The Fantastic Golem Affairs Review: Burnin’ Percebes’ Otherwise Visually Stylish Absurdist Sci-Fi Comedy Misses the Mark
At one point in The Fantastic Golem Affairs (originally titled El fantástico caso del Golem), Juan (Brays Efe) types in social media saying his “best friends smashed to smithereens” and asks if “anyone had a similar experience”. That part where he mentions “smashed to smithereens” isn’t a metaphor since it literally happens. Poor Juan, a slacker who can’t believe what he witnesses on the very day, when he and his friend David (David Menéndez) are playing a game of movie-related charades on a rooftop.
The first five minutes set the absurdist tone, taking a cue from a gag from 1984’s Top Secret! where Chocolate Mousse (Eddie Tagoe) punches a German soldier off the tower, and the latter ends up shattering into pieces onto the ground below like a human-sized ceramic doll. Believe it or not, that’s exactly what the co-directors Fernando Martinez and Juan González — collectively known as Burnin’ Percebes — were inspired to make a movie out of it based on that very gag.
And so, in The Fantastic Golem Affairs, the game turns deadly after David climbs onto the roof ledge during one of his charades, and the next thing Juan knows, he sees his friend accidentally tripped over before his fate ends up like the one in Top Secret! Except that Burnin’ Percebes feels the need to amplify and repeat the smashing scene on a car in a few angles, reminding me of something straight out of a Jackie Chan movie, as if David Menéndez does his own stunt.
No doubt The Fantastic Golem Affairs gets off to a promising start as Burnin’ Percebes embraces the absurdity of the premise in their movie. David’s death is just a beginning, as it triggers a series of nuisance and even odd events that keep bugging Juan. This includes a visit from an insurance guy who holds him responsible for causing the damage to the car, a beautiful woman named Maria (Anna Castillo) who confesses she has the same experience as Juan does, and, not to mention, a pair of bikers who have been following him.
More death occurs in a bizarre way, which involves a piano falling from the sky and crushing a person like a giant, splattering tomato. The scene would become a recurring gag as the movie progresses, but whatever happens, Juan seems to remain oblivious and looking impassive throughout the movie. I get that Burnin’ Percebes is trying to aim for the deadpan humour style amidst the wildly strange occurrences, but it’s a pity that not every gag lands.
It doesn’t help either that despite its fantastical (David turns out to be a Golem of sorts!) and nonsensical setup, Burnin’ Percebes’ otherwise intriguing screenplay is surprisingly slow, even though it only runs under 100 minutes. It just meanders and slacks in places, making me wonder if the movie would have worked better as a live-action short rather than a cohesive whole in a feature-length version. I simply can’t help but feel the story circling around to the point I begin to lose interest.
From a technical perspective, The Fantastic Golem Affairs is visually stylish as Burnin’ Percebes’ choice of aesthetics reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s idiosyncratic filmmaking style — lots of carefully curated vibrant colours and long tracking shots. The movie may include scenes of a character using a smartphone and a laptop, but the overall setting feels like everyone is living in an alternate reality of a retro-modernism era, complete with fake driving scenes, while rear projections are used to mimic moving background footage. If only the story could match Burnin’ Percebes’ distinct visuals and the oddly fascinating Top Secret!-inspired setup, The Fantastic Golem Affairs would have been a great one.
