Delusions in Modern Primitivism (2000) User Reviews

Excellent, unforgettable short film.

[Zombie9000 · 8/10 · 31 July 2001]

I caught this flick on Cinemax late one night, and I'm glad I did. This is simply one of the most original, unforgettable American short films that I have ever seen. I expect this one to be infamous soon.

The flick follows an angry young Texan tattoo and piercing fetishist who has grown tired of the everyday body art. He is in search of the ultimate physical expression of his inner rage, which he finds in the garage of an extremely creepy individual. I won't reveal the nature of said "body art", as this is the film's main focus, but rest assured, it is both hilariously outrageous, and terrifyingly plausible.

I loved the way this film combined raw human emotion, cringe-inducing suspense, and uproarious comedy, often all in the same breath. Both the film-making and the acting is top-notch. If there is any way that you can see this film, do so. You will not forget it.

The Most Convincing Mockumentary Since FORGOTTEN SILVER, Only Shorter

[dtb · 9/10 · 13 March 2004]

I accidentally stumbled across this short on the Sundance Channel a few minutes after it began, having heard nothing about it beforehand. I found it so convincingly staged and acted that for a while I honestly wasn't sure whether or not DELUSION... was for-real or a mockumentary. See, I've known plenty of people as angry, self-absorbed, and pretentious as the body-art-obsessed protagonist, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if some doofus with too much time on his/her hands might seriously decide a bullet hole is just a really extreme form of body-piercing. The gag is pulled off beautifully, managing to be both realistic-looking and steeped in gallows humor (pulled off with the straightest of faces, making it all the more effective). Even the shooter laughing as Mr. Body Art is rushed off in a waiting ambulance didn't shatter the mood for me, since someone who'd really do something so nutzoid would probably find the humor in it much like veteran doctors do (at the very least, the guy might laugh just to release his tension). In fact, what finally convinced me once and for all that DELUSION... was indeed a put-on was the fact that neither the protagonist nor the shooter ended up in police custody! :-) If you've lost all patience with self-centered types who get tattoos or scar themselves more to shock others than as a form of artistic expression or a cry for help, DELUSION... will have you laughing evilly. Enjoy! :-)

Hillarious and Well Executed

[sempai · 8/10 · 15 March 2004]

A great execution of a great idea. An humorous extention on the idea of body piercing "for a noble cause". Great acting. I had a little problem with the body art professional laughing, and I wish I could've seen the scar but besides those details...beatufully done!

Originally I suspected that this was some statement about the stupidity of Texans, and Americans because I saw what appeared to be an American flag on the back of Jerome. However, I was mistaken and this was actually a British tatoo. Plus I saw this in Santa Cruz, aka Hippie Central, and they all cheered at the tattoo so I was influenced by majority.

Great film!

Maybe fake to you, but I was lured in

[nyc man · 14 March 2004]

It was, to use a word, hypnotic. Yeow. I thought this was about tattoos, and it sucked me right in. I guess this is like a lesser form of snuff film. I thought it was real and incredible. I saw this film the same day as I saw a piece on TV food channel about weird foods eaten in Asia (pig balls, frog sushi, insect larvae, etc.). So, in my mind, I was seeing the more extreme things in society. I'd give this a 7 out of 10.

The title character "Jerome" is a good looking kid with bizarre tattoos and an alienated state of mind. Sounds like a lot of people I meet. His actions and his thinking is as bizarre and irrefutable as theirs. A slice of life, so to speak.

Chilling

[pmulry · 10/10 · 8 May 2001]

Delusions is a chilling picture -- largely due to the fact that it isn't so far from the truth for so many these days. If you've found the movie on IMDB, it's likely that you've seen the film. And hopefully you laughed aloud, but if you're like too many of those who were in the audience when I've seen it, you didn't know whether to be shocked, horrified, or sickened, right before walking down to the Starbucks before hopping into the Jetta. It's awfully bright for such a dark comedy, which is just one of the reasons that Delusions won an honorable mention among shorts at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. I'm not doing the film justice with these comments though -- if you haven't seen it, take 15 or 17 minutes out of your life and enjoy it, if you can find it. You'll thank me that you did.

Almost Perfect except...

[sempai · 8/10 · 13 April 2003]

Great acting and hilarious execution of the idea. The laughing Ray and the lack of a scar kind of broke the trance though. Unfortunately, Daniel Loflin's sanctimony is kind of along the same line as Sam Menedes' or Tony Kaye's who travel to other countries to do their commentaries. Personally, I would've had more respect for Loflin if he'd poked fun at German neo-Nazis. But, I suppose it's alway easier to critizize the other guy, especially when you come from a place where you're too ashamed to fly a flag in your front lawn, let alone tattoo one on your back. Chalk one up for freedom of expression.

Watch Carefully!

[david813g · 7/10 · 21 July 2005]

SPOILER WARNING! If you watch the credits carefully, you will see that this "documentary" includes a props manager and a writer, which should be tip-offs that, like _The Blair Witch Project_, this film is a carefully scripted commentary. Once you figure that out and think about the film some more, you realize that the filmmakers skillfully used documentary conventions such as the drive-along interview and a hand-held camera to lend verisimilitude to the film. It is a satire, mocking both the vapid search for "identity" undertaken by unsophisticated youths, as well as the credulity that we willingly invest in anything that *looks* like a documentary. It is a brilliant reality check!

Interesting premise

[t_mcbee · 5/10 · 4 May 2002]

Obviously fake but nonetheless a compelling take on those who look to sado-masochism for mind-expansion. The main character is well written as a big city moron totally out of touch with his own and everyone else's reality

A smart, funny satire.

