In its thinly veiled efforts to elbow itself into the annals of cult movie fame, this Kevin Smith clone leaves no self-aggrandizing banter unsung, no ingenuous Star Wars allusion unturned. Chillicothe forces its narrative through overly constructed melodramatic moments such as the story of Chillicothe (aka Chasing Chillicothe). In true cult film fashion, popular cultural references do abound. They are, however, clumsy and not just in their placement within the dialogue, but in and of themselves (for instance, an allusion to the board game Mousetrap?!?). Even the self-referents in this movie are somewhat weak in their complete absence of detail. Names like Pavlovian Dog and Johnny Perfect initially offer up some hope for the minutia desperately needed to create the complex world which Chillicothe could be. Unfortunately both of these gems are later dissolved in indulgent explanation (Pavlovian Dog was that one vulture circling over every dying relationship and ultimately his passing leads to Wade's redemption, etc. etc.). If everything is explicated, there can be no unreal reality in which to invest and their can be no cult. On a technical note, between awkwardly shifting subject positions, charmless discontinuities, and hurried speech, the film was barely comprehendible. On a personal note, i found the whole movie somewhat absurd. Chillicothe attempts to reposit the ordinarily tortured life of the college educated whiteboy in a universe of glorious possibility. This is a universe wherein all kinds may exist, but only beautiful girls and self-absorbed nerds matter.
Review of Chillicothe
