To be fair, I only wanted to watch Stanleyville purely for Julian Richings. In Stanleyville, Richings plays a tournament host who is charged with overseeing a competition. Not just any competition though. His name is Homunculus. Most of the monikers attributed to the characters within this weird and left-field narrative can be applied to something of Latin origin. Sometimes from somewhere else in ancient history and sometimes even just the dictionary. In this particular instance, nothing I could do regarding researching the cast names or trying to find some hidden meaning within the script led me anywhere in particular.
Winners and Losers in Stanleyville, There is no inbetween
The Stanleyville trailer gives off much the same impression as the opening act. It’s clever in a weird way. The black comedy is seemingly centered on how humans behave in confined scenarios. Each cast member has a different niche personality type. An actor, a health nut, a tough woman, a sentient woman, and a hot shot make up the unique group.
Opening with one “unhappy with her lot” (sentient) woman, Maria (Goodnight Mommy’s Susanne Wuest.) At work in a highrise office with large clear windows. A bird smashes into the window and when Maria reacts but no one else does, it seems to bother her. She leaves and sits alone at a train station questioning her existence.
Maria is approached by an unassuming Homunculus wearing an ordinary brown suit. He tells her she has been selected for a special competition. Maria is not interested in the prize but wholly enamored with the idea of self-realization and transcendence which is also offered as a reward for competing. There is a prize, however, and it’s repeated over and over again. A Habanero Orange Compact Sports Utility Vehicle will go to the winner. But more importantly, he says;
“This is an opportunity to discover the true you that cowers inside the YOU you,”
Julian Richings as Homunculus in Stanleyville
The competition sees Maria and four other contestants in a room. Manny Jumpcannon, Bofill Pancreas, Felice Arkady, and Andrew Frisbee, Jr. were all names I Googled that gave a little but not too much insight into their personality types. None of these characters were realism-based, rather everyone aside from Homunculus was over-the-top with goofy antics and their own strategic way of playing the games they were tasked with.
WTF Did I Watch? Stanleyville…
The first challenge starts simply enough. Each contestant has to blow up and burst as many balloons as they can in a set amount of time. Some perform extremely well. Maria bursts zero balloons and Manny complains he has only one lung and is therefore at a disadvantage. A scoreboard is set up at the front of the room and the end of each round, a large red X is awarded to one winner. There are eight rounds in the tournament in Stanleyville. So that you know, I also googled Stanleyville and discovered it’s a city. The city was renamed Kisangani but was once an imperial port city described as being so deep, that you could expect to be able to reach inside the Heart of Darkness. Enough said. Or is it?
Stanleyville is not a film that does well with an explanation. There are bizarre injuries and a body count among the five competing people. Maria makes a walkie-talkie out of a conch shell and talks to an unidentified voice. There are warnings for dangerous fire hazards set to burn the building down that are then quashed by whetting the fingers and snuffing out a candle. Among the characters themselves, some in-jokes make no sense. A singing competition about saving the world was both surprising and entertaining.
But if movies like Stanleyville are the type of odd-ball quirky storyline you go for, then have at it. What’s more, you might see the personal transcendence promised in the opening act. For everyone else, a second bird flies into a window in closing scenes. But I have no idea what it all means.
Stanleyville is rated
2.5 protein shakes out of 5
Film Trailer for Stanleyville
Stanleyville’s movie cast includes the following amazing performers Adam Brown, Cara Ricketts, Christian Serritiello, and George Tchortov.
- Director Maxwell McCabe-Lokos.
- Writers Rob Benvie and Maxwell McCabe-Lokos.
- Distributed by Oscilloscope. The film will play exclusively at New York City’s Metrograph on April 22, 2022.
- Additionally, for more details on where to watch check out Oscilloscope’s Facebook page.
