All the RAGE

All the RAGE

My roommate came back from work the other afternoon, having spent most of her time on Facebook, talking about the ads along the side of the page and how they were telling her to lose weight before her wedding. As a joke, I checked out what ads appear on my page, just to see how ridiculous they were, and lo and behold, one sucked me right in.

"Like Eddie Izzard?" it said. "Yes, yes I do!" I said. And I clicked. I have become a mindless slave to the internet.

What it directed me to was Rage, the first film to be distributed over mobile phones. Why phones? Because it ties in with the plot - a college student is interviewing people behind-the-scenes at a New York fashion show and filming the interviews on his phone. It's also available online. I was intrigued. I started with a clip of Eddie Izzard's part, since that's what got my attention in the first place, and ended up fascinated and in love.

The film is released in episode format, going day-by-day through the fashion show, ultimately spanning a week with a new episodes released Mondays and Thursdays averaging about 20 minutes long. While typically, in film, you watch everything happen, with Rage, all you know is what you are literally told by the characters in the interviews, and what's hinted at by the unseen student filming, Michelangelo. You get a sense of what he thinks of everything based on the typing in the very beginning of each episode - for example, the first one starts with "I meet some important people," but he erases "important" and just says "people." But you never see him, or hear him. You can tell he's asking questions and you can tell what they are based on the answers, but that's it. It's almost as if you are Michelangelo.

You're essentially watching fictional interviews with everyone from models to designers to the guy who delivers the pizza. It doesn't sound horribly intriguing, but it is. The characters and plot are well-developed enough to keep it interesting. The actual story itself isn't new, but the way it's told is different.

Admittedly, most of the first part is boring. It's mostly exposition. You meet people, hear the basics of what's going on, and get an idea of what the characters are like. Part two is where things get interesting, with the sudden death of a model and the way the characters react to it, the feeling of despair and chaos in the moments after, even though we never actually see the death or even meet the model herself. Not to mention the fact that things start to get shady when PR - of course - tries to instruct Michelangelo on who he can and can't talk to, and makes sure the interviews are to be used to a college project only.

The cast is pretty impressive, with a combination of some pretty famous faces mixed with others that aren't as well-known, and all of them do an excellent job. The most interesting one, at least so far, is easily Jude Law as the model Minx. Jude Law, basically in drag, and he looks beautiful. Other stars include Diane Wiest as a manager, Steve Buscemi as a photographer, Judi Dench as a writer/critic, Eddie Izzard as a mogul, and John Leguizamo as his body guard. Most of them aren't introduced until part two.

I'm anxious to see how everything pans out. I'm very intrigued. I definitely recommend checking it out when you have a chance here, especially if you have a spare 20 minutes or are looking for something new. Episodes 1 and 2 are up now. Three should be coming Monday. The site also features a trailer, and clips of some of the characters.