Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: HOKUM [SXSW Film - Austin, Texas]

"Hokum" [Midnighter] continues writer/director Damien McCarthy's progression of demon and inwardly trapped spaces with a story of a man or a woman. This specific film follows a famous writer Ohm (Adam Scott) who travels to a hotel in Ireland to finally scatter his mother and father's ashes. There is of course an immense amount of trauma connected to his act but Ohm has buried that thought in his work and his disdain (it seems) for most of humanity. Scott plays this character with a biting edge and insulting nature which immediately pushes the buttons of many people in the beginning but also gestates the possible antagonist (if anyone) that progresses what happens. Now granted there is a mythology that begins building right off the bat of the Honeymoon Suite of this specific run down hotel. The owner himself, curmudgeonly, is only seen once...and Ohm tells him off. McCarthy likes throwing a good amount of psychological curveballs at the audience in the beginning which nicely sets the context up while seemingly building a certain disdain which may or may not pay off. Another one of these details of context is a drifter named Jerry (David Wilmot) who knows more than he says and says at times more than he knows. The crux and heart of the film, despite not much screen time, though is Fiona (Florence Ordesh) who just happens to get caught in the middle. The issue within a lot of the film though is its lack of balance in its sense of connection. It brings up a lot of different possibilities of what could be happening but their threads are left in disarray at the end. Specifically the use of Mal (Peter Coonan) in a way is never quite made clear as to motivation or intersection of dread, especially considering what happens.

Ohm himself is facing demons and McCarthy adds another denier of perspective ("Dead Eyes" did this as well in a slightly different way -- which that director says was his intent). Here that perspective is not as clear (though McCarthy did say in the Q&A that one small bit was). That however throws the rest of the film's perceptions into disarray. The idea of what is real or not is really more left up to chance in the eye of the beholder per se which is brazenly honest but also problematic since there needs to be something more concrete at least in the periphery. The use of figurines and movements through the room and would be basements and well as reveal perspective shots are neat but the jump scares and plot leading are not as sharp as they could be because we need just a little bit more information. Again the motivations of everyone (save Ohm) seems a little soft. Even the action that permeates the film's progression is not established in terms of why it happened. Trauma is specific but it is not engaged enough at that flashpoint. In this way the structure might necessarily have worked better in a different way. McCarthy did say they shot in sequential order which might have aided in the journey but the film still seems a little disjointed as if he was trying many different things but not settling on one or two...though that might have been the experiment. On top of that, the aspect of Ohm's writings about a Conquistador taking place as a book end (shot in Abu Dhabi -- likely for tax credit) seem too obvious. And even though the motif and intent of those shots makes sense and give a little more visual scope, it is a little jarring, as if it was tacked on in a way...which for an independent film makes sense (and it does give it a more epic feel) but it does add to the disjointed nature. McCarthy is trying some things but sometimes too much at the same time. B-

By Tim Wassberg