In The Land Of The Owl Turds

Winner of a Gold Award at the Houston International Film Festival, this is a quirky tale of modern love. The opening shot is of a fully nude male in a bathtub playing with his sperm and commenting, in a fairly standard way, on the fruitlessness of finding true love in today's society. It takes a moment to realize that, graphically, director and star Harrod Blank is singing a much sadder refrain: self-love may be the only safe-love. As Roland (Blank), a rather strange egg, with a penchant for chicken imitations, green body paint, and an unusual vehicle ("a Dada art gallery on wheels"), searches for true love, or, at the very least, someone who will understand him, the resultant tale is alternately comic, touching, and pretentious. Critical kudos notwithstanding, two facets of the film undercut its power: 1) too much of Roland's character is strange for the sake of being strange, and 2): it's hard to escape the conclusion that Harrod Blank is a bit of an exhibitionist--in a half-hour film, he manages to find opportunities for no less than three nude scenes. The first is powerful, the latter two seem rather gratuitous. While we're in favor of fighting for artistic films (even when they're guaranteed to bring in patron complaints), this one, on balance, just doesn't seem worth it. (See ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE for availability).