Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

PUZZLEHEAD
Written, Produced & Directed by: James Bai.
Director of Photography: Jeffrey Lando.
Edited by: Miranda Devin.
Music by: Max Lichtenstein.
Released by: Life Size Entertainment.
Country of Origin: USA. 81 min. Not Rated.
Starring: Stephen Galaida & Robbie Shapiro.
DVD Features: Commentary by director James Bai & New York Times critic Matt Zoller Seitz. Deleted scenes. Trailer.

More than once, one might feel that Puzzlehead, the debut of writer/director James Bai, is detached, or at least veering towards minimalism. If anything, this tone adds to the film’s off-kilter appeal, as does its tight budget. Real drab and rundown locations in Brooklyn were used, as were very low-key special effects.

According to the narration by Puzzlehead himself, he was created by Walter, who makes his Puzzlehead robot exactly in his likeness and image (perfectly so when Walter shaves off his beard and moustache) and voice. (Stephen Galaida plays both roles.) The film’s set in a post-apocalyptic world where the population rate is down and procreation is encouraged (not quite Children of Men, but something along those lines). There’s a sense of lawlessness as well; Walter’s poor doppelganger is shot by a thug, and there’s no help from the police, even during a later holdup in a convenience store. In essence, it’s every man for himself.

Despite the Frankenstein similarities, Puzzlehead’s not a matter of a monster wreaking havoc on a small town and the village flipping out on the creator, though there’s certainly the element of a created entity gaining consciousness over the creator’s intentions. (At one point, to control his creation, Walter switches off part of Puzzlehead’s thinking ability). If anything, the film’s reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, where twins became involved with the same woman. In Bai’s film, it’s convenience store clerk/émigré Julia, played by Robbie Shapiro, who doesn’t know right away that Walter and the robot are one and the same in physical form and appearance, but whose personalities and emotional states quite differ.

In the case of Puzzlehead, Galaida might not have nearly the same range as Dead Ringers' Jeremy Irons, and it’s just as well. Bai’s objective is to keep the tone muted. Dialog is sparse, aside from the narration. The best parts of the film deal with the push-and-pull bond between Puzzlehead and Walter, aided by the score’s creepy undertone as well as Lando’s dark-toned cinematography. Refreshingly, there’s a lack of the usual romance entanglement between Walter/Puzzlehead and Julia. However, Puzzlehead has sometimes too much subtlety – when danger comes around in the last act, it feels like the most laidback bits of a Jim Jarmusch film. The film’s brevity at 81 minutes also leads it to being underdeveloped in the scope of its ideas; one gets only so much of out of the scenario.

DVD Extras: The deleted scenes, all pretty inconsequential, were for some reason shot in 16mm off of the Steenbeck flatbed that the film was edited on! Also included are a very fine theatrical trailer and a fairly informative commentary track with Bai and film critic Matt Zoeller Seitz. Jack Gattanella
August 28, 2007