Imagine David Brent from THE OFFICE on an acid trip and you have something like writer/director John Clayton Doyle’s I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE.
Retiring New York corporate accountant Doug McCorkle (also co-producer) has revealed to his colleagues and wife Regina that he has some hidden talents in song and dance, influenced from watching MICHAEL JACKSON – LIVE IN BUCHAREST and TALKING HEADS – STOP MAKING SENSE. So, he puts together a retirement video parting shot of him dancing and miming to a song called I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE which causes many a cheer to his soon-to-be-former work colleagues.
On the recommendation of a colleague, he signs up for the Sin Andre Finishing School For Performers in the Philippines, leaving behind his loving wife to pursue his bucket list beliefs – and hangs out, with a little help from owl-patterned acid tablets, amidst the drag queens and performers, to try and get there for all manner of things, including a successful casting for a ’50/50 Yogurt. However, inevitably, the pull of the stage might also have indirect pulls elsewhere back to who and what he was before….
Atmospheric but strange offering that would have worked much better if the climactic concert was the centrepiece of the through narrative and there was a little more of the early playfulness of Doug’s first video performance and his retirement moments. Still, it does hold the eye from the outset and who am I to criticise somebody’s dream at any age?
It does have a touch of the America’s / Britain’s Got Talent feel about it – and herein lies the key problem. Perhaps we have seen so many of these kinds of stories on TV reality shows that you are a little indifferent to Doug’s story, but it does have some watchable moments if you like this sort of thing.
The choreography is admirable and Doug seems to be enjoying his moment in the spotlight, but one hoped for a little more depth and variation.
The Los Angeles International Film Festival (LAIFF) runs from 16th – 21st November 2021. For information and tickets etc, please go to:
www.laiff.org
