When I saw the title Zero Charisma on the ‘Net, it definitely made me laugh. It’s a new film about geeks that at least one review says hits the nail on the head pretty hard.
And the title alone is pretty cool. Only thing is, if it’s too close to home it could be too painful for us geeks to watch.
So what exactly is Zero Charisma? First of all, it’s a movie that debuted at the South By Southwest festival (SXSW), and the title is obviously in reference to what a lot of geeks possess. Second, this is a comedy about a geek obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons style games.
We first learned about this movie from Variety which wrote, “Not since Trekkie fantasy Free Enterprise has a homespun geeksploitation comedy plunged so deep into the heart of nerd culture.” The film “simultaneously skewers and celebrates Dungeons and Dragons-style tabletop gaming through the eyes of a temperamental Game Master who desperately needs to grow up and move out of grandma’s house.”
Variety feels this movie will have primarily a niche audience, but also wrote that it’s “executed broadly enough to delight more than just D&D enthusiasts.” The main geek of the movie is played by Sam Eidson, and Variety critic Peter Debruge feels that “much of the pic’s appeal owes” to Eidson’s performance.
Considering I’ve never been a big D&D fan, I also didn’t realize that the title refers to the notion that charisma is important in a role playing game. As the wiki entry for D&D notes, “Charisma is the measure of a character’s combine physical attractiveness, persuasiveness and personal magnetism,” which Eidson and his geek brethren clearly don’t have.
So will this movie be Spinal Tap for geeks? In other words, will it be a hilariously right on target movie that will probably be too close to home for a lot of geeks? If so, I’m sure it will be painful to watch at first, and once we get over the pain we’ll laugh at ourselves silly. After all, we geeks do have a sense of humor and can indeed laugh at ourselves, as long as the humor directed towards us isn’t too harsh.
