1988's The Wizard Of Speed And Time. What a joyous, hyperkinetic, stupid movie this is. How does one describe it? Not only is it a satire about the Hollywood movie industry, it's also a semi-autobiographical "man vs. the system" film and a low-budget special effects extravaganza to boot. And it's all very much the brainchild of just one man: eccentric filmmaker Mike Jittlov (who's done work for Disney and various, celebrated short films of his own creation).

Flashback to 1977: In an effort to get a TV special about special effects wrapped up and in the can on time, unscrupulous producer Harvey Bookman (Richard Kaye) and the more personable director Lucky Straeker (Steve Brodie) hire a sweet, unknown, freelance FX artist (Mike Jittlov himself) to create some footage for the show. Mike enthusiastically agrees as it's the chance to give his talents a nationwide showcase. Little does Mike realize that Harvey has bet Lucky a substantial sum of money that the work of a nobody like Mike will turn out to be unusable, amateurish twaddle. When Mike's demo tape turns out to be pretty slick, Harvey hires two thugs to try and sabotage Mike's further efforts, which would result in more production money "disappearing" into Harvey's bank account. Meanwhile, Mike starts falling for small-time actress Cindy Light (Paige Moore), who graciously takes to Mike's lovable oddball sensibilities and helps him with his struggle to give his creative visions life. His main idea involves a whimsical wizard clad in a green raincoat who can run at hypersonic speeds and bring happiness to the world or something wonky like that.

Now, I'm not one to go gaga over metamovies (films about making films). Truth be known, I hate them. Usually, I find them boring, smug, and centered around references to things that are too inside the industry for a Joe Schmoe like me to appreciate. I'd even put The Player on my list of least favorite films of all time. But The Wizard Of Speed And Time enthralls me like other metamovies haven't before. It ditches the pretensions and simply has fun with itself.

The film Wizard most readily resembles is Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Jittlov rides a bike with lots of neat gimmicks at the beginning and there's a screwy chase scene around a movie studio near the end). But that seems to simply be a strange coincidence since Wizard was 4 years in the making and had its roots as a 3 minute short by the same name made years earlier. I'd also compare this movie to UHF in that the same kind of groanworthy silliness abounds.

The performances here are fairly bad (can you say anything else about a film that has a "special appearance" by Phillip Michael Thomas?). As an 80's comedy, never mind a low-budget one, you get what you see. But Mike Jittlov, essentially playing himself, has a sincere air about him that's hard to dislike. Iconoclastic types are like that. In my eyes, at least.

But what makes The Wizard Of Speed And Time really worth seeing is the level of craftsmanship involved in the production. The movie is chock full of eye candy. In just about every scene, there's either some kind of neato visual effect or a blink-and-you'll-miss-it sight gag. You got stop-motion animation, claymation, wind-up toys (hey, Zoids and Starriors!), bicycles mysteriously moving up hills without pedaling, that terrific scene where Jittlov jumps into a pool and holds his breath for several minutes, and other such phenomena that begs to have a DVD with a commentary track in order to explain it all. Mike Jittlov also claims to use subliminal messages in his films to positively affect the mood of audiences. I didn't notice any myself (proof they must be there). With all that.....stuff, Wizard is a busy piece of work but never to the point of annoyance.

The reason why Mike Jittlov is able to get away with all of this is because he was deeply involved in just about every aspect in making the film. He even claims to hold "The Unofficial World Record For Most Jobs Worked To Create a 35mm Theatrical Motion Picture". Over 200 of them, in fact, including director, producer, lead actor, writer, clay animator, set builder, storyboard artist, sound mixer, composer, stuntman, choreographer, make-up artist, puppeteer, dog double, and janitor. A flick can't get any more personal without giving birth to it vaginally.

The Wizard Of Speed And Time is a look at the world through the skewed imagination of an FX magician. Certainly worth the trouble of walking into that grimy locally-owned video store in the bad part of town where roaming gangs of evil teenagers hang out just to see it. Watch the trailer for yourself at http://wosat.remulak.net/repository

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day