The Magician 2005

I was a huge fan of the TV show Mr. Inbetween, so when I learned that Scott Ryan, the writer/star, had created and portrayed the character of Ray Shoesmith 13 years prior in a faux-documentary, I knew that I had to track it down and give it a watch. Ultimately, I think the movie contains glimpses of the future brilliance of Mr. Inbetween, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it on its own. It's a very low budget film that is essentially comprised of a handful of short stories that are intercut with each other and with stand alone tarantino-esque quirky dialogue exchanges. The budget is a tad distracting, with dark scenes (the opening in particular) rendering as mostly indistinguishable blobs of pixels. That said, the dialogue is full of dark humor and a few of the vignettes tell interesting stories. I'd say it's definitely worth a watch if you enjoyed Mr. Inbetween.

On a more meta level, I'm very interested in the story behind how a tiny indie film from 2005 ends up being turned into a high quality FX show 13 years later. Especially considering that the star/creator has done no other film work in the meantime. I don't know what number cruncher/decision maker took that risk, but I would think they deserve some serious credit. Of course, so does Scott Ryan, who not only created this great character, but also did a terrific job portraying them, giving them a unique look, a signature smile, and the perfect reserved yet confident attitude.