Indie Genius

I'm not sure how I first heard of the movie called "Sexy Evil Genius," but the moment I heard that title, I knew I had to see it.

The film earns some serious geek cred from the people involved. The cast includes Seth Green (of Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and more), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck of Battlestar Galactica), Harold Perrineau (of Lost and the two Matrix sequels), Michelle Trachtenberg (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl), and William Baldwin (perhaps not famous for any one particularly geeky thing, but hey, one of the better Baldwin brothers). The director and one of the producers are a team from the TV series The Dead Zone, and for good measure, they bring along with them actor Anthony Michael Hall for a brief cameo role.

So, all that is in play before you even get to the plot itself. But the plot is equally strange and interesting. Sexy Evil Genius is the story of a trio who meets in a bar by the machinations of their shared ex-girlfriend, the manipulative title character who is bringing them together for the first time for unknown reasons of her own.

This is indie film making, an inexpensive but distinctive movie. It actually plays out very much like it was written first as a one-act stage play, opened up slightly with brief flashbacks in the adaptation to another medium. Still, the emphasis stays on sharply drawn characters and fun, clever dialogue. And as things spiral downward in the movie's brisk 90 minutes, things get more and more interesting.

That said, the movie sets up a situation that's fairly hard to pay off in a satisfying way. So it's no surprise that the ending disappoints just a bit. Worse, it's an ending lamely teased in a flash-forward opening scene -- basically, a cliche "hours earlier" beginning (though mercifully, without the actual on screen caption).

Still, this is one case where a weak ending (and one tired plot device) doesn't bring the movie down far enough for me not to recommend it. It's just too much fun by that point to be spoiled. So if you're in the mood for a dialogue driven bit of quirkiness starring a handful of recognizable TV sci-fi faces, put Sexy Evil Genius on your list. I give it a B+.