Mike Bilandic

I just searched for his name in the sub and was surprised to see he has never been mentioned here before! He's somewhat a part of the RSP cultural milieu -- he appears in Dasha's Scary of the 61st as well as a former guest on TAFS premium podcast, with his episode being almost universally hailed as the single worst and most boring episode (so far).

I just watched a couple of his movies and, honestly, was extremely pleasantly surprised!

Jobe'z World (2019) -- the first of his micro-to-no-budget flicks I have seen is a delightfully 90s story of Jobe (the non-biblical spelling), a roller-blading failson who earns his living being a high-end drug mule. A dose of a Michael Jackson-esque medicine cocktail he delivers to his favorite actor is what kicks off the movie's plot, which is very simple but achieves what it sets out to do, in the short span of 67 minutes. Some dialogue is just straight up bad, and the movie is pretty uneven, but it had me laughing out loud in some scenes, like when Jobe picks his mom up from JFK and listens to her monologue about this new artist she discovered, Bono, and all the charity he does. In general, despite having a late 10s YouTube video a'la World Peace or something vibe, it is quite an exciting rare endeavor into non-Jewish NYC neuroticism.

Hellaware (2013), the second movie I decided to watch is much stronger. It tells a tale as old as time -- one of a 20-something Brooklynite having troubles navigating the post-graduation life in the art scene of the city. He wants to do something raw and authentic and real, unlike what his peers are showing in galeries, and does so by hanging out, and documenting, a group of white teenagers from rural Delaware. Young Torture Killaz, the subjects of his work, are wigger boys rapping about chopping off dicks, doing downers, and partying in their parents basement. Though the group was clearly inspired by the Insane Clown Posse, it predicted a whole ass wave of edgy white boys with soundcloud accounts like SuicideBoys or Ghostemane. The story is a classic one, of middle-class voyeurism and art-as-exploitation. Though it does not necessarily add much to the conversation, it is an endearing satire on 2010s indie kids, a sort of a time capsule of a scene which was so recent, yet so different from today's scene.

Any Bilandic fans here? Any haters?