[paperbogie · 8 February 2003]

If you don't like this short film, go see a J-Lo movie or something equally inane. This is a really sharp, well made and executed satire about pretentious, self-congratulatory rebellion. If you thought Blair Witch was convincing (I did not), this picture will put it to shame. Of course, Delusions doesn't have to carry the gag for more than twenty five minutes or so, but it does it so smooth, you're convinced this is for real. There are no give-aways in the dialogue, acting, or execution that let you know it's fiction. And as with all good satire, you don't know whether to laugh or be truly frightened about the state of the world. I hope this guy keeps making pictures.

This short was rather annoying.

[powergeek · 2/10 · 2 March 2002]

I just had a hard time listening to this guy babble on and on about getting the "ultimate body piercing"...a bullet hole.

You could tell it was all staged, it was shot handheld with a video camera, and it just seemed like it would never end.

I have a hard time recommending this one.

Glad to be had!

[abyssrecords · 31 October 2004]

My friend and I were also taken in by this docu-satire (also viewing it on The Sundance Channel) and, actually, our not knowing (until afterward) that the people and actions being depicted weren't fact but, rather, fiction just added to the power of this very smart and effective film. "Delusions in Modern Primitivism" is so well-executed - acting, writing and direction are all first rate - that we were truly able to suspend disbelief.

(Now that we know it was staged, we want to see the film again in order to even more fully appreciate it.) Being an aficionado of the documentary genre, a lover of good satire, and having just witnessed a "tattoo and body arts festival," this film was particularly satisfying. Jerome's final destination in this film? Nowhere!

Atrocious

[MEMNC · 1/10 · 12 September 2002]

When I first saw this short film on Cinemax back in May 2002, I was horrified as I would expect normal human beings to react. It blew my mind even further to shortly learn that this film was classified as a Comedy. I hesitate each time before turning on the TV after seeing this program for fear that I have no idea what other senseless trash I will next encounter. With all that is happening in the world today, I cannot believe that someone would want to create such a work of far-from-art which will perpetuates more deviant, dysfunctional and unhealthy behavior in humans. Anyone who classifies this as a must-see and can truly get a laugh out of this (regardless of the fact that it may be fictional) needs to quickly head to their nearest mental institution for examination (Delusional and deeply disturbed will be the diagnosis).

Young, disaffected urbanite goes looking for a higher level of self expression and finds it in a Texas warehouse.

[scrwball · 11 September 2002]

Jerome has been around. He's been repeatedly inked and pierced, but now he's grown bored with these simpler, innocent forms of self expression and wants to move beyond. He's looking for something that will separate him from the other average, young and tortured American males. He wants to take his inner torment and ennui and manifest it physically for all to see.

His pain is greater than mine or yours and he's going to prove it. He wants you and me to watch. To share and then know the depth of his pain. To be astonished by his commitment. And did I mention his pain?

Jerome is driving to a destination to modify his body and along the way he does his best to clue us into his hard knock life and to share his keen insights into the human condition and to reveal his ultimate philosophical conclusion: Life is empty and full of pain. That, and it's really tough to scare the squares anymore with run-of-the-mill tattoos and body piercing. He's tried and is tired of being drawn into conversations with grandmotherly types fascinated, rather than threatened by his very personal body art. They will never understand his private hell on this earth.

I didn't know whether to laugh or shake my head in disbelief as Jerome calmly goes forward with his plan in a warehouse, somewhere in Texas. So I did both. This film is funny and yet makes one think that Jerome is probably just a pioneer and that others, if given the opportunity, will follow.

A clever and painfully convincing piece that takes aim and hits its social target bang in the middle

[bob the moo · 12 April 2007]

Ahead of this film there is a warning that the contents of this film are not a good idea and should not be done in any way. It is a depressingly necessary warning because the people who the film is lampooning so effectively are probably the same people who would not realise that the whole thing is an attack on an aspect of modern (Western) youth culture. The film cleverly travels with our young subject as he goes to have his body work done. He talks about his reasons for tattooing, his deep feelings of suffering, his lack of issue of pain (because he has felt pain his whole life) etc. However we note that he is driving round a clean American city, through a mall, in bright sunshine and so on.

As if the dialogue is not damning enough, the juxtaposition with the sentiment and the reality is brilliantly done. I found the subject totally convincing and it really did feel like we were just feeding him rope to hang himself. The joke is very much on him but it is not an easy laugh, more a really sharp and convincing comment on modern youth who find it difficult to have such a "safe" life and end up getting meaningful marks, cuts, dark clothes and so on, in an attempt to feel more interesting and more of an outsider. I mean, we have all done it so few of us really can sit too comfortably, but this is specifically targeted at the extreme end rather than the moody teen side. The lead actor is really good – so convincing that I questioned if it was real at his expense or not. Only once is it clunky – when the director points out to the character that his "suffering" is his own making; this didn't need to be said as the audience can get it by themselves. The direction is sharp and the film looks great – benefiting from a sunny US setting as well.

Overall then, a painfully convincing piece that cleverly mocks the extreme culture of body art etc by contrasting it with the common reality of such people.

crazy

[spiphy4u · 11 July 2002]

This movie is one of the most odd movies I've seen. There are considerably easier ways of scaring oneself. To pay $500 to be shot is just plain stupid. Considering that you could scar yourself with chemical burn or any object hot enough. But to pay someone to injure you and to do so in a painfull manner is at least uninteligent. If nothing else.