The alchemist cookbook film movie#
The alchemist cookbook film free#

Far from detracting from the surreality of the strange human behavior it depicts, this style simply reminds one of the crucial secrets to Luis BuГ±uelвЂ™s artistic success. Instead, Potrykus insists on realism, an approach he supports with an emphasis on long takes and stationary camera set-ups. HeвЂ™s not into the knowingly campy archness of the acting and cinematography in The Greasy Strangler or the blaring hamminess of the performances in Masterminds. PotrykusвЂ™s directorial style is crucial to expressing this perspective. And yet, PotrykusвЂ™s films seem animated by a genuine fascination with his eccentric main characters: a sincere desire to dissect them, to understand them, to present them to us in all their unadorned loopy glory for either our amusement or disdain. Never does Potrykus try to make this main character appealing any more than he lets Sean off the hook for his increasingly crazy behavior out in the woods.

The alchemist cookbook film free#

Buzzard centered around a slacker named Marty Jackitansky who made it a badge of honor to try to scam the capitalist system in his own small ways, and who spent much of his free time perfecting a Freddy Krueger-like вЂњPower GloveвЂќ with knives sticking out of it.

That is not to say, however, that his oddball protagonists-Sean here, and the characters Joshua Burdge played in the directorвЂ™s previous two features, Buzzard and Ape-are likable characters by any means.

With Hess encouraging his performers to dial up the hick schtick to 11 and Hosking doubling down on the absurdist comedy routines, deliberately cheesy gore and unpleasant nudity at the expense of coherent characterizations, their films exude a condescension toward their characters that makes the experience of being an audience member unendurable in such soullessness.Д¬ondescension is as far from PotrykusвЂ™s black-comic sensibility as one could imagine. Both of those films offer object lessons in what happens when self-satisfied filmmakers prize ostensibly beguiling quirks and cheap shock tactics above anything resembling recognizable humanity. The appearance of The Alchemist Cookbook on the cinema landscape certainly couldnвЂ™t be better timed, especially as a corrective to Jared HessвЂ™s recent heist yarn Masterminds and Jim HoskingвЂ™s concurrently released horror comedy The Greasy Strangler.

The alchemist cookbook film movie#

This moment is not only one of the most hilarious scenes IвЂ™ve seen in a movie in quite a while, but itвЂ™s also a pretty good encapsulation of writer/director Joel PotrykusвЂ™s methods, with CortezвЂ™s commitment to a blatantly ridiculous dare a miniature version of PotrykusвЂ™s own ruthless commitment to chronicling the strangest of human behavior. Cortez takes him up on the challenge, and even though he clearly canвЂ™t stand the taste on his first bite, he tries his best to hide this from his friend and takes an even bigger batch for his second helping, only for him to finally give up soon after. The Alchemist Cookbook is about twenty different films in one, none of which would ever be expected together.About a third of the way into The Alchemist Cookbook, Sean (Ty Hickson) dares his friend Cortez (Amari Cheatom) to eat a can of cat food. So youвЂ™ve got a backwoods thriller vibe, a seedy satanic story, a wacky indie character study вЂ“ and thatвЂ™s without mentioning Sean and CortezвЂ™s goofy buddy comedics. Tiny hints suggest Sean might be suffering from mental illness, but then black magic and fortuitous intentions reveal dark powers could also be to blame (plus toxic fumes). SeanвЂ™s symbolically marked journal is never addressed in definition, nor does Sean bother with chatty exposition. PotrykusвЂ™ greatest achievement is never sticking to one subgenre, always shifting in tone whenever structural comfortВ seeps in. That, or there really is a creature lurking around the woods outsideвЂ¦ Surprisingly (sarcasm), Sean needs medication to remain somewhat balanced вЂ“ which Cortez forgets to include in his latest delivery.В Without his pills, Sean slowly begins to lose his grip on reality until paranoia completely takes over. His only companions are a grey cat named Kaspar ( Fiji), and Cortez ( Amari Cheatom), who brings him supplies every so often. He has no connection to the outside world, and spends all his time playing around with chemistry recipes found in a strangely marked book. Ty HicksonВ stars as Sean, a loner who inhabits a tiny, nowhereВ shack in the middle of the woods.