Michael Ledo
Sean (Ty Hickson) lives in Uncle Ron's trailer in the woods. He is attempting to make gold using an alchemist book. He is isolated and is brought supplies by Cortez (Amari Cheatom). Neither are likable characters. Sean goes off his meds and begins to see things...are they demons from his experiment or is he descending into madness.The film was basically a one man play and I was bored watching/hearing Sean chomp on chips, play with chemicals, light candles, and tend for a cat. It isn't until an hour into the film that anything exciting happens.Not for everyone. Not for me, although it may find a small niche.Guide: F-word. Male butt nudity
Joseph Godfrey
An anxiety ridden man retreats to the woods with his cat in hopes of discovering how to turn any metal into gold. After attempts with elemental science, he quickly turns to alchemaic magic and summons the devil Belial who takes possession of the man.Dialogue is important to me - especially when scenery is limited. A good dialogue (for example from Toni Morrison to Quentin Tarantino) will capture the audience an hold them for hours without blinking. The dialogue in The Alchemist's Cookbook gave me time to check my Twitter account ... twice.I assumed this film could be an ad-lib or improvised performance, but I'm certain that isn't true. This is the first work I've watched from Joel Potrykus. He seems to be motivated by the horror genre which I would love to see in most writers. The problem is Potrykus' attempt to connect it with the real world. There are things in reality that one does not need an imagination to view as horrific - But the translation of mythology to realism eludes many people and (award-winner or not) Joel Potrykus is one of them.The Alchemist Cookbook seeks to rely on the performance of a single actor, that being Ty Hickson. I'm not familiar with Hickson but I want to guess his character is far removed from himself. While the acting isn't anything to scoff over (It's not easy pretending to be alone staring into a mirror while a camera is on you) - I have no idea who Sean is, what he does or did, or even why he's in the situation we find him in. Sean is a void. He's a man in the woods with a cat, so I had to figure him to be the proverbial "crazy cat-lady" that has vacated society because of her crippling obsessions.That being - There's a desperate need to understand how a crazy cat-lady got to be where she is. Who was Sean before he became a crazy cat-lady? How about something simple like, "What happened to your leg?".All in all - I didn't enjoy this movie. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone. But I felt I had to leave more than a simple "Don't Bother It's Terrible" review. Some people do that without explanation so I'll watch the film anyway to decide for myself. This movie, specifically, isn't horror - it's not drama - I don't know where to place it besides (maybe) a film school experiment.You've been warned.
gavin6942
Suffering from delusions of fortune, a young hermit (Ty Hickson, GIMME THE LOOT) hides out in the forest hoping to crack an ancient mystery, but pays a price for his mania.When I saw that Joel Potrykus was the film's writer-director, I was immediately on board. His last feature, "Buzzard", really struck a nerve with me, and I feel a sense of pride that an upper Midwest filmmaker is making a go of it. In my review for "Buzzard", I noted a connection to Richard Linklater's early work (particularly "Slacker"). Perhaps Potrykus is following a similar rise to fame as Linklater: Allegedly, this is the first time Potrykus has not used an HDSLR or Super 8 camera to shoot his film, and the film quality is noticeably improved from earlier work.We are dropped in to the middle of "Alchemist", and the early scenes leave us with some questions – who is this man and what is he up to? We quickly pick up on his independent, punk rock mentality. But is he crafting bombs, Unabomber-style? Perhaps this is a wilderness meth lab? The title is a clear allusion to the Anarchist Cookbook, but what does that mean? And what awful incident caused his leg injury? The sparse cast allows Hickson a showcase, demonstrating that he is not just devastatingly handsome, but a superb thespian to boot. There is not a single scene without him, and in many scenes he is alone and has only gestures to emote with. In a little over an hour, Sean (Hickson) goes from wildly elated, to terrified, to menacing. If the Academy watched independent films, they would take note. Interestingly, as paranoia sets in, Hickson acts more like Joshua Burge did in "Buzzard". Does Potrykus script it this way, direct his actors this way, or is it a coincidence? Regardless, with Burge going on to appear in "The Revenant" and "20th Century Women", Hickson would probably be quite happy to follow his lead.Amari Cheatom (DJANGO UNCHAINED) offers a bit of comic relief as the wannabe gangsta Cortez who has "got the good stuff", including a VCR to play such awful movies as "Red Heat" (not Schwarzenegger's finest moment). Although Cheatom is the supporting actor to Hickson, he still shows some acting chops in the second third of the film. (Then again, not knowing Cheatom personally, playing the gangsta could have been an impressive acting feat, even if he is very much a one-note character.)The film has been described as "Evil Dead" meets "Walden" meets Jim Jarmusch. The "Evil Dead" comparison is actually quite fitting, as both could be described as films about a young man alone in the woods of Michigan who is forced to battle demons. The "Walden" aspect is self-explanatory. As for Jarmusch, I still prefer to think of Potrykus as being in the Linklater mold. For me, nothing can be Jarmuschesque unless it is black and white and Tom Waits appears in some capacity. (Yes, this is a very narrow definition, but that is how I envision the quintessential Jarmusch film.) As is his wont, Potrykus defies genres with "Alchemist". On some level, it is clearly horror, because it involves conjuring demons, some bloody body parts, and a scene that will make you wince at the threat of finger trauma. But this is unconventional horror, really more of a story about mental illness with horror overtones. Think of William Friedkin's "Bug", for example. Horror? Yes. But not in the sense that we have comes to define that genre. Heck, the connection to the proverbial alchemist even hints at fantasy elements.Critic Dennis Harvey explains, "Fans of absurdist indie comedies who find themselves watching a quasi-horror pic are likely to be happier than horror fans who find themselves watching an absurdist indie comedy with a demon in it." As a fan of both, I concede that Harvey makes a valid point. Indie fans (especially fans of "Buzzard") will find much to love. The die-hard horror crowd, however, might find themselves confused or even bored by the lack of action. In this sense, the film becomes a Rorschach test: it is as much about what was created as about the expectations the viewer brings with them."The Alchemist Cookbook" premieres at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 20, 2016. If you enter the theater with an open mind and without your preconceived notions of what a fantastic film should be, I suspect Joel Potrykus will be adding a few more members to his growing fan base.
Conor Bresnan
The movie is, from the get-go, a tale about a man who's having a mental breakdown. Then some horror elements are introduced. But there isn't any push or pull for the viewer. We know none of this is real so the drama is lacking. Without any narrative drama we are left to follow a character who is given zero backstory and is grossly uninteresting. There are moments of great dialogue between the only two characters. Amari Cheatom is particularly good. In addition, there is some superb sound design for the horror surrounding us. The director wisely shows us little and leaves the horror all to our imagination and the sound design is the best element of that. But it's all for not as the story plods along at an uninteresting pace and ends up right where we suspected it would all along.
