Grade: B

Director: Rachel Grubb

Writers: Rachel Grubb, Josh Lesuer

Cast: Rachel Grubb, Brooke Lemke, Derek Dirlam,  Mike Rylander, Mathew Feeney, Heather Amos

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” — Stephen King

Why Am I in a Box? is a genre-mixing film commenting on artists. There’s been many films on artists but not quite like Why Am I in a Box?. Instead of making the usual pretentious film about artists, first time director Rachel Grubb decides instead to study the artist with a dark sense of humor. Grubb doesn’t leave the film contained within the boundaries of the “Art”, the film enters the world of kidnappings, live action brainstorming, severed fingers, foul-mouthed homeless people, “An Octopus in my Pocket” (don’t ask), and a character completely oblivious that his girlfriend has been gone for days despite the couple sharing an apartment.

Frequently rejected artist and nicotine fit throwing Paige (Brooke Lemke) kidnaps Ellen (Rachel Grubb), an artist that is forced into moonlighting in a glass ceiling job cubicle due to her deadbeat boyfriend, fellow artist Ted (Mike Rylander). Paige wants Ellen to write the story she couldn’t and will even chain Ellen into a box and feed her nothing but “the starving artist delight”, Ramen Noodles until she does.Paige quickly lets Ellen know if she doesn’t write something good she will die.

Ellen  first writes a bland romantic story without the bite of any kind of reality. Art can’t be forced and as much as Paige wants to, her box cannot be Ellen’s inspiration alone. While her hand is being forced Ellen needs to be proactive to finish any work that is worth reading. Ellen finds her muse in Celia. Celia is inside Ellen’s head and allows the audience to take a look inside Ellen’s brainstorming and ideas. These scenes are as ambitious as they are eccentric and give the film a surrealistic idiosyncratic edge.

Ted is Ellen’s good natured, hunky, dim-witted boyfriend. Ted likes to sleep late, has a solid diet of mostly ketchup and doesn’t notice Ellen is gone the first 3 days she’s gone (“We get hungry at different times”). When he does, he gets the help of Detective Lydecker (Mathew Feeney). Detective Lydecker ends up questioning Jeremy(Derek Dirlam). Jeremy has a crush on Ellen and wants to be an artist of all trades.  We hear Jeremy talk about making documentaries and writing stories but not actually filming or putting the pen to the paper . We see Jeremy paint… he just does not paint well. He works at the video store and most likely wants to make the clerk to “Maverick Director” leap like Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith.

The film is unique in that it combines humor with a dark edge and some truly whimsical scenes and is drenched with aspiration from start to finish. Most of it works, especially the commentary on artists. We as an audience are reminded those that can do, do and those that are lazy just talk about it (or want to write stories that mirror The Little Mermaid, again, don’t ask). This film is a pretty tasty treat and I would recommend it as a main dish with a side of Ramen Noodles.