Z/Web

This claims to be a few years old, but IMDB says it was released recently. I saw it on Showtime and found it interesting. It’s not a great film, though it wants to be more than it is, but the cast is very good (lots of not-so-famous people such as one of the geeks on The Big Bang Theory and Topher, from Dollhouse). Olivia Wilde steals the show as the love interest. She is amazing. The story is a good premise but poorly executed. It involves a “genius” college kid whose notebook of “cool ideas” (philosophical and metaphysical ramblings) is stolen (by said love interest). He freaks out and tries to track it down, somehow finding himself in the process. Unfortunately the “tracking the book down” part isn’t difficult, nor does the lost book take that great of a journey, so it’s not that interesting of a process. There are a handful of cool moments: my favorite was when Bickford, focused on finding his book, rejects some weirdo in the quad trying to give him a free copy of a “mind-opening” book… that of course is his book the guy found! Towards the end there’s revelation about Bickford and the book that seems to come out of nowhere and feels artificial and tacked on, but still helps everything make more sense. Overall, I liked the idea of the a genius kid whose thoughts are so potent that everyone who reads them has mind-orgasms and wants to steal his book, but like most stories that involve supposed genius, we’re never really privy to what’s in the notebook, so the whole thing feels mysterious and contrived. Ultimately, it’s just another lonely geek who gets the hot girl story, when it could have been something deeper. Worth watching if you’re a fan of the cast or “deep” philosophy.