CineVegas Review: ‘Impolex’

A young man, wide-eyed, gazes into open flames. Nervous, curious, afraid. The expression on his face encompasses many potential emotions, but only he knows what’s going through his mind at that moment. This is the opening scene of ‘Impolex’. The scene tosses us directly into the moment and sets the tone. Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, this odd little movie appears frighteningly complex on the surface but given the sincere attention it deserves, the movie becomes insightful in ways that can only be interpreted by each viewer in their own way.

‘Impolex’ follows a young enlisted man at the end of WWII who is assigned the mission of collecting unexploded German explosive remnants. The soldier wanders through a dense forest obsessively seeking out his objectives. He quickly locates the second-to-last V2 rocket made by the Germans, but finds himself compelled to locate the last rocket as well. This journey takes him through an expedition of his mind, reflecting deliriously on past relationships, philosophical ramblings and the meaning of things personal to his own life.

The young military man encounters multiple characters born of fantasy and the subconscious. A bearded hippie wearing an eye patch spouting radical theories, an emotionally bipolar intimate companion from his past and a prisoner recently escaped from his confines and intent on being confrontational with the soldier all add their curious insights to ‘Impolex’. The story itself is unconventionally linear, except for one scene in which we are abruptly thrown into another time and place.

The soldier, presumably after his return from serving overseas, is dressed in a suit and sits on a park bench conversing and reminiscing with a fair-skinned woman with which he had been intimate. The conversation is disproportionately one-sided and the young actress made quite an impression on me with her lengthy monologue. The moment paints a calm intensity, drawn out by the lingering close-up on the actress, who delivers a respectable performance.

Personally, I found his encounters with the talking octopus to be some of the more rewarding portions of the story. I couldn’t help but be reminded by these scenes of Bill Lee conversing with the creatures of ‘Naked Lunch’ as interpreted by David Cronenberg, while at the same time several of the humorous scenes in ‘Impolex’ contain a hint of influence from the dry humor of Monty Python. It’s a peculiar combination to say the least, but one I found strangely enjoyable.

Perhaps I am reading to much into the story, but this is what makes ‘Impolex’ uniquely valuable and worth the effort of viewing. The playwright Samuel Beckett holds a special spot in my heart amongst writers I adore. The young soldier repeatedly draws from his supply of fresh bananas to nourish himself, particularly during his silent wanderings and moments of rest as he stares off into the woods, thoughts running in his mind that we shall never know. These moments in the film reminded me of Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape.

Whether these are the true intentions we can only guess, but it once again illustrates the type of storytelling the director has undertaken. Attempting to understand and convey the meaning of a film like ‘Impolex’ can be equated to the futile effort of trying to explain a work of modern abstract art with definite certainty to another person. One individual’s interpretation will differ immensely from another’s and to argue the point is, by definition pointless.

The movie is clearly shot on a low budget, or perhaps only shot with that appearance in mind. The majority of the story takes place in the forest, following the young soldier around with a hand-held camera, grainy and unsteady, perhaps like the soldier’s state of mind, whom frequently lapses into moments of blank paralysis during his conversations. Despite lacking fanciful camera work or expensive effects, the film succeeds because of it’s content. ‘Impolex’ is a thinking person’s film, a joy ride for the casual philosopher and an ode to the theater of the absurd.