I am Here….Now

A being that is probably God goes to Earth and is very disappointed in humanity.

Plot Summary

In the Nevada desert, which is littered with doll heads for some reason, a godlike being appears and takes the form of a robed man with a circuit board glued to his chest. This being is not very pleased with humanity because they’re not following the path he set them out on.

“Other planets that I have created in the solar system are doing very well. They respect their species and the natural environment.” We then see a stock footage clip of a dolphin pod. “Why are the humans failing?” He asks, picking up a skull, “I have given them everything. I have given them everything. Everything.”

The being comes across a man and a woman in a pickup truck drinking beer and doing drugs, and uses his ability to freeze time to steal the man’s clothes. It’s like that scene in The Terminator when Arnold says, “Your clothes. Give them to me now,” only with no words and half the comedy.

The Twins

Elsewhere, at some sort of energy plant, a couple green energy advocates chat outside about how great their job is and how they’re saving the environment. Their coworker arrives and spoils the mood by telling them they are fired due to lack of corporate and government interests. Nice of her to give them the bad news when they’re outside and (presumably) on their break.

A couple scenes later, one of the women who was fired (Cindy) tells her twin sister Amber how desperate she is without a job and wondering how she’ll be able to look after her baby. Amber suggests becoming a stripper. Okay.

Bad Guys

The twins go to what I’m calling Bad Guy HQ: it’s an area with crumbling houses that may be a junkyard. Both the corrupt corporate officials and criminal drug addict types like to hang out here. The twin sisters arrive and say they’re willing to do whatever for whomever for however much; they end up going over to a corporate businessman’s house to entertain him. The ensuing scene pretty much involves the man watching the twins use his swimming pool and lasts about 15 minutes. Skip.

Later, this businessman meets with his corrupt corporate friends as they arrange for someone to have an “unfortunate accident.” We cut back to the desert, camera pointed at the ground, and a trickle of blood drips down. “No, don’t cut off my ear!” A severed ear drops down. “No, don’t cut off my hand!” A severed hand drops down. I was hoping this would continue with more body parts, a la the Black Knight in Monty Python, but it seems the removal of these two body parts (then the man’s death?) was enough the constitute an “unfortunate accident.”

We sure haven’t seen the godlike being in awhile, what’s he up to? Oh, he’s out in the Las Vegas strip helping an old man in a wheelchair. Good for him. The being waves his hand and restores the wheelchair man’s youth so he can hook up with Cindy. “Go with her,” says the being. “Live a full, long and healthy, happy life. Be a family.” That was kinda weird.

We check in with Amber and find that she too got laid off from her sustainable energy job. I’m confused. So both sisters had jobs in the same field? Amber decides to become a “full time hooker or stripper,” while her equally unemployed boyfriend (our first time seeing him) decides to become a car thief.

We get a (dream?) scene of the being sleeping with Amber, then move on back to Bad Guy HQ. Amber’s boyfriend shows up and tries to join the gang there, but disrespects them and gets his throat slit. Amber, who was also hanging out here at the time, screams and vomits (twice!) when she sees his body.

Immediately afterwards, the denizens of Bad Guy HQ learn that an undercover police officer has infiltrated their group. They mercilessly punch his face and cut off his finger (ouch!), but the being shows up and finally intervenes. He freezes time to allow the officer to escape, then crucifies all the corrupt corporate guys on crosses we saw earlier in the desert. About time! But couldn’t he have done this before the officer lost his finger? Or even before Amber’s boyfriend got killed?

The being heads back out to the desert, deciding to give humanity one last chance to redeem itself, and heads back into the sky, leaving Amber behind.

Thoughts

Like Double Down, this is a vanity film. Having the director/writer/producer cast himself as God was a giveaway. The writing and acting was weak, and the story was a bit unfocused and confusing. It felt like the film was trying to be both a regular film and an experimental art film, but failed at finding an equilibrium.

The women in this film had notoriously bad characterizations – especially Amber, whose solution to everything is to become a stripper. And her relationship, or whatever you want to call it, with the being came out of nowhere and raises a lot of questions. I also found it really strange how a clip from the “Amber and being” love scene showed up early in the film before Amber was even introduced. Nonlinear narrative is nothing new…but there has to be a point!

Bonus

Here’s a Q&A with Neil Breen after a screening of this film: http://vimeo.com/21280075