SKULL WORLD (Justin McConnell). 100 minutes. Opens Friday (May 10). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NN
Justin McConnell’s Skull World introduces us normals to the subculture of Box Wars, a medieval-style outdoor battle in which the participants’ armour, weapons and even fortresses are made entirely of cardboard.
In Canada, Box Wars events are presided over by the gladiatorial Skull Man – who goes by the name Greg Sommer in the real world. He’s an antic guy in his early 30s who lives in his mom’s basement just outside the GTA. Skull Man got a little TV time on MTV Canada once, and Sommer has made it his life’s work to get more. He’s pretty much obsessed with spinning the sporadically staged Box Wars events into a multimedia dynasty, complete with a TV series.
He’s a potentially great character, and McConnell (who made the no-budget horror movie The Collapsed a couple of years ago) knows it. He basically just lets the camera roll while Sommer talks up his plans, hangs out with his buddies, complains about his inability to score with the ladies and stages another Box Wars event – over and over again.
The problem with Skull World (spoiler alert, I guess) is that nothing actually changes. There’s no ending the movie simply stops, with McConnell declaring that when something does happen for Greg, he’ll be there cheering him on.
Maybe he should have held off finishing the movie until then.
