Fantasia Film Festival 2020 Screening –  Expanding on his 2017 short movie of the same name, writer/director Quinn Armstrong’s, Survival Skills (2020), is a bumpy ridealong that begins deceptively lighthearted and ends on a most serious and gruesome tone. It shines an uneasy light on the ethics of law enforcement as well as the tragic issue of domestic violence through the brilliantly creative lens of a spoof film, showing off Armstrong’s directorial style and personal sensibilities. Fourth wall breaking, changing from a video to film style mid-movie, and the attention given to the narrative and developing each character culminated in a stylishly imaginative and entertaining movie.

This movie will be right up the alley of viewers who appreciate nostalgic 1990s movies. Great attention to detail was paid to the look of the film — the home-video format was perfectly blurry, and the familiar crackle-sound and static lines all helped to establish the time period without the characters having to say a word. I wouldn’t say that it is Lynchian visually, but narratively speaking, the black and blue underbelly of a middle-class community is sliced open and served in a VHS format — the juxtaposition of wholesomeness with violence as well as the Americana aesthetic seemed to pay homage to David Lynch. The 1990s look is mixed with the wholesomeness of the 1950s, as Jim acts as though he is in Leave It to Beaver but his righteousness is tested against the bitter realities of late-century America.

As someone who still owns and uses a VCR, Survival Skills hit an especially nostalgic note with me. Presented as if it is a training video, the film begins with our narrator, Stacy Keach (American History X, Titus), introducing Officer Jim (Vayu O’Donnell), a new police officer who is to learn what it truly means to be a policeman. Paired with a hard-nosed, jaded partner, Jim’s first call is to respond to a domestic disturbance report at the home of Mark (Bradford Farwell) and Leah (Emily Chisholm). When the couple and their daughter insist that no abuse has occurred, Jim leaves apprehensively, believing he should do more to help the obviously battered women. Against the advice of his partner, his father, and even the narrator, Jim strays further and further away from police protocol in order to save them, and he soon learns a fatal lesson — no good deed goes unpunished.

The movie starts out like a training video, creating Jim as if he is an avatar, and presenting the events as if they are training exercises. Once training is over, the movie suddenly changes to a cinematic look rather than a VHS tape look, silently signifying the transition of the character. It is in this brief cinematic-look time that the horrors of this movie play out, showing an all too real knife altercation that left my stomach in tense knots while watching. Quinn Armstrong directed this movie excellently — from start to finish the movie is a weird and realistically dark mind trip that feels fresh and original on all fronts. The changing cinematography styles, the direction on forcing certain acting styles to create a multitude of different character dynamics, and the interesting narrative itself of a rookie cop in a downward spiral due to his goodness rather than the old cliche of a rookie cop falling to corruption made Survival Skills an unexpectedly enthralling watch.

Something like a dark version of The Sims video game, Survival Skills creates a character, places him in a cookie-cutter home with a cookie-cutting wife, and from there, his aspirations and desires take him off course on an unexpected exercise in reconciling his duty with his moral obligation. The character arch for the protagonist going from almost robotic to finding his true self — which unfortunately makes him a sort of “Scatman Caruthers” character in the end — was great to watch. Vayu O’Donnell as Jim well-deserves his First Prize Lead Actor award at Rhode Island International Film Festival for this role, and also, the well-seasoned Stacy Keach is not to be forgotten, whose omnipotent narrator character was both the straight man and comedic relief for this film. As tragic as it is bitingly humorous, Survival Skills is one to watch.

MOVIE RATING — 7 out of 10