shame. Of course, Delusions doesn't have to carry the gag for more than twenty five minutes or so, but it does it so smooth, you're convinced this is for real. There are no give-aways in the dialogue, acting, or execution that let you know it's fiction. And as with all good satire, you don't know whether to laugh or be truly frightened about the state of the world. I hope this guy keeps making pictures.

A great execution of a great idea. An humorous extention on the idea of body piercing "for a noble cause". Great acting. I had a little problem with the body art professional laughing, and I wish I could've seen the scar but besides those details...beatufully done!

Originally I suspected that this was some statement about the stupidity of Texans, and Americans because I saw what appeared to be an American flag on the back of Jerome. However, I was mistaken and this was actually a British tatoo. Plus I saw this in Santa Cruz, aka Hippie Central, and they all cheered at the tattoo so I was influenced by majority.

Great film!

Ahead of this film there is a warning that the contents of this film are not a good idea and should not be done in any way. It is a depressingly necessary warning because the people who the film is lampooning so effectively are probably the same people who would not realise that the whole thing is an attack on an aspect of modern (Western) youth culture. The film cleverly travels with our young subject as he goes to have his body work done. He talks about his reasons for tattooing, his deep feelings of suffering, his lack of issue of pain (because he has felt pain his whole life) etc. However we note that he is driving round a clean American city, through a mall, in bright sunshine and so on.

As if the dialogue is not damning enough, the juxtaposition with the sentiment and the reality is brilliantly done. I found the subject totally convincing and it really did feel like we were just feeding him rope to hang himself. The joke is very much on him but it is not an easy laugh, more a really sharp and convincing comment on modern youth who find it difficult to have such a "safe" life and end up getting meaningful marks, cuts, dark clothes and so on, in an attempt to feel more interesting and more of an outsider. I mean, we have all done it so few of us really can sit too comfortably, but this is specifically targeted at the extreme end rather than the moody teen side. The lead actor is really good – so convincing that I questioned if it was real at his expense or not. Only once is it clunky – when the director points out to the character that his "suffering" is his own making; this didn't need to be said as the audience can get it by themselves. The direction is sharp and the film looks great – benefiting from a sunny US setting as well.

Overall then, a painfully convincing piece that cleverly mocks the extreme culture of body art etc by contrasting it with the common reality of such people.

I accidentally stumbled across this short on the Sundance Channel a few minutes after it began, having heard nothing about it beforehand. I found it so convincingly staged and acted that for a while I honestly wasn't sure whether or not DELUSION... was for-real or a mockumentary. See, I've known plenty of people as angry, self-absorbed, and pretentious as the body-art-obsessed protagonist, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if some doofus with too much time on his/her hands might seriously decide a bullet hole is just a really extreme form of body-piercing. The gag is pulled off beautifully, managing to be both realistic-looking and steeped in gallows humor (pulled off with the straightest of faces, making it all the more effective). Even the shooter laughing as Mr. Body Art is rushed off in a waiting ambulance didn't shatter the mood for me, since someone who'd really do something so nutzoid would probably find the humor in it much like veteran doctors do (at the very least, the guy might laugh just to release his tension). In fact, what finally convinced me once and for all that DELUSION... was indeed a put-on was the fact that neither the protagonist nor the shooter ended up in police custody! :-) If you've lost all patience with self-centered types who get tattoos or scar themselves more to shock others than as a form of artistic expression or a cry for help, DELUSION... will have you laughing evilly. Enjoy! :-)

This movie is one of the most odd movies I've seen. There are considerably easier ways of scaring oneself. To pay $500 to be shot is just plain stupid. Considering that you could scar yourself with chemical burn or any object hot enough. But to pay someone to injure you and to do so in a painfull manner is at least uninteligent. If nothing else.