Institute History
Description
Just when you thought it was safe to come back to Sundance, Crispin Hellion Glover returns with the second installment of a trilogy that began at Sundance 2005 with What Is It? Glover's latest film is another mind-bending foray into unexplored cinematic territory that will challenge expectations and defy conventions. The screenwriter, Steven C. Stewart, is also the star (Stewart had cerebral palsy and passed away shortly after filming).
The film begins in a nursing home with our "hero" lying helpless on the floor. While he is being carried back to his bed, his world shifts to a place where his charm is recognized and the ladies swoon, enabling some torrid sexual conquests. But years of frustration at being an outcast have planted a dark and evil seed. Soon his actions take a morbid turn.
Glover uses his visionary cinematic skills to bring to life the graphically explicit psychosexual fantasy world of a man shunned by women and society but who lusts after intimacy, acceptance, and long hair. The beauty of his direction is his ability to create an atmosphere that is strange and unsettling, yet sensual and erotic. Through Stewart's caustic fantasy life, Glover subverts the conventional devices of a suspense film and creates an audacious statement on the conundrum of sexual politics from an outsider's perspective.