Review: The Anarchist Cookbook

Year: 2002
Genre: Dramedy
Stars: Devon Gummersall, Dylan Bruno, John Savage, Katherine Towne, Steve Van Wormer & Johnny Whitworth
Director: Jordan Susman

Overview: College dropout Puck (Devon Gummersall) is an intelligent anarchist who spends his days living in a commune of like-minded folks among them: Karla (Gina Philips), a man hating feminist, Johnny Red (John Savage) a peaceful old hippie and Double-D (Steve Van Wormer), Puck's dimwitted best friend. Aside from protesting certain "oppressive" government actions, everything is relatively calm on the commune as they wait for the revolution, that is until the appearance of Johnny Black (Dylan Bruno) a violent nihilist who dismisses their peaceful ways. Things start to spiral out of control as Johnny Black convinces the collective to take a more severe approach to anarchy.

Writing: For a movie about anarchy, the script is pretty ordinary. The main character is disarming as his voice-over adds in some much needed context. As things hit the fan, as it were, Puck's character flaws are recognized and adjusted and by the end of the movie you feel he has grown up. This exact story seems to be lifted from 1998's SLC Punk! though while SLC delivered scathing satire, Cookbook only gives an occasional wink to the hypocrisies entrenched in that lifestyle. Though that's not necessarily a bad thing, for a movie claiming to be a comedy, overall the humor is very slight.

Directing: Jordan Susman made a lukewarm entrance into the movie industry winning a second place prize in 1997 for his short film Sitting in Limbo at the Montreal Film Festival. The Anarchist Cookbook, released five years later has shown little improvement. Some scenes seem to have been shot by different types of cameras and lighting for no stylistic reason other than clear budget restraints. The editing is sloppy and everything seems to just not mesh well.

Acting: A movie that involves such a challenging character arch needs to be supplied with decent acting on the part of the lead, and though Devon Gummersall tries his best, he never seems to get his footing on the character. This is not helped by his lackadaisical timing when it comes to the films funnier moments. There is one scene where his character attempts to pick up a young woman played by Katherine Towne. After some back and forth she asks him "what are you doing?" to which he quips "talking...human interaction, its all the rage in Europe." A funny line that would have been funnier if given to more experienced hands. The supporting cast doesn't fair any better. Karla becomes obnoxious, John Savage seems to phone it in and the character of Double-D is nothing more than a caricature out of place with the "developing characters". There is one bright light in the form of Dylan Bruno. Bruno manages to portray menace with such understated glee that he balances intelligence, cunning and meat-headed violence perfectly. What scary about Johnny Black is he's willing to do any underhanded thing to achieve his goal. He knows hes bad and he knows exactly what he's doing.

Bankability: This film is very loosely connected with the book The Anarchist Cookbook, a collection of do-it-yourself explosives, weapons and other violent tools. Aside from featuring the book, the movie has no connection to it or its author who has since regretted ever publishing but it does serve as a plot point, albeit a useless one. John Savage is the only recognizable face in the bunch. The pace of the story is very schizophrenic as some scenes are unbearably slow while others simply whiz by. The movie tries too hard to show the emperor has no clothes on both extremes of the political spectrum and though it eventually becomes moratorium on violence the message plays out like a bandaid on a tumor.

ALL-Factor: There are no belly laughs in this movie, not even slight chuckles. Nor are their tears, fear, thrills or anything other than the feeling of slight annoyance as the credits role. Seriously if you want to watch the exact same thing done better, watch SLC Punk!

Conclusion: The Anarchist Cookbook is an ill-conceived mess. Neither funny or dramatically engrossing, it serves as a toothless and forgetful expose on a subculture that deserves more credit. Neither emotionally striking or politically resonant this film about anarchy simply lacks anarchistic spirit.