In the world of What Makes a Billy, nothing cool happens. Ever. A brilliant but downtrodden computer science professor (pictured below) frustrated by the inability to connect with his students decides to create the virtual mind of an underachiever named Billy, in an effort to better understand what motivates the idiots that comprise his student body.
What Professor Wisp comes to realize during the painfully tedious process of engineering raw idiocy into a conscious machine, is that the special brand of stupidity evinced by most 20-something college kids is a hell of a lot harder to emulate than he anticipated. This underwhelming conclusion is realized painstakingly by Wisp and by anyone watching this horrible flick, since the majority of the film's scenes are stationary shots of Wisps' hunched frame desperately hashing out the algorithm of dullness.
In short, What Makes a Billy? is the realest sci-fi film ever made. Many critics have assailed the movie for its utterly uninspired portrayal of events. Others have praised it as a bold window into the boredom-soaked reality we all live in. The reality we try to escape every time we nestle up in front of the silver screen.
Regardless of the mixed reactions, everyone should watch this movie as a kind of social courtesy, like checking oneself in the morning mirror.
What you call "boring," I call "art." And what I call "art" is any static shot in a movie that reveals less information (in more time) than it would take Michael Bay to do in a single exchange of dialogue or a Nickelback-scored montage.
ReplyDeleteSeveral scenes in What Makes a Billy? stuck out to me, precisely because...they didn't stick out. I'd explain what I mean by this, but I'm afraid it's a case of "you either get it or you don't." And, frankly, Jim I don't think you got it.