Epilogue
From the Archives
•
02-Jun-2014
An adventure film starring Skillman as a great masculine hero who defeats a one-eyed nemesis, finds the glowing red orb he's been searching for his whole life & rescues his leading lady. A couple minutes in, after a grand kiss, it's over, the end. The music swells and we cut to the Epilogue. Having achieved the final challenge, beating the game, Skillman is now clueless. His machismo only exists in the heat of a clear mission to kill bad guys and retrieve ancient artifacts. Once the objective is met, he dwarfs into an everyman. It's a conceit that could fall apart at any moment but solidifies by morphing into some sort of relationship comedy. In mundane settings, hotel rooms, in the Sedan, the couple grapples with everyday life. "I was thinking maybe we could get away for a couple weeks, maybe Florida?", the women suggests. The man doesn't see the point: "Florida is a nightmare. I mean, is there a reason you need to go to Florida?" It's human and relatable, the opposite of where we started. Perhaps we have an allegory related to a transition away from patriarchy. No one is asking for men to be heroes anymore, in fact, it's against the rules. Roles have changed (progress, of course) and the modern society we've landed on is one of gender equality. Skillman thusly emasculated, gasps desperately for the last breaths of ass-kicking & name-taking, flounders about sans virility. "You're just a guy who can't get it up unless you're killing everybody." Strong performances by Chris Henry Coffey and Lucy Walters & versatile direction from Dylan Allen, who convincingly portrays both big-budget action/adventure and low-key relationship genre. -KA. Producers: Eddy Vallante, Rebecca Brice, Dylan Allen. Cinematographer/Editor: Evan Jake Cohen.
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