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EXISTO
Director: Coke Sams
Independent Film
www.existo.com
Imagine, if you will, a tall lanky man having shoulder length black hair with a three inch white stripe down the center. Now see a gun appear in his hand. He loads a
single bullet and spins the chamber. CLICK. "Fuckin-a," he says. Spin. CLICK. "FUCKIN-A." he repeats. Spin. CLICK. "FUCKIN-A!" CLICK. CLICK. "FUCKIN-A!!!"
As the music starts in, the camera pans back so you
can see this wild eyed guy starting to bounce on top of a giant white therapy ball as he launches into the song. What an image!
So begins Existo's first performance in the movie "EXISTO". I only made it to
two movies this year during Madison's Independent Film Festival this year. Many of the other movies were sold out. Existo, however, was one of the two, and it managed to make an outstanding impression on me.
Containing perverse and controversial topics and actors as well as being a raucaus revolutionary musical, Existo romps and frolics in ways that "Rocky Horror" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" are familiar with, but
never manage to reach. Existo is about an America in the not too distant future, on the brink of civil war, ruled by corporate dominance and right-wing moral zealots. Individual and artistic freedom are at the point
of extinction. One man rises to fight for personal excess and artistic license. EXISTO!
The story begins after this once-great leader of the revolution has spent 10 years in a government "re-training camp"
where he was chemically lobotomized. Now, unstable yet genius, he bands together with his faithful soulmate Maxine and rallies the "troups" to wage a war of resistance and artistic expression against the forces of
decency and traditional family values.
Bruce Arntson IS Existo and outside of his outstanding performance in the title role and singing his songs, he wrote all the songs and music. He also co-wrote the movie
with director Coke Sams. Existo's other stars include Jackie Welch, Jim Varney (aka Ernest in the Ernest movies), Gailard Sartain, Mark Cabus, Jenny Littleton, and Mike Montgomery.
"Art and Revolution are as
inseparable as Existence and Suffering" - EXISTO....Fuckin-a!
Andrew Frey
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