DAVE MADE
A MAZE

MOVIE REVIEW

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E.C. McMullen Jr.
RUMOR

A city in panic as people vanish.
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E.C. McMullen Jr.'s
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Filmmaker's Guidebook
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E.C. McMullen Jr.
Head Production Designer

MINE GAMES
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JOSEPH CROSS,
BRIANA EVIGAN,
ALEX MERAZ,
ETHAN PECK)

Dept. head
Special Effects Make-Up
(SFX MUA)

A SIERRA NEVADA
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Production Designer

UNIVERSAL DEAD
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D.B. SWEENEY,
GARY GRAHAM)

Art Director

THE CRUSADER
(COLIN CUNNINGHAM,
GARY GRAHAM)

Review by
E.C. McMullen Jr.

DAVE MADE A MAZE - 2017
USA Release: AUG! 18, 2017
Dave Made An LLC, Butter Stories, Foton Pictures, Submarine Entertainment, Gravitas Ventures
Rating: USA: N/A

Instead of opening text or narration, the movie opens with credits over animation and its here that we find Dave (Nick Thune: URGE, DEVIL MUSIC, VENOM [2018], THE POSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE) is smart, artistic, obsessive, and bored with himself. His fiance, Annie (Meera Rohit Kumbhani), loves him, but Dave's long dry spell of unemployment coupled with his shiftless ennui, is wearing thin.

Dave is currently obsessing about being a loser and fears that Annie will come to her senses and leave him. His artistic heart needs to find a way to express itself, something new to obsess over, but he can't afford anything.

Except, well, there's the trash outside next to the dumpsters of their apartment. There's plenty of cardboard there and its all free...

As the movie begins with live action, Annie comes home from her business trip and finds a bunch of trashed up cardboard boxes taped together on the floor with a hodgepodge lettered cut-out on one side that reads, Enter.

The whole thing is not much bigger than two people laid end to end, so after is friendly greeting, Dave says he's lost inside this maze he's created. This rubs on Annie, so she tiredly goes to take a shower. When she returns Dave is still in the box. Dave needs help, which comes in the form of his best friend Gordon (Adam Busch: LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER [TV], URGE, ALTERED CARBON [TV], FRANK, HYPOCHONDRIAC, ALLEGORIA).

After Gordon fully surveys the situation he tells Annie,

"You know how he gets all fired up over something but never finishes it? Well at least he did that."

Annie wonders if Dave is losing his mind. Gordon isn't qualified to make that judgement. So he invites some more people. Soon the living room is filled with folks surrounding the boxes and, even though Dave warns them not to come in, that it's dangerous, we wouldn't have a movie if they didn't.

That's where the crazy factor gets kicked into overdrive.

With every room we enter we dive ever deeper into Dave's insanity (?) and the disbelief of his friends who have to accept it what they are going through at face value because - There It Is!

However, in the midst of all of this exploring and trying to find Dave, it takes a while for the group to understand just how dangerous this maze is, until that too is There It Is!

Gordon: "Did she just die or turn into a craft project?"

The nutso factor of DAVE MADE A MAZE is all the more believable (with that suspension of disbelief we carry into all movies) with the bohemian slacker attitude everyone takes at the obviously impossible. These are not people mugging and over-reacting at every crazy thing they see. Thus, armed with its echoes of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe and Rick and Morty, DAVE MADE A MAZE takes on a decided science fiction tone. At some point Director and CoWriter, Bill Watterson (along with cowriter, Steven Sears), takes a decidedly fantasy approach for a brief moment, as if not wanting to take himself too seriously.

But as absurd as the movie can be, it still never quite escapes the fringes of Science, veering right back to the hypothetical and theoretical landscape of various fringe science concepts including The Observer Effect, until I wasn't sure which leg Watterson was trying to pull first.

Pretty much everyone involved in this movie is a die-hard "arty" filmmaker over a commercial one. They tend toward short movie projects over feature film and if you recognize any of them its likely because you occassionally dip a toe into arthouse cinema.

Possibly the most successful of all of them is actor John Urbaniak (THE VENTURE BROS.), though you're unlikely to recognize him from his nearly 200 roles as the titles are largely obscure and his parts were usually brief. John plays douchebag "Documentary" film director, Harry, who injects himself into Dave and Annie's story, immediately tries to control everything, from actions to how the main protagonists feel about what's happening, even how they express their feelings.

Dave: "Argh! Everyone are assholes!"
Harry: "Is."
Dave: "Everyone is assholes! No, that doesn't sound right."

But the moment Harry puts himself into a position of responsibility for what he's trying to lead, he backs off, mumbling, "I'm only documenting."

Another stand-out is actor Stephanie Allynne, who plays both Brynn and the chillingly chatty, What Brynn Becomes (!).

"High-Five!"

Full of fun, foibles, and an awful lot of heart, the thought and care that went into making DAVE MADE A MAZE means it holds up great in repeat viewings.

Five Shriek Girls.