September 13, 2008: Control Alt Delete
Control Alt Delete is an independent Canadian movie, which was making its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. I believe this Saturday morning screening was only the second one ever for the public. Writer-director Cameron Labine cast his brother in the kind of humiliating role that every kid would want to make his brother suffer through. It’s funny how art seems to cut through the usual social norms, and makes people leap at the chance to do something they wouldn’t otherwise even consider.
The movie explores and satirizes some of the edge cases of attitudes towards love and sex in this computer-saturated world we now live in. The main character, a software developer leading up to the Y2K turnover, struggles with pressures at work and with his relationship with his girlfriend, ultimately leading to their breakup and his new-found interest in a woman at the office. Throughout all of this but unknown to anyone else, he is working through changing realizations about how his computer can bring him pleasure, and the logical yet oh-so-illogical conclusion to which that leads. We can see the obvious angles around where this is all headed, but don’t want to believe it will really happen.
The movie is certainly not for all tastes, as it tackles the modern-day computer porn culture pretty much head-on, and is gleefully profane. However, at its heart what we’re looking at is a fairly conventional and comfortable plot frame for the movie, with conflict at work, conflict in personal relationships, and sure enough, the good old misunderstanding leading to a temporary breakup. In this case it’s more along the lines of Chasing Amy, where the breakup occurs because of one character needing to mature a bit before proceeding, which I find a forgivable plot contrivance even though it’s maddeningly more convenient than the way things tend to play out in real life.
The movie certainly has some of that cheapo Canadian feel to it, which is fine for the material, and presumably at least partly because it was shot on video. Nothing to worry about.
There are also obvious Office Space parallels, but I see the film as being more of a loving nod to Office Space rather than a parody or rip-off of it. It would have been nice if some of the office banter was less forced and more funny; this was the real weak point of the film for me, despite some parts that come off beautifully like the ongoing thing with characters’ last names.
How did the film get made? Well, Lynne Stopkewich was in the audience and was one of the producers, so there’s the answer on that. During the Q&A, it was established that the writer/director used to room with Stopkewich, so I suppose living with a noted Canadian writer-director has to make it easier to find a jumping-off spot for one’s career. Hey, take advantage of it if you can!
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