SLIFF 2016 Review – THE FITZROY

THE FITZROY screens Monday, Nov. 7 at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Producers producers James Heath and Liam Garvo will be in attendance. Ticket information can be found HERE.

A delightfully black comedy, THE FITZROY is set in an alternative post-apocalyptic 1950s in which the world is covered in poisonous gas. The last place available to take a traditional seaside holiday is the Fitzroy, a hotel located in a derelict submarine beached just off the coast of England. Bernard — the hotel’s bellboy, cook, maintenance man, and general dogsbody — faces a constant battle to keep the decaying hotel airtight and afloat. But when he falls in love with a murderous guest, Bernard’s challenges multiply, and he becomes entangled in a web of lies, backstabbing, and chaos. As Bernard struggles to hide the femme fatale’s murders from the other guests and suspicious authorities, his world literally begins to sink around him.

Review of THE FITZROY by Stephen Tronicek

Why is it that the bellboys always end up in horrible situations? Seriously between THE FITZROY and FOUR ROOMS, these guys have been caught on fire and hung, and if that’s not an endorsement I’m not sure what is. All joking aside Four Rooms might actually be the best movie to compare The Fitzroy too in that in the scheme of things it’s a consistently entertaining, unnerving and hilarious effort, that often finds itself being a blast of a film.

After a brief introduction to the protagonist, THE FITZROY blasts into its credit sequence which impresses with an innovative and humorous animated sequence that establishes the ground rules of the world that The Fitzroy inhabits. The world has been covered in deadly gas, and a handful of people are now living in The Fitzroy, a submarine hotel which is kept running by the hapless bellboy, Bernard. What follows is cannibalism, murder and plenty of laughs to go with each.

What becomes clear from the outset is that writer/director Andrew Harmer seems most inspired by the work of Wes Anderson as the quirky, but honest tone of the film, as well as the exquisitely detailed set of the submarine, calls to mind Anderson’s signature aesthetic. The design of THE FITZROY is eye-popping and the colors it employs inspiring. For an apocalypse movie, this film is colorful as they come, luscious in its yellows and reds. The “postcard” frames that Anderson is synonymous with also appear, as the film often frames the closed quarters of the Fitzroy with an aura of symmetry that brings out the blocky quirkiness of the film, but also allows for a well-placed jarring feeling for when the film goes off the rails.

Boy does it too. THE FITZROY works because as detailed and well thought out as the production is, that detail serves to highlight the insanity of the characters and the structure of the film. There’s a sense of order to the filmmaking that slowly deteriorates as the character’s themselves do, that restrains the more well, unrestrained, sections of the plot. Cannibalism, murder, lust and a gas apocalypse sounds like a good time, but it also sounds like a sloppy overstuffed time. Thankfully, The Fitzroy focusses its shock humor and comes out with a slew of horrifying jokes, a slew of great reactions and a slew of small jokey details sprinkled around.

THE FITZROY is an odd but pristinely crafted black comedy. It should be seen for both its inspired visuals and a firm grasp of the balance needed to make it’s twisted dark comedy actually work. The Fitzroy is one to see this festival.