"Followers," a new independent about fraternity hazing, played to an unimpressed student audience in Cook Auditorium Saturday night as part of the 2000 Senior Symposium and a promotional tour.
The film, a lackluster attempt by rookie writer-director Jonathan M. Flicker at exposing racism within the context of fraternity pledge period, had sporadic glints of potential, but awful acting, juvenile editing and a predictable plot definitively overshadow any substantial message the director intended to convey.
"Followers" is the story of three college freshman -- two white, one black -- who want to join the "best fraternity on campus" at fictional Harrington College outside New York City.
The story takes a darker turn when the black friend is not accepted into the also-fictional Kappa Psi Lambda fraternity and the white friends are forced to target him in racially-motivated hazing incidents.
Flicker, a 1993 graduate of Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, said he based the plot on news reports of an incident at Rider College in New Jersey during his senior year at Muhlenberg.
Though the prospects of an enjoyable and possibly moving flick might be extracted from this synopsis, don't be fooled. "Followers" does not deserve any of the praise it has receieved.
How the movie beat 124 other films for the Spirit of Independents Award at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival is a mystery. The only admirable aspects of the film are the intentions and the fact that it was made on a budget of less than $50,000.
The film stars the relatively unknown actor Sam Trammell as nave Nebraskan white boy John Dietrich, who is torn between loyalty to his fraternity and his friendship with the wealthy, black city kid Steve Trayer, played by Eddie Robinson.
Robinson, a senior at New York University in real life, provided respectable comic relief, albeit stereotypically Eddie Murphy-like, in the beginning of the film but failed to accomplish any sort of audience empathy when the plot entered its "dramatic" second half as the scorned Trayer.
Indeed, the best acting in "Followers" comes from a young African-American actress who played Trayer's little sister. Her heartfelt supporting performance gave merit to scenes that potentially could have been destroyed by Robinson.
Trammell was miserably stiff in his role as the central protagonist. The audience laughed at Trammell's acting in his most emotional scenes.
But you can't completely blame him -- with hackneyed lines such as "How come I sold my soul?" and "I hope you can forgive me because I can never forgive myself," --Trammel shouldn't be expelled from the Screen Actors Guild just yet.
Trammel's role was also burdened by inane and superfluous voiceover monologues that undermined the intelligence of the audience by over-explaining his every action.
"If I had acted on my feelings instead of my ambition, none of this would have happened," Trammel's character laments to the audience.
Thanks for making sure we understood the "moral of the story," Mr. Flicker; us dumb college kids would have never figured it out for ourselves.
"Followers" is so filled with stereotypes and lame humor that it's reminiscent of a bad cross between "Saved by the Bell" and one of those videos they show to eighth-grade health classes.
The soundtrack did nothing to strengthen the film. The music was either noticeably foreshadowing during scenes intended to be dramatic or humorously generic during the lighter situations.
Jessica Prunell, of HBO's "The Babysitters Club" fame, plays Cynthia Gordon, the femme fatale with an annoying righteous streak.
Prunell seems to have some acting ability when the boys meet her, but all hope is lost when the movie reaches what we'll call "The Morning After" scene. (It is horrendous enough to deserve a name.)
After a night of "meaningful" lovemaking, Prunell's character wakes to the realization that she is four hours late taking her birth control pill. Surprise, surprise -- she can't find the pills.
The frantic scene that ensues does provide comic relief, however unintended, as the ridiculously nave John Dietrich proposes that his new lover get an abortion.
The kicker is later in the film when Prunell truly exemplifies her acting prowess. Seated on her bed, wearing a powder blue satin bath robe, Prunell, as Cynthia, confides the details of her attempted raping to Dietrich, who is more concerned about his girlfriend's infidelity than her traumatic experience.
Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the clich lines coupled with the bad acting drew laughter from the audience as the scene disintegrated into hilarity.
Flicker told the audience in a post-showing question and answer session that he has rewritten this scene several times and will be different when the film is released October 13.
He also said, "The important first step is bringing these issues up for discussion."
Though the intentions may have been good, the film fails in its stereotypical portrayal of college life.
The members of the fraternity depicted in the movie are only seen participating in activities such as drinking and singing drinking songs, or smoking weed and eating goldfish from the tank.
The stock supporting characters, such as the everybody-does-what-I-say-because-I'm-the-football-team-captain-fraternity-president-Adonis played by a strikingly old Mark Dobies (Dr. Noah Chase of "Guiding Light") and his fawning followers (played by real Rutgers College frat boys), also contributed to the unfortunate film.
Flicker also told the audience, "After each screening, people definitely go out thinking."
We were thinking, all right -- thinking about how happy we were that we didn't pay for our tickets.
