Bad Fever

I found this film on the Kanopy service offered through my public library. It was a bit difficult to watch given all the cringe worthy scenarios. The description and reviews talk a lot about loneliness and there is a lot of that. However, if this movie was a real world documentary/biography I would assume Eddie to be a relatively high functioning adult with autism or a similar disorder. I felt more frustration from his character than loneliness. His condition may make it impossible to experience physically crippling depression. Folks on the spectrum tend not to completely give up or draw the conclusion that their efforts will never yield fruit hence the OCD/repetitive behavior. They get frustrated and understand that something is wrong but are more prone to lash out in a fit versus collapsing in bed for weeks on end. Given all that this movie was more about how frustrating it can be to not connect with the world like others around you seem to do so easily.

The Irene character was a monster so the actress did her job well because that was the role to be portrayed. WHAT DID I LEARN BY WATCHING THIS: If you are feeling down and want someone to agree with you or laugh at your jokes then hire a prostitute...they'll do whatever it takes as long as the meter is running.

"Bad Fever" is a touching character study of a young man so socially out of touch he is unaware that the stage act he is working up in an effort to become a stand-up comedian is woefully unfunny (Sample joke: Q: Who do you think I saw at the supermarket? A: The workers at the supermarket).

When not at his job at a tree-trimming service, Eddie (Kentucker Audley) wanders alone through rail yards in his hometown of Salt Lake City and tells his jokes into a tape recorder. At home, he tries fitfully to have a conversation with his sourpuss mom. He is the poster child for loneliness.

When he meets Irene (Eleonor Hendricks), a young drifter who hits him up for a pack of cigarettes the instant she meets him, he thinks he now has a girlfriend. But we can see Irene is a hustler who just wants to use him in her peculiar occupation of humiliating men on camera and selling the film to "a guy in Iowa."

How this all plays out is not what you might imagine as the film heads to a poignant climax in a motel room.

This first-time microbudget effort by filmmaker Dustin Guy Defa (Dee-FAY) screened at the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore over the weekend and Defa and some of his cast and crew were on hand for a discussion with the audience. The shy-seeming writer-director acknowledged there are autobiographic elements in the movie. The title, he said, resulted from a sickness he had while writing the script.

"Bad Fever," which so far has apparently only screened at festivals, deserves to find an audience.