Man I so wanted to like this film. When I watched the trailer it brought back memories to those punk, angst, teen, flicks I used to watch in the 90’s. It’s a daring feat by writer / director Joel Potrykus, who did an excellent job in executing the direction of the film. Besides holding 5 minute shots of a character eating a plate of spaghetti, or staying on a character the entire time he waits for a bank employee to go retrieve his funds. I totally understand the reasoning in making us linger there, forcing us to watch, but that doesn’t necessarily make it viewer friendly or enhance the over-all entertainment value of the film.

Marty Jackitansky is a slacker bank temp, sick of his job, and spends most of his life scamming coupons, taking advantage of promotions, stealing checks from his work, claiming false workers comps claims, and obsessing over horror films. Until one day he finds out that his work can trace3 the checks he has stolen. Marty goes into “hiding” which consists of hiding in a co-workers basement, and going to Detroit and staying in hotels, all paid for by the stolen checks. When the bank catches on to the checks and has no more funding sources he gets desperate, and nothing happens.

This is a film that has a great character, Marty and a fantastic actor, Joshua Burge, but the story really never utilizes the great character or actor enough to really catch the audiences attention. The film really goes nowhere and after a few scenes enjoying Marty’s slacker attitude, it wears thin and then your just left watching someone eat spaghetti.

Stay away from this one folks, unless you are into character pieces with no character development or you liked the cliche’ punk soundtracks that were popular in these types of films in the 9o’s.

BUZZARD (2014) Review: A Great Character Wasted Away Into Boredom