It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine!
Director: David Brothers, Crispin Glover
Writer: Steven C. Stewart
Cast: Steven C. Stewart, Margit Carstensen, Carrie Szlasa, Lauren German
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
Paul (Steven C. Stewart) suffers from a rather severe case of cerebral palsy which makes contact with other people and especially women extremely difficult. But then he meets Linda Barnes (Margit Carstensen) and falls in love with her. Linda starts a friendship with him but when she declines his marriage proposal, Paul goes on a murderous rampage starting with Linda and moving on to basically any woman he meets.

The movie is a lot like Glover himself: unique, weird, sometimes a little opaque but definitely important and pretty ingenious. I have to admit that I expected not to like the film, that it would be one of these pretentious art films that I can’t bring myself to like. But I thought It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! was really brilliant.

It takes a bit to get used to the film. Stewart is hard to understand due to the cerebral palsy and he doesn’t get any subtitles (at first I was wondering about this decision but later on, when it is clear that the film is his fantasy, it made perfect sense to do it this way).

But once you’re into the film, you’re really in it. The set design, the wonderful soundtrack and the slow pace in which it unfolds – it’s like you yourself are dreaming. It’s not the best of dreams (because who would like to be a serial killer in a wheel chair?) but it’s a fascinating experience.

Apparently Glover owns the all the copies of the film and only shows it when he can be there to talk about the film afterwards. The Q&A after the movie was correspondingly well-rehearsed. He answered the first question in a bit of a roundabout way (without forgetting the original question though) and so extensively that there was barely anything left to ask afterwards.

He talked about sets they built with brilliant colors and a sort of 70s feel to them. He talked about the fantastic elements in the story – basically it was a movie of and about wish fulfilment. But mostly he talked about Steven C. Stewart and what the movie meant to him.

It might seem quaint that Glover only shows the film when he’s able to do a Q&A and I do think that it is not entirely necessary (I think I would have taken away the basic message without it, too). But it does add a level of depth to it and it is just plain interesting.

Summarising: If you get the chance, see it.