Fantastic Fest 08 Review: ASTROPIA
A supermodel walks into a nerd shop. Talk about your Hollywood high concept! Except that Astrópía hails from Iceland, the story takes unexpected turns, the characters prove to be as knowledgeable as geeks should be, and fantasy sequences break out at random moments.
Originally burdened with the English-language title Dorks and Damsels, which may sound immediately self-explanatory but is not, Astrópía takes (maybe too much) time to set up its killer premise. Hildur (Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir), the aforementioned supermodel, works with her boyfriend at an auto dealership. Her life quickly goes south when the police show up and toss her scheming boyfriend in jail. Hildur takes refuge with her friend Björt and her son Snorri. She takes Snorri shopping one day at a nerd shop, where chaos ensues among the shocked customers. Seeing a "help wanted" sign, she inquires and is promptly hired.
Of course, Hildur knows nothing about geek culture, and frustrates the other nerds in the shop when she is called upon to help customers decide between role-playing games. Her other "assets" make her popular with customers and she proves to be a good sales person. Eventually, though, Hildur sees the light.
That brief description doesn't properly convey the genial comic spirit on display. The film is packed with inside references, not just to movies, but to RPGs and nearly every other aspect of geek culture. Lest you think this is only a film for the nerd-o-phile, Astrópía transcends those references because of its sound narrative structure, sharp comic dialogue, and whimsical flights of fancy. The gallery of geeks all have their own particular quirks, making them recognizable not only as representatives of the wide world of computers, cinema, and comics, but as friends, neighbors -- and fellow attendees of Fantastic Fest.
Yet it bears repeating that the film is good enough not to be restricted to the far edges of nerd-o-philia. Most of the references to RPGs flew right over my head, as did LARK-ing, board games, and so forth. Again, though, it's the characters who save the day: Hildur's growing appreciation for a culture she had previously scorned, the hidden layers of complexity hiding under the stained sweatshirts of the geeks, the glint in young Snorri's eyes as he is exposed to the first time in public to things he'd probably been dreaming about.
Oh, and there's the whole "my boyfriend's in jail and he's trying to escape without telling said girlfriend" sub-plot, which merrily riffs on The Great Escape and numerous other jail break flicks, and the fantasy sequences -- amazingly realized and costumed and filmed in just five shooting days on a tiny budget consisting mostly of used rubber tires -- and tiny throwaway bits that will bring pleasure to any nerdy geek, closeted or not.
Astrópía has such a good heart at its core that it's easy to overpraise it, simply because it resonates so strongly for a select audience. Still, it surely deserves a wider audience.
The film plays one more time at Fantastic Fest (Wednesday, September 24). It is currently without US distribution.
