Relax, it’s just the Apocalypse or How the End Times Justify the Mean Times; A Review of the new film Relaxer by Joel Potrykus
Lotta Apocalypse in the air these days. Neil Gaiman’s satire of the Biblical Apocalypse came out last week (Good Omens… Great Book; pretty fun show) along with Godzilla: King of Monsters, before that we had the re-writing the apocalypse of Avengers; Endgame, Gregg Araki’s Now, Apocalypse show and the new line for summer at the interior design company where I work is based on the Greek Islands, like where John of Patmos got his Revelation on! Is this purposeful?
Things haven’t been this intense since Y2K!!! Which brings us to Relaxer, as this is it’s time frame. I was living in Northern Minnesota at that time and I knew some groups out in those North Woods who were ready for the end. Nowadays they call them “preppers” They also wouldn’t use any pharmaceuticals, micro-dosed themselves with peroxide and wouldn’t allow the women to wear their hair down until marriage (all that heavenly glory, it’s just for your husband!)
In Shaivism, siddhi are defined as “Extraordinary powers of the soul, developed through consistent meditation and often uncomfortable and grueling tapas, or awakened naturally through spiritual maturity and yogic sādhanā.”
Wikipedia
Sadhana is your efforts to achieve something. Abner and his brother set challenges for themselves to overcome; gross, ridiculous, pointless challenges, designed for humiliation. The kind of challenge where even if you win, you lose! Abner’s brother Cam is a bully. I know this kind of dude, grew up with them. I feel for Abner. Abner has a bad track record with completing these challenges and his brother keeps piling them on. Throughout this film you will find yourself wanting to scream into the screen, wanting to reach in and shake Abner; dude, stop letting your bro abuse you like this! Abner accepts the ultimate challenge to redeem all of the failed challenges which is to get to the highest score in Pac-Man before the Y2k happens, without once leaving the couch.
This is a film about raised-wrong men, glitches and computer cheat codes, hacking the game of life. Abner confines himself to his small cave (couch), performs his grueling tapas (and no, that’s not a difficult to finish small plate of Spanish cuisine) and by the end he is a mystic relaxing on a mountain of (his own) shit and he has achieved the siddhis (telepathic powers). He survives his own Apocalypse. To say more would be a spoiler but let’s just say this is like a lo fi bedroom Scanners situation.
This film reminded me a little of Joel’s last film; The Alchemist’s Cookbook, which I really liked as well. Both films have a claustrophobic feel and put you right in the main characters head, taking you along on their harrowing trip. The viewer is often left wondering if this is “reality” on screen or the main character’s reality tunnel. The acting by lead Joshua Burge is amazing, getting into some hilarious physical comedy as Abner fashions devices to deal with his self-imposed sofa exile. More than just a gross out film for adolescents, this Apocalypse is all our Apocalypse.
Enjoy (maybe on an empty stomach, things get gross)
