#playdurizm

Playdurizm, directed by Gem Deger and written by Morris Stuttard, is a haunting fever dream where reality and fantasy collide in unique and visually stunning ways, while telling a dark and uncomfortable story. 

Playdurizm follows Demir (Gem Deger) teenager who enters into a fantasy world with his movie idol, played by Austin Chunn. The film explores how Demir ended up in this world and explores his complex feelings about living in this new reality as he learns more and more about how he got there and what this world signifies for him. 

Unique Visual Style and Surrealism

Playdurizm tells a dark and devastating story with a unique visual style, showing the dangers hidden behind glitzy fantasies. The moments in Playdurizm which work the best capture the dissonance between fantasy and reality through moments of horror. When Demir’s fantasy world is at its brightest or most technicolor, the darkest of questions hide just beneath the surface. 

Playdurizm is about a teenager inside a fantasy world, shown through glitches and dreamy color schemes, and the directing, production design, and cinematography work wonders to capture this aspect of the plot. As a viewer, we feel thrown into this fantasy world, zapped into a world that feels both futuristic and retro. 

The visual style and surrealism of the fantasy world remind me of the absurd surrealism and life hidden under layers in Casper Kelly’s short films Final Deployment 4: Queen Battle Walkthrough and Too Many Cooks. Like these surreal short films, Playdurizm captures the surrealism of dreams and creates a unique experience. 

One of my favorite moments in the film expresses a unique sense of the world. We see a movie trailer representing what we have been seeing, but without Demir’s presence. This moment pushes the film in a wonderfully absurd direction, while leading to more questions about this unraveling mystery of Demir’s world. 

Visually, Playdurizm is captivating and perfectly represents the film’s questions about reality and obsession. The visual representations of the edges of this fantasy world add a hauntingly beautiful quality to the film, and allow the devastating moments of the story to have a truly lasting emotional impact and be difficult to watch, especially surrounded by production design mixing dark kitsch with Barbie’s dreamhouse. 

Playdurizm utilizes neon colors–especially pink, purple, and blue–creating a world that feels like a piece of art. When Demir first wakes up in this unfamiliar bedroom, living with Andrew (Austin Chunn) and Drew (Issy Stewart), he has no memories of this living arrangement, but feels a pull toward Andrew and a desire to have a more intimate relationship with the other man. 

The floor of the bedroom is covered in blue-purple balloons, creating an environment that feels like a party–bright, inviting, and a little bit surreal. 

As the film progresses, the colors grow darker, the pinks and purples still present, but as colorful lights reflecting off the darkness by which they are surrounded. Playdurizm utilizes this trend of neon to show how Demir’s fantasy grows darker and more violent as the film progresses. 

Originality of Story

Playdurizm is a wholly unique experience tackling extremely difficult topics with mystery and surrealism befitting a fantasy. The fantastical aspects of Playdurizm constantly have a feeling that something dark and difficult to watch is just under the surface. 

As I watched, I felt Demir's uneasiness. We know there is darkness under every surface and we see glimpses into the dark reality of the story as these glitches occur. 

Playdurizm affectionately expresses its influences while creating a completely unique experience. As I watched this film, I was constantly in awe, unsure what would happen next and how far the film would go and how the character’s would react to every development. 

Playdurizm’s tone feels lighthearted and glitzy, creating a palpable dissonance with the film’s darker themes, expressing the action of trying to cover up our worst memories through returning to the familiar and getting lost inside our fantasies.

Playdurizm brought to mind the wonderful Horror Express focused Creepshow episode Night of the Living Late Show, which showed a fan putting himself in the world of his favorite movie. Playdurizm wonderfully explores this idea as a means to escape the trauma of real life, creating a blend of visual styles and tones, highlighting the darkness as well as the false happiness of our fantasies. 

Performances

Playdurizm’s dark surrealism works wonderfully to create a unique world that feels both dangerous and beautiful. In addition to a captivating visual style, the performances in Playdurizm allow us to fall even further into this glitchy fantasy world. 

The film’s director Gem Deger stars as Demir and plays the part perfectly, exploring the innocence of this teenager caught in a challenging and violent fantasy world. 

Deger’s performance highlight’s Demir’s inquisitive personality and innocence while navigating the complexities of desire and obsession. 

Austin Chunn’s performance as Andrew highlights a unique time and style in film, bringing to mind the Cronenberg and De Palma films from which this film draws inspiration. 

Conclusion 

Playdurizm is a unique and surreal exploration of traumatic experiences following a complex queer character played wonderfully by Gem Deger, the film’s director. Playdurizm thrives in its performances, captivating visual style, and meta moments.

"Join me... to you"

88 min.

Country: Czech Republic

Genre: Fantasy, Horror

Language: English

When a teenager finds himself caught in a glitchy-glitzy reality with his onscreen male idol, he does all he can to be possessed by this man and ignore the violent clues of how he got there.