Nerd-Sploitation Weekend continues

Glib Reviews of New Releases

NerdFest Day 2

Continuing my Nerd-Sploitation festival with the almost traditional tale of of the out of control Game Master. Earlier examples of this sort of the tiny Nerdsploitation genre includes Gamers, (and it’s sequel) or any of those movies that I don't watch, that involve video games.

Zero Charisma

- Directed by Katie Graham, Andrew Matthews

Is a surprising solid portrayal of the aging Nerd, or Fan. The main character is in many ways a painful reminder of what its like to be so obsessed with a game (or any fantasy) that it ruins the rest of your life. 

Scott The GM in question ( Sam Eidson), may in fact be a triggering presence for many gamers, or ex gamers. Be warned, the interplay of the players and GM struggling through a ridiculously overlong campaign is more realistic than the things the players do ‘in game.’ People being talked over, outside noise causing havoc with the flow of the game, the omnipresence of snacks. All that stuff was bang on in portraying what it can be like in a game session. If there was a flaw in the gameplay stuff, it was there wasn’t an extended scene of great game play, team work, and communal story telling, which to pull off that long a campaign, you would need to have some of.

The main character doesn’t really learn much throughout his travails trying to navigate the world ‘out of game.’ He is very difficult to empathize with at first, but eventually you find out he’s a mess like everyone else, in the same ways, he just has only his imagination and the ability to always say the wrong thing as his armour. That’s a thin suit to wear every day, trust me. 

Zero Charisma is not a lighthearted affair at all, like ‘Knights Of Badassdom,’ it revels instead of in realized fantasy, and horror; but in the horrors of Reality, and the hollowness of Fantasy. It’s a solid little Indie drama that has some sharp wit, decent satire, and stellar performances from very human looking folk. 

The end is bittersweet at best, kind of sad, but very human, maybe even humane.

8.00043 Hipster Faux Nerds who infest your TableTop RPG with their stories of Skiing with Joss Whedon that one time, outta 10