Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Philadelphia Comic Con with my dad. While a smaller convention than the better-known ones at Chicago, San Diego, and New York, the Philadelphia Comic Con manages to make up for its lack of stature with an almost inexorable supply of celebrities of yore, famous vehicles, the 501st, artists, and – this year – a humble group of independent filmmakers from the mysterious land of Utah. This group came with the sole intent to showcase a movie, one that I am sorry to say I may have overlooked had my dad not mentioned it to me. A movie that I have the pleasure to now review. That movie is…Unicorn City.
Unicorn City is an independent movie about a subculture that I am proud to be a part of: gamers. More specifically, the movie follows Voss, the selfish member of a group of tabletop gamers, who is trying to land a job with a gaming company called Warlocks on the Beach. As he has next to no job experience, Voss takes it upon himself to drag his group of misfit gamers to the mountains for a weekend of playing their characters in a real-life setting. So yes, in order to get the job, he opens a LARP called ‘Unicorn City’, which he proclaims is to act as a veritable utopia for gamers.
Of course, no GM is complete without a great woman by his side. In this role is Marsha, a pretty yet timid girl who has a very blatant crush on Voss and makes no effort to hide her desire to be his permanent party member. Well, blatant to the audience and everyone else, as she goes to great lengths to suggest that their characters hook up ‘in game’ and even creates an intricate back-story for how it would work, only to be shot down when Voss says his character is celibate. Unfortunately for Voss, the old GM of his group catches wind that Voss is running a LARP and makes it his mission to infiltrate the group. Can Voss land the job, defeat his old rival, and finally catch one of the very hefty clues from the lovely Marsha before the cops come to shut down Unicorn City?
Well…I’m not going to tell you. But what I will tell you is that this was one of the funniest, most charming movies that I have seen in years. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like modern comedy. To the point that I almost walked out of The Hangover and I can’t watch anything that calls itself a “comedy”. I guess one of my problems is that, despite the fact that I’m a huge fan of Monty Python, I’m not big on the crude or offensive factor that most comedies go for. The humor in Unicorn City is clean and effective, though the mainstream audience may get lost with many of the fantasy references and jokes about the gaming community in general. However, the audience I viewed this movie with was rolling from the first frame right up until they flicked the lights on after the credits. And I’m happy to say that I was rolling with them. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of a gaming group – be it tabletop or LARP, you have experienced at least some of the same interactions as you see with the characters in this movie. We’ve all been part of a group where the GM feels the need to make up new rules to keep players from conquering a certain monster, that one intense player who knows all about swords and can recite the rules of the game backwards in his sleep, or there’s that one couple who can’t keep their hands off each other.
While Voss and Marsha take up most of the spotlight, the other characters shine pretty brightly. Voss’s brother Clancy is a delight, and his other brother Jeff plays a great foil to his lazy sibling. Shadowhawk – the aforementioned GM – is a wonderful adversary for our job-seeking bard and such a treat to watch. But the real scene-stealer has to be Rhubarb, the Mohawk-sporting centaur, whose horse body is a cooler stuffed with beer and food. If you’ve ever LARPed, chances are you’ve had at least one guy who took his costume’s design to a level that is both awesome and ridiculous. Yeah, that’s Rhubarb. And I had the pleasure of getting an autograph from the actor who played Rhubarb.
An awful lot of passion and energy went into this movie, and it shows in the final product. Not one person had a bad thing to say about the film when they walked out. If there’s one complaint I have about the movie, is that it is not in distribution at the time of this review. Brothers Bryan and Adrian Lefler poured their hearts and souls into the production, but as of now they do not have a dedicated company that can send distribute the movie to theatres. While I don’t see this being a big hit with mainstream audiences, this is without a doubt a future cult classic that could be viewed in midnight showings in small theatres. And if such a thing happened, I would be there opening night at my local cinema. Possibly dressed as Voss.
If this sounds like something that may be interesting to you, please check out the trailer on YouTube, and show some support by going to the film’s website. I enjoyed every minute of this movie, and I’m sure that if you’re looking for a wholesome, clean nerd-centric comedy, this is something you’ll enjoy too.
Scores
Heroes: Great cast of characters. – 5/5
Villains: Shadowhawk may not be that evil, but he is such a delight and we’ve all had someone like him in our lives. – 5/5
Narrative: Easy to follow and very entertaining. – 5/5
Plot: A very fun twist to the “deadbeat must prove himself” plot structure. – 5/5
World: It’s one all gamers have been submerged in. – 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
Jennie Ivins