Big Gold Brick recounts the story of fledgling writer Samuel Liston and his experiences with Floyd Deveraux, the enigmatic, middle-aged father of two who enlists Samuel to write his biography. But the circumstances that lead up to this arrangement in the first place are quite astonishing-and efforts to write the biography are quickly stymied by ensuing chaos in this darkly comedic, genre-bending film.
Big Gold Brick is an American dark comedy film, written and directed by Brian Petsos, in his directorial debut. It stars Emory Cohen, Andy Garcia, Megan Fox, Lucy Hale, Oscar Isaac, Shiloh Fernandez and Frederick Schmidt. Principal photography began in May 2019, in Toronto, Canada. The film is scheduled to be released on February 25, 2022.
Film Review for Big Gold Brick
I’d like to think that, in my time occupying a morsel of space on this pale blue dot we call home, I’ve developed the ability to follow the structure of a film from start to finish; granted, some may be more confusing than others, some may be an incomprehensible mess, some may hardly be worthy of being called movies. Whatever the case may be, I pride myself on what many would barely consider a skill to mostly decipher what’s happening in most films, no matter how perplexing or under the direction of Tommy Wiseau.
I can now safely say that I’ve sadly found a film that can be added to the small list of those I can’t begin to figure out in any way, shape, or form, that being a new project known as “Big Gold Brick.”
You may notice I used the word “project,” as “Big Gold Brick” plays not like a traditional film per se but rather an odd amalgamation of seven or eight short films crudely spliced together, and not in a more reasonable back-to-back manner but rather like the equivalent of an editor dipping their hands into a bucket of discarded film stock and haphazardly assembling something from whatever was removed from within.
Emory Cohen, probably best known for his portrayal of Homer on the still-underrated Netflix series “The OA,” stars as Sam Liston, an author of some esteem who recounts, through flashback, the story of how he met Andy Garcia‘s Floyd Deveraux after the latter strikes the former with his car and for some unusual reason concludes that Liston, of all people, might be the perfect individual to craft his biography.
Along the way, Liston finds himself intertwined with Deveraux’s family, which includes trophy/attorney wife Jacqueline (Megan Fox), the possibility that said family might be living in a haunted house, potential superpowers that Liston might possess, a high school basketball team in which Deveraux has been involved in a feud with their head coach and a bizarre third act appearance by a mysteriously-accented Oscar Isaac that acts less like the movie-saving masterstroke it could’ve been and instead reeks of the foul stench that is an actor presumably owing a director a massive favor.
I’m sure I could say more, but without a more detailed Wikipedia entry to help fill in the blanks, it’s impossible to do as such, and no amount of scene replays or subtitles to help untangle the puzzle that is “Big Gold Brick” are in any way helpful in figuring out what exactly it is that’s playing out onscreen. It also doesn’t help that, from a cinematography standpoint, certain scenes evoke the feel of “Crows Have Eyes“-esque B-movie horror, especially the opening car crash, usually before pivoting to moments of Cohen’s Liston sobbing uncontrollably; said breakdowns materialize seemingly every few minutes, and while I’m certain there’s a character trait that can be attributed to Liston’s mood swings, it’s sadly buried under an avalanche of hackneyed writing and half-hearted attempts by the entire cast to do what they can.
The writing deserves more than a few instances of the raised eyebrow, again calling into question the presumed fact that “Big Gold Brick” is nothing more than an experiment in taking a handful of unrelated films and seeing what would happen if they all came together in a manner that’s less peanut butter & chocolate and more, say, “Big Gold Brick.”
Sometimes, such a process can work if placed in the capable hands of better filmmakers-the Coen brothers, for example, have made a career of this in such noteworthy efforts as “The Big Lebowski” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?“. However, when given to a relative unknown like director/writer Brian Petsos, the resulting product ultimately makes about as much sense as whatever Oscar Isaac may be doing with his voice or eyepatch, or Andy Garcia in a role that had me surprised it was such a cinema vet in said role thanks to the wonders of facial hair, or Megan Fox’s brief scenes when she might either be attempting to seduce Liston as well as implying a possible affair with her assistant in another series of detours that ultimately couldn’t be more unnecessary if they tried.
Speaking of Isaac, his big third act appearance apparently ties into yet another subplot wherein Deveraux owes money to Isaac and his cliché-looking team of black-suited enforcers. However, it could very well be something else entirely. All I know is that any wish I may have had to explore the possibility that ghosts may inhabit Deveraux’s home doesn’t go any further than a few lines of dialogue and a bizarre sequence of Liston apparently manifesting a small cloud from which he’s able to produce the most adorable bolt of lightning ever captured on film does not belong within the confines of “Big Gold Brick” no matter how much I may have begged for this square peg of a plotline to be explored further.
In going over what I’ve written, I find myself somehow knowing even less than I did during my viewing and in the unenviable spot of being unable to respond when asked at a dinner party, “Nice to meet you. Do you happen to know the premise of 2022’s ‘Big Gold Brick’?” It could be viewed as a passionate stab at tackling multiple genres or perhaps an unfinished cut hastily rushed out after three years of production. Still, no matter how one tries to unpack the curious contents of “Big Gold Brick,” they’ll likely be unable to find much of anything outside of an unintelligible failure.
Big Gold Brick (2022)
Directed by: Brian Petsos
Starring: Emory Cohen, Andy Garcia, Megan Fox, Lucy Hale, Oscar Isaac, Shiloh Fernandez, Frederick Schmidt, Leonidas Castrounis, Rebecca Amzallag, Steven Swadling, Jas Dhanda, Tim Rock
Screenplay by: Brian Petsos
Production Design by: Justin Ludwig
Cinematography by: Daniel Katz
Film Editing by: Bryan Gaynor
Costume Design by: Muska Zurmati
Set Decoration by: Chareese McLaughlin
Art Direction by: Dialla Kawar
Music by: Justin Hori
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films, Arclight Films
Release Date: February 25, 2022
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