Minimalist look at ‘Madness and Genius’

Alicia Robinson

From its opening in a bare, generic fast food-type establishment to

its somewhat abrupt ending, “Madness and Genius” is a bleak but

thoughtful depiction of three alienated men whose lives intersect at

a university.

In his first feature film, director Ryan Eslinger delivers an

interesting premise -- plans for a machine that could wipe out human

diseases with sonic waves -- and wraps it in character studies of a

professor, who invented the machine but never tried to build it, and

two students who learn of the plans.

Fred Donovan, the professor, with his bushy white beard and

sometimes incomprehensible mumblings, encompasses both the madness

and the genius of the movie’s title. In public he tries to talk to

children as if they were colleagues, discussing atomic theories and

the drawings of M.C. Escher, but he can’t relate to adults and reacts

with suspicion and hostility to students and other faculty members.

But he’s vulnerable -- realizing the effects of his work on the

Manhattan Project drove him mad -- and Jordan, a coldly manipulative

student who cheats to maintain his grades because he remembers but

doesn’t understand everything he reads, exploits his vulnerability.

After asking for Donovan’s help on a thesis project, Jordan finds

the plans for the sonic frequency machine. We don’t see the plans for

the lifesaving machine come to fruition, but the movie ultimately

isn’t about the machine so much as a microcosmic picture of why such

an invention probably never would be built -- because of people’s

misguided impulses, selfishness and paranoia.

Shot in black and white, the movie is fairly honest and unaffected

despite sometimes labored acting. But the film is sometimes hampered

by its low budget. The lighting is poor and the sound volume is low,

so sometimes it’s hard to see and hear what’s going on.

And while I say I’m all for low-budget independent films, I

sometimes missed the blandishments of major studios’ air-whipped,

over-produced features, like a musical score with more than just a

piano.

“Madness and Genius” is a thought-provoking first feature that’s

only peripherally harmed by its minimalism. The film will screen at

8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Edwards Island 3.