The Scenesters

(USA, 2009, 96 mins, digital video)

Wisconsin Premiere

producer: Kevin M. Brennan, Jeff Grace, Brett D. Thompson
writer: Todd Berger
cast: Sherilyn Fenn, Blaise Miller, Todd Berger, Jeff Grace, Kevin M. Brennan, James Jolly, Monika Jolly, and Suzanne May
cinematography: Helena Wei
editor: Kyle Martin
original music: Dan Houlbrook
executive producer: Eric Sherman, Christopher R. Sabin

Wallace is an independent filmmaker in Los Angeles who is obligated to take a side job to pay his bills. Since he owns a video camera, he lands a gig with the LAPD recording crime scenes. It’s there that he meets Charlie, a guy who cleans up the mess after the police have finished. Charlie’s experience in this line of work has given him an eye for clues. When Wallace learns that Charlie is connecting the dots between different murders and a serial killer might be on the loose, he starts making a film about Charlie, using the crime scenes as his movie sets. The film spoofs everything within reach: Los Angeles hipster culture, pretentious indie films, pretentious classic films, and the crime/thriller genre. The plot thickens when Charlie rekindles his relationship with Jewell, the investigative television reporter who is hot on the trail of the killer. “A genuinely suspenseful whodunit about a team of wannabe filmmakers exploiting a rash of L.A. murders targeting hipsters. While The Scenesters is definitely, if dryly, funny in its satirical take on fame-seeking indie-rock types — boosted by a literally killer soundtrack featuring real L.A. bands like The Airborne Toxic Event, whose names hold clues to the murderer’s pattern — it’s first and foremost a mystery, told through a clever blend of tense, documentary-style video and noirish black-and-white film-within-a-film.” — Sean O’Neal, avclub.com.

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