Not often, but every once in a while I get a screener offered to me out of the blue. Most of the time it’s porn, so I write a thank you letter and say, “I’m sorry. I appreciate the offer, but we do not review porn at DVD In My Pants.” They say thank you and offer me a similar film the following month.

However, a diamond in the rough does come to me sometimes. Sometimes, I get something awesome that I never expected to have more than a mild interest in. This happened when I was sent Jimmywork, a lowest-of-low-budget Canadian indie film which marks the directorial debut of Simon Suavé and has not two, but three laurel leaves on its cover to show-off its festival circuit street cred. I was initially hesitant to get started with the build up of pretension that I was failing to prepare myself for, but I decided to pop it in as I folded my laundry and –

I was stunned. 

For those of you who don’t know, which I imagine is most people, Jimmywork tells the story of a man named Jimmy (James G. Weber). Jimmy’s nearing fifty, is both an alcoholic and a pothead, of questionable morality, unemployed, relatively shady and unkempt. The best comparison I can offer is the barfly that haunts nearly every sports bar in the U.S. on a daily basis to the point they become a cornerstone of the establishment. A fascinating creature who has plenty to say and often says it with convincing authority when in all actuality you realize that they probably don’t know 90% of what they are talking about. They sell themselves as hard individuals but will pussy out of a fight if one starts, even when it’s themselves who started it and – if they get drunk enough – will wallow in self-pity about accomplishments that were near-missed and opportunities lost. This is Jimmy. But Jimmy wants to do something to get out of his rut.

Remembering back to when he was younger and played around with his father’s Super-8 camera, he decides, quite on a whim, that he wants to get back into film. But with no money or experience, Jimmy decides that the best thing for him to do is “fake it till he makes it.” There is a huge rodeo coming to St-Tite, Quebec which gives Jimmy the idea to con the promoters into thinking that he’s a hot-shot American commercial producer looking to promote the rodeo to the Texas an Oklahoma markets. While several phone calls prove successful, Jimmy gets shut down by the unbelieving promoters when he meets with them and he has no sample work to show them. After returning home depressed at yet another failure, Jimmy is further shocked to discover his father has died and left him out of any inheritance. Calling Jimmy broke would be understating the issue. He’s in debt to his family for a ridiculous figure and hasn’t had anything resembling a career in years. Depression having turned to anger, Jimmy needs to lash out at something and decides that rodeo would be the perfect target. Rodeos sell a lot of beer, and beer makes a lot of money. It sure would suck if all that alcohol didn’t make it to the hands of the rodeo wouldn’t it?

While Jimmywork is a work of fiction, everything about the film goes out of its way to convince you otherwise. The film was shot with handheld cameras giving a jarring sense that the filmmaker simply found Jimmy interesting and wanted to follow him around and find out what made him tick. It’s this technique that helps immerse you into the film. If this were a studio film, it would almost be forced to go into the comedy realm, making the absurd into the absurdly absurd. But with the documentary style (complete with old home movies for added authenticity) really makes you feel that Jimmy and all his quirks are real. Likewise, I think some of them might be. With no prior film credits to his name, James G. Weber is probably playing a caricature of himself, bringing in real aspects of his past into the character. Watching the film twice now, I can’t believe that almost any of it was actually scripted. The dialog comes from James’ mouth so naturally that much of it had to have come from serendipitous moments of filming where he got caught in the moment telling his view on whatever he felt at that second.

Credit also needs to be given to Simon Suavé who, on his first outing as a director, accomplished a feat that very few directors can do (if they are even given the opportunity) and that is create a film which crosses genres and feelings naturally and within a very short running time. Starting with a simple “portrait of a man” format, we soon follow him into the “want to do something with my life” moment that in a normal documentary would be the triumphant moment. But when things fail to work out for Jimmy, we get to see his descent into madness and his eventual leap into crime with a caper that goes very bad, very quickly. In 81 minutes we go from learning about a man to the anatomy of a crime unfolding and its execution and the viewer can only be sucked in on the ride. The flow is so impressively natural that never once, while watching it, did I think about how ridiculous that Jimmy would continue to allow his criminal intent to be documented. That said, it’s quite believable that someone like Jimmy would have such a skewed ego, that he might see the film being made about him as important an achievement than anything he himself is capable of accomplishing.

Rare is the film that’s as uniquely fascinating as Jimmywork and I really hope that it finds an audience in the home video market. Jimmywork wins, even if Jimmy himself can’t. Fiction has never been more real.

The DVD Presentation
Jimmywork is presented in anamorphic widescreen and for something shot mostly handheld; the film is remarkably sharp and clear. The old home video footage that is used at certain times appropriately retains their vintage look which helps add to the authenticity of the characters and nuances. The audio isn’t anything spectacular. It’s a 2.0 Stereo mix, which isn’t going to rumble any speakers. This isn’t a bass blasting film though and you wouldn’t get anything more out of a 5.1 mix than you do with the standard stereo presentation. The best thing that can be said is that the audio is quite clear, and while you do hear a lot of ambient noise you never hear any defects in the track. Every sound that was recorded is preserved perfectly on DVD. English and French subtitles are available for those that require them. Overall, it’s a near-perfect way to preserve a film of this sort. Atopia should be proud.

And the Extras Are?
Epilogue – (6:28)
You know, it’s truly unnecessary, because the film tells its story, and does it well. Still, I found this epilogue, which reveals what happens to Jimmy following the events of the film, to be a fitting end and doesn’t betray the film in any way. While short, its inclusion is a perfect feature for this DVD.

Johnnywork – (56:44)
The menu describes Johnnywork as “A compilation of rough cuts, outtakes and deleted scenes.” It’s as apt a description as any. But it’s interesting that they titled this feature, because watching it is like watching a parallel film. True, there is no real narrative link from one clip to another, but most of these clips feature a lot of what I’ll only call “Jimmywisdom.” The stories that Jimmy tells in a lot of these scenes are so entertaining and real that I can’t help but wonder if some of them are from the actor’s actual history. Many of the other scenes are definitely little more than rough cuts, but much like the movie I felt carried through them. If nothing else, they are all worth watching once.

Trailer – (2:51)
A really well edited trailer that sold me better than any plot synopsis could ever have done. You can check it out here.

The Bottom LineJimmywork is a surprise in every way possible. It’s a simple story of cause and effect about a man on a downward spiral, but every turn the film makes feels absolutely natural. It’s wonderfully acted and the wandering camera adds an awesome sense of realism that most honest-to-God documentaries fail to accomplish.

If you’re looking for a slice of something different, rent or buy Jimmywork. It’s simply a great film and this DVD offers a great chance to see it with extras that only serve to enhance the film.