Marshall and the Movies

Joel Potrykus aims for a mumblecore “Office Space” with his film “Buzzard” but just falls flat on its face at every phase.  His story is one of listless young men rebelling against “the man” of corporate drudgery and office droning, but his non-Polish protagonist Marty Jackitansky (Joshua Burge) proves too unsympathetic to elicit even the slightest care.

Marty is more than just a slacker; he’s a petty common criminal coasting by on white privilege to stay in someone’s basement rather than dwell in a jail cell.  He tries to rip off banks on promotions as well as office supply stores by returning products he didn’t buy.  Granted, every character does not have to be relatable, nor do their choices have to be ones that are generally approved.  But without a journey or lesson to move his story forward, “Buzzard” just makes him a pathetic subject to behold.

Furthermore, the excruciating experience of walking the film is exacerbated by Potrykus’ artless filmmaking.  “Buzzard” is not the kind of film that tries to strip cinema of its artifice by shooting natural scenes without obvious staging.  Potrykus just seems rather unable to express his story in visual terms.  He often relies on long takes held on Marty that do nothing to enhance the spectator’s relationship to the character.  They seem to be there simply because Potrykus did not know what else to do.  C- /