Synopsis
A part-time musician finds his life spiraling out of control when he starts receiving strange phone calls from a precocious young girl.
Obtuse Todd
2006 Directed by Matt Farley
Cast
Director
Producers
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Lighting
Composer
Releases by Date
Theatrical
-
USA
Releases by Country
USA
03 May 2006
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
More-
Matt Farley made an erotic thriller? Well, as close as he’s ever going to get.
OBTUSE TODD has all the usual trappings of Motern media productions: The songs, the goofy tone, and the great Kevin McGee (who sings in this!), but there’s also an unsettling undercurrent of darkness. It could be because the main thrust of OBTUSE TODD’s narrative is Farley being pestered by a 14-year-old girl on the phone who swears revenge after being rebuffed, but I also think it has a lot to do with Farley’s different stylistic traits as a director. His usual directorial collaborator Charles Roxburgh has a much looser hand behind the camera while Farley is more regimented in his editing and compositions, which gives…
-
The thing about Motern films is they only get better with every subsequent viewing.
-
This ultra-obscure film by Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh (Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You, Local Legends) was supposed to be festival bait, but no festivals bit, so it languished for 14 years on a hard drive. Now, Mr. Justin Decloux has rescued it from oblivion and included it as a hidden feature on the Gold Ninja Video release of Local Legends, which you can get here: goldninjavideo.com/
In his review, Justin notes that this is Matt Farley's version of an erotic thriller. There's no eroticism whatsoever, but there is a twisty, slow-burn plot that begins with Farley getting a series of mysterious phone calls from an unknown teenager. There are surreal touches, as well as a subplot involving the…
-
Join the crew again for another Don’t Let the Moterncast Get You, this time on this movie (with bonus Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 discussion).
Listen on Spotify, The Twin Geeks and other places, I’m sure.
-
-
I bought the Local Legends blu ray that this is on but don’t have a player so went to a friends house to watch on his play station. We were watching it in his living room and after a few minutes his parents came home and watched it too. It must be a very strange experience for this to be your first Motern film. They had a few laughs though. Release Druids, Druids Everywhere!
-
-
“The selling candy days are behind me now. Now I just make my money off royalties from songs about food.”
Farley/Roxburgh made a bizarre and hypnotic thrillerish comedy thing that they submitted to festivals and buried once it was rejected. It's up there with the weirdest things I've ever seen.
Starring Mr Matt Farley as the titular boy man, a quiet young insurance investigator who starts getting harassed by a 15-year old girl over the phone. Her dad - played by (legendary to anyone who vibes with these movies) Kevin McGee - shows up at Todd's house to call him a pervert, but really he just wants a musical partner to release his songs about food. Meanwhile, Todd starts selling…
-
-
When a meek young man receives a series of phone calls from an enigmatic teenager, his life spirals into disarray. The story escalates to a somewhat logical twist, but one that left me profoundly disquieted.
Were it shot with conventional production values and a cast of Indie marquee names, the marketing would emphasize how the film's twists would send couples into feverish debates on their way home akin to THE MINUS MAN's marketing.
I legitimately want to option this script and get it remade in India, because their industry would slay at milking the melodrama that emerges in this low-key Motern masterpiece.
-
-
The Motern filmography often feels like it’s operating outside standard rules and ways of making a movie. Obtuse Todd doesn’t feel that way. It meets the way movies are made, designed for festivals with more typical plotting and structure, and then carries on doing the Motern thing anyway on top of all that. As always, it’s a delight how little our friends can conform, even when they’re trying to. What we’re left with is another very funny entry about friends hanging out and singing songs, as a kind of fore-bearer to a staff favorite. We also watched Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) and discuss clip-show sequels, the space in horror for fun absurdities, and why it might resonate more than the first entry. Don’t let the Santa get you!
Listen to Don’t Let the Moterncast Get You on The Twin Geeks and your favorite podcatcher. Join our fellow Motern Media fans and chat on Discord.