Posted: 09/09/2011

Circus Maximus

(2011)

by Joe Sanders

Available on Blu-ray and DVD from Osiris Entertainment on September 13th

Circus Maximus is a movie. I’m almost sure of it.

It’s pretty easy to summarize, but difficult to see why anyone would want to. Basically, the movie centers around Cal Neros (Julian McCullough), a screenwriter on a deadline who has locked himself in his apartment and won’t come out until he’s finished his script. Except that the movie doesn’t really center on him. There are several storylines going on. A therapist counseling a patient, a man on a terrible first date with a little person, and two private eyes trying to track down a very special fetus. Can’t see how these storylines could possibly tie together? Well, that’s because they don’t. They don’t even try to. At one point some odd editing suggests that the other stories are what the writer is working on in his screenplay, but it’s never clearly addressed, nor would it really matter if that’s the case.

This film has so many flaws it’s amazing. First, the general tone of the film tries really hard to be a smart language-based comedy, with the characters shooting a barrage of sharp, witty comments at each other, but clearly writer/director Tommy J. La Sorsa is not as funny as he thinks he is. I didn’t laugh once, and it’s fairly simple to determine why. The movie’s biggest problem is that it not only attempts to make a joke with every line, it also has no problem selling out its characters for a joke. For example, Marc (Joe D’Onofrio), while talking to his therapist (Bianca Hunter), has never heard the word “metaphorically” before, but has no problem pointing out to her in the next scene that porn movies are not shot on film, but rather on video. Two mediocre (at best) jokes that make no sense coming from the same character. On top of that, Marc is in therapy for defecating in a urinal, but later points out that he has such a fear of germs that he “can’t even shit on a toilet,” and the audience is left to ask the seemingly obvious question of how a urinal is the cleaner place to sit?

McCullough’s character is probably the worst. Not that he’s a bad actor; the character himself is completely useless. First, apparently Mr. Neros has achieved some level of fame. Actually, he’s really famous, because everyone he meets recognizes him. In the reality of the movie, he’s written one film, which was nominated for but didn’t win an independent spirit award. This is apparently all you have to do to achieve fame. Neros rejects his fan base though, curtly cutting down absolutely everyone he comes in contact with. From strangers in a grocery store, to best friends, to girlfriends everyone gets treated to his clever clever wit. The second problem with having this character at all is that writers are boring. No one cares if Neros finishes his screenplay on time. It literally doesn’t matter at all, but for some reason writers keep churning out these awful meta-scripts about the hardships of the writing process and no one has the heart to slap them on the nose with a newspaper. Unless you’re Charlie Kaufman, stop it.

Probably the best performance in the film is from the esteemed writer/director Tommy J. La Sorsa, who plays Paul, one of the two private investigators (the other is played by Kevin Corrigan). Either Sorsa intentionally chose the best part for himself, or he was the only one of the ensemble who really understood how the tone of this movie was supposed to go. And to be clear, while the character is marginally better than the rest of the cast, the storyline he’s dropped in makes no sense, and there’s an uncomfortable amount of homophobia that serves nothing significant for the plot or characters.

The film looks like it was shot on a porn set (on video) so don’t bother upgrading to Blu-ray. Special features only include a behind the scenes featurette and the film’s trailer. No commentary, but honestly, what is there to say?

Joe Sanders is a playwright and college instructor in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has a Master’s degree in playwriting and a Bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Western Michigan University, where he currently teaches Thought and Writing.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com