Watching two men argue nonsensically while taking a walk in a forest in Michigan is not that captivating. Nevertheless, screenwriter, director, and actor Joel Potrykus hits the bulls eye of their humanity in ‘Vulcanizadora’- where slowly a very disturbing agreement unfolds only to go terribly wrong at some point.
It is the terrible quality of the video that has a house on fire and things being burned over with the fresh seemingly sweet 16mm angles of the beating rural trail around the film. This turns up as a back drop of the film for a good percentage of Potrykus’s tale where he portrays a psychotic, twitching, and frequently irritating-skiba-derek character. It appears as though all the enthusiasm that Derek has does not in any way match that of his friend Martin Jackitansky (Joshua Burge) who has no time for silly show of the former’s childish behavior. Derek wants to take a break and use their old handy dv tape camcorder and film excessively pointless fireworks. Martin on the other hand has a different aim but this one the movie waits until the end to reveal.
The tension exists between them, but that does not stop them from accomplishing the set mission which creates some interest into where they are headed to, why them, and why can’t they be apart. The truths here are somewhat buried, only to be eluded in glimpses of a young Derek who performs behind Martin who is heard but not seen. Burge, a regular of Potrykus, is entirely concentrated on both the substance and the style of the film, priming the audience for recesses of drama. The relevant details are, however, spooned out step-by-step as they are all drama. Yes, in fact, such plot devices exist, and they are here: Alexander is explaining certain plot points to his characters deflating their desperate feelings, in a manner reminiscent of a confessional, and Derek is attempting to keep them distracted from the banishment.
Slobbering Love owes its power in large part on Potrykus’ own infallible performance within ‘Sanyal Mukh’, a childish egghead mongrel which can be associated with bad studio comedies starring Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler, only that Potrykus does not hesitate to dig out the subtlety of Derek’s nature. The nature of their self-imposed contract, even if they don’t say it, as is usual, is constructed bit by bit through each of their confession infodumps. I know that this probably won’t be hard to figure out past a certain point, but one has to wonder what else in addition to the process that is coming into orbit and the manner in which it revolves, is the essence of the picture himself.
During their rambling trips, the duo apparently is not supposed to interact with any other person, leading to wondering why on earth would they want to go on such a trip in the first place. Has anything gone amiss in the tiny village where they come from? Is the world destroyed? Whatever the literal explanation might be, (in fact, there is a very good and quite different dramatic explanation as it turns out) the metaphorical answer is yes. These men have hit rock bottom, and have alternatively no choice but to place themselves in a self-imposed hell. They are however faced with this spiritual existentialism which is necessarily the situation they protrude into when they think they have come to the end of themselves except in this case the outcome is surprisingly comedic.
Unlike the type of comedies offered in studios, Potrykus and Adam J. Minnick’s energy in ‘‘Vulcanizadora’’ is almost meditative, with only a few examples, like some eccentric heavy metal accompanied roughhousing inside my editing machine. The proportions of this rectangle harbour rounded edges that appear in the shape of photos taken or post-card, the very inner content of that rectangle more often than not constitutes unabated and unyielding close-ups of the two men struggling against a heaviness of heart coupled with a quest for something spiritual that they know they can’t quite express.
Still, the middle-age ennui of their shoulders is always pierced through with this strange childness and some form of a developmental freeze. This sort of flow can be attributed to the most absurd, page where black humor is featured predominantly. The bloody deed in question is colorful and full of zap-type happenings, as it encompasses red fireworks and a home-made “Saw” type device. No matter what you are trying to comprehend, the outcome is much to funnier than you would expect to be. The aftermath is just as weird and startling in one of the slower final thirds of the film if one takes into account the legal and moral aspects (although the less said about how and what was supposed to happen beforehand the better).
In the end credits of “Vulcanizadora”, we tell you that a touching portrayal of a mid-life crisis and of two men so disillusioned with the world and their actions as to believe there will ever be a way out of their depression does not quite come as a shock. Converting that sentiment into discrete screen drama is already a challenge. Converting it into sharp and self-reflective humor is even harder, but Potrykus somehow manages to do so.
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