Darkon

written and directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel
USA 2006

Role Playing Games, on the level of Final Fantasy or WOW, allow players to assume control over a complex environment without the use of social skills. Sadly, success in the real world is almost entirely dependent on social interactions and politicking rather than intelligence and imagination. With a certain degree of brains and an inclination toward creative thought, you could easily become a Chess master, but even the most menial job requires a completely different skill set usually detected more in facial gestures than quality of work. The D and D phenomenon has, to millions of gamers around the world, provided a model of upward mobility for even the dullest and most awkward personalities. It's no secret, whether it's success merely over the Playstation or over legions of multi-players around the globe, RPG's empower the socially challenged. But LARPing (that is, Live Action Role Playing) is a completely different story. In Darkon, the subjects' obvious performing for the camera, usually such a detractor in documentary material, is moot. The Darkon experience is all about performance in the first place. Whether there's a camera or not, Lord Bannor would still be hamming it up for the armies of players around him. Also, quite explicitly stated, it takes politics to succeed in Darkon. War councils may convene, strategies devised, and battles planned, but usually it takes a backdoor deal with Elven mercenaries to muster a victory. It's an important point, because it sets LARPing apart by re-introducing a social requirement.

It's not surprising that many of these characters are so charismatic and well-spoken. This type of gaming attracts extroverts and natural performers. If you can't talk the talk in Darkon, you won't get a speaking role. Directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel present aspects on both sides of the reality divide, intertwining the lives of their subjects with their subjects' characters. But socially, which is the way most people understand their own lives anyway, aren't these two aspects on the same level? At a back table in Denny's, Skip tries to retain the loyalties of his Laconian countryman, but at the same time isn't he just trying to retain a friendship? The Darkon event footage, including camp-outs, battles, and meetings, provides the same character information as the interviews at work and home. The most interesting departure from these character sketches are the staged sequences of the Darkon story, where the gamers are so completely ingrained in performance, and the real attraction to Role Playing is evident.

I can't help but see an allegory here. An offshoot of the intelligentsia that has pioneered gaming from its humble days of Chess and Backgammon to an MMO RPG empire, LARPing is the exploitative and power-hungry next generation. It is propagated by the movers and shakers and by the politicians. One Laconian puts it bluntly, "..that real world mentality keeps coming back. To be better than somebody else..." Those who can play the political game enjoy success in Darkon. Those with actual intelligence are largely forgotten in favor of likeability, charisma, and brute force. It's much like the capitalist democracy we deal with on a daily basis. Ralph Nader and the citizen advocates are either smeared or disenfranchised by the silver-tongued Party politicians. NGOs and established intellectually-based environmental organizations are silenced by George Bush and his puppet policy-making agencies on issues like peak oil and global warming. In the realm of Darkon and all over the real world, smooth talkers silence the meek with the power of social skills. And also much like the rest of the world, the decision makers of Darkon are usually men, they are usually short-sighted, and they are usually white.

Gone Baby Gone

directed by Ben Affleck
screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard
novel by Dennis Lehane
USA 2007

For whatever it's worth, let's not forget the guy's an academy award winner. Though it has been buried by years of so many completely ridiculous performances and juicy off-screen tabloidery, Good Will Hunting was a timely, intelligent, and tasteful piece of writing that should at least be recognized as an exciting offering by a couple of future super-celebs. Also let's not forget the obvious brains behind the Askewniverse roles. His inclusion in the Hollywood silliness self-awareness campaign of Kevin Smith (i.e. "...Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms.") at least belies Entertainment Tonight's cookie cutter version of the adorable but intellectually irrelevant leading man. So upon closer review of the evidence, perhaps a solid and smart directorial debut for Ben Affleck is not so drastically surprising. In fact, I don't think I'm the only one who had some inkling of curiosity as to when this lug would deliver on some of these vague promises.

Gone Baby Gone is not without its shortcomings, but there's a unique message that slowly builds a case as each new piece of tainted evidence comes to light. Young and attractive Patrick and Angie watch the neighborhood crisis on TV, a step removed from the world just outside their doorway. A shameless and domestically challenged Helene spits venom at her sister-in-law, and Patrick and Angie's underlying relationship tensions are like a drop in the ocean of trouble that is blue-collar Boston (or any city, for that matter). Angie, in another nice directorial touch, is deftly pushed aside for the entire first half of the movie, until she explodes past the men, over a hundred-foot cliff to certain peril. Ineffectual masculine power struggles are easily blown apart by the raw passion of the fairer sex. It's here that the film changes, and as Patrick becomes caught in a torrent of harsh difficulties, something in the filmmaking itself feels wrong. There are recognizable genre elements, but certain plot details become unimportant, while others are seemingly forgotten. Patrick slowly picks his way through the mess, and likewise the plot eventually makes sense out of the strangeness. In contrast to the Coens' No Country for Old Men, for instance, where we have a cohesive and meticulously formulated plot carrying us through the difficult intellectual material, GBG instead nearly falls to pieces in its construction of a similarly alienating environment.

In the end, Patrick champions the working class against the meddling upper-echelons. But in this case it's not a case of corporate exploitation, or any such Moore-ian social injustice. Affleck and novelist Dennis Lehane (also the author of Mystic River) have embedded an indictment of that same working class. What a statement! To boot, there are overtones of the fate vs. free will argument. Very nice. Lastly, Amy Ryan's portrayal of Helene is wicked. Only a serious commitment to a view of the world from the bottom up could have produced such righteous selfishness. It must have been a terrifying experience.