‘Stanleyville’ Review: The Search for Meaning – and a Habanero-Orange SUV – Leads to Strange Places
variety.comMichael Nordine authorWhat would you do for a habanero-orange compact sport utility vehicle? Blowing as many balloons as possible in one minute seems like an easy enough task, but what about fetching a human earlobe?
These are the questions at the heart of “Stanleyville,” or at least they seem to be. In reality, director Maxwell McCabe-Lokos’ debut feature uses the bizarre “platinum-level exclusive contest” at its center as a metaphor for self-actualization — even if achieving it requires more than a little self-destruction along the way.
With a firm commitment to its alluringly offbeat premise and a grounding lead performance from Susanne Wuest, this indie oddity is an enjoyable descent into the absurd despite an apparent lack of interest in answering most of the questions it raises.
If a bird colliding with a window in the opening moments isn’t enough to suggest that something strange is afoot, the fact that “The Lord of the Flies” can be seen on a television in the very next scene ought to do the trick.
Read more on variety.com
