The Paragon
At the same time, “The Paragon,” Michael Duignan’s creation, is, to say the least, mad in its creation in the sense of time space fiction akin to what one would associate with classic B grade sci-fi and fantasy feature films the likes of “Krull”, “Flash Gordon” and “Masters of the Universe” where cringeworthingly ridiculous action, silly far fetched plots, and outlandishly styled costumes were phenomena that combined together to make an absolutely laughably outrageous piece of work bringing an exceptionally bad kind of beauty.
Even though ‘The Paragon’ is Duignan’s first feature work, it is evident that he has a long history in the New Zealand industry, directing local television, commercials, documentaries and music videos. Duignan has directed such shows as, to name a few, “Power Rangers” and it is obvious that some of that series’ ridiculousness has sunk deep into his own film which he also wrote, directed, shot, edited, produced and pretty much everything else.
His no budget film which is entirely shot in Auckland borders on the childish nostalgia of everyday intergalactic space opera as well as their low budget cult status, all the film needed in order to be showcased at Fantasia Montreal North American television for the first time were $25000, the main events of the festival audience were associated with its budget. Not for the first time, she reminded us how much it costs dollars. But without accounting for the inflation, that is the buying price of “Bad Taste” Peter Jackson’s first film. New Zealand Film Commission eventually ploughed almost ten times that to get Jackson’s film finished, a privilege that Duignan did not enjoy.
Duignan’s experience of scrambling to collect the funds from close friends and family and then shooting the whole chunk of ’The Paragon’ within two weeks so as not to overburden any person involved depicts his relative lack of finances as something that is essential to the farcical nature of the film and focuses on outrageous costume design and special effects, which appear to be low-budget, to give a practical reality to the sci-fi confusion of his script. With this, Duignan also puts the events in a giddy yet dry humor, self deprecating humor that will easily resonate with fans of Kiwi comedian John Clarke that of gradually undermining silly earnestness to injecting it into deadpan faces.
The film “The Paragon” revolves around Dutch (Benedict Wall), who is a former tennis champion who is stuck in the past after a hit and run crash that made him go ‘under’ for six minutes after which a good samaritan revived him and then a year later he hasn’t moved on, but what Dutch himself is probably most disturbed by is the fact that he cannot yet walk on his own, a pain that probably hurts him even more than the literal injury is his anger and disappointment towards his wife (Jessica Grace Smith).
Seeking the silver Toyota Corolla that hit him and stirred his crazed need for revenge, Dutch goes to great lengths enlisting a hooded psychic, Lyra (Florence Noble) and practicing telelocation, the ability to find an object.
It’s just one power out of several in Lyra’s arsenal which includes amongst others precognition, telepathy, telekinesis, and even astral projection which are just another few classes in the school gymnasium provided they finish before volleyballs practice but this hardly matters for Dutch. To be completely fair, Lyra is also preoccupied with a mission To fetch the crystal prism best defining her inner strength before her brother Haxan (Jonny Brugh) finds it and destroys it in his quest for multiversal conquest. Not that one way or the other matters to Dutch all that much.
The film carries along sufficiently thanks to the performances of its lead actors, who effortlessly embody their characters’ strange intergalactic coupling that fits the film’s silly and low key atmosphere. (To which Lyra asks Dutch, ‘Have you ever died?’, and he says, ‘Yeah once, yes, just a bit.’) This is not to suggest of Wall and Noble that you wouldn’t be engaged in their ‘mind-bending’ activities. On the contrary, if Wall decides to become the unwilling champion of the universe who does not give a toss about the concept of redemption, let alone the one who is the master of the space time, Noble’s tongue in cheek style of no nonsense humor effectively works to diffuse his self indulging personality Quite literally in a hilarious scne where the character of Lyra asks Dutch to think of the empties between his thoughts but soon herself interjects into his over active monologue because he fails to control it. Gradually, they begin to act as partners who are in great comedic terms but always remain considerate to each other even as they enjoy trash talking over each other.
Almost every element in “The Paragon” works, as does Uriel Duignan the very definition of an omnivorous artist who has the need to constantly plug her creative ideas into that base which is all around and if it is all achieved within one piece of art all the better Whimsy such as spaghetti, lollipops, xylophones, figurines promote the necessary anxiety and occasionally give it a tango which is like the absolute chore to watch. In ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (but lower somewhat, praise the Lord) and culminating it in seeing a butt plug and bible side by side which the characters hardly reacted to.
Alongside Haxan are sinister plastic wrapped stab happy clones approaching Dutch with the knife ready and stand by the titular character Haxan, a parody of a ham that is incredibly sexy, whose interpretor Brugh (his character deacon in “What We Do In the Shadows” or in a nutty “Mega Time Squad”) uses a pouting mouth and wiggling eyebrows.
It’s hard to dislike a picture this goofy when its made with such honest conviction, and Duignan’s unabashed appropriation of the ’80s is if anything more true than its iterations done on far extravagant expenses, not least thanks to an un-apologetically over the top synth score from musician Lucola Bang manages to go all in without overstaying its welcome, and the film’s stylized application of color filters, changes in the frame rate, and other cost effective, more artsy, evocative and fantastical methods to achieve the feel of mind-bending psychedelia. At the heart of the word ‘paragon’, however, there is an ululating sweetness which gently bathes its creatives gorewashed alternate timeline, allowing quirky cast of characters to fuse with their sense of self more intensely yet without the real drastic changes. With the help of such endearing pastiche, and despite being nuts and low risk, this is an original which pulls an awesome and a completely unheard of trick from its many simple sleeves.
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