Sell Out

A Malaysian film, you may have trouble finding this one at the video store. Lately it seems a lot of films pick up as it goes along, you have stick it out.
Sell Out tells the stories of TV Host Rafflesia Pong and product designer Eric Tan, both of whom work for FONY Conglomerate.  Yes, that's a play on SONY, and that's just a hint of the points that the film makes as this dark comedy musical satirizes the very things in our every day life including Art House films, reality tv, corporate greed (paraphrasing synopsis here). 

Rafflesia hosts a show about art, but sadly has few viewers, but when her show is threatened by the takeover of reality tv, the uncanny timing of her ex-boyfriend's on camera death during an interview inspires her to take a whacky approach to save her job - filming people in their dying moments in to death.  What's even whackier is what she goes through to find her subjects, and even spending hours upon hours waiting for someone to die, even pondering how to speed them their moment of death.

Eric has a crush on Rafflesia, but until their stories come together, Eric is trying to sell his bosses the 8 in 1 soybean machine. It makes everything soy from soy milk to soy sauce, soy paste etc.  The problem with it though, it doesn't break down and Eric doesn't have the integrity to build it as requested to break down just after the warranty expires.This leads to an exorcism of his dreamer self, and we spend the rest of the film with two Eric's.

The stories really come together when Rafflesia needs a dying person and Eric has someone he can supply.  One thing that did bug me a bit was the use of various languages, though this is possibly a portrayal of the language-scape.  While a fair amount is in English, the subtitles through out can lend a double meaning, something else the filmmaker wants to address.  Watch out for these, there are many and fun to catch.  Sell Out says a lot about the world we live in.  Be prepared to recognize, to chuckle and to sing.  This is after all a musical too, inviting audience participation at one point. You'll see when that happens. 

For those in Vancouver, this plays once more at Vancity Theatre February 24 at 820pm

3/5