2011 In Review 22: Triangle

[Gizmog]

Love it or hate it, SDHawk's "Triangle" was the most thought provoking entry of the Film Festival. Where the other entries went for lighthearted or absurdist fare, "Triangle" looks seriously at the homophobic history of RedMaverickZero's Mr. Triangle, who in some ways is the Crash Bandicoot of the OHR. Using a nearly monochrome, hand-drawn aesthetic and a wordless third act, the tone is very reminscent of a kooky French art film and like a kooky French art film it isn't necessarily an easy thing to watch. That's part of the reason I think this is a great OHR movie.

The plot follows Mr. Triangle and Mr. Purple as they work to rid the city of homosexuals. It also flashes back to how Mr. Triangle and Mr. Purple met, and learned together as agents of the homo-homocidal agenda. They utilize everything from guns and bombs to fisticuffs in their quest before realizing that it might be harder than they first thought. Even though we only see one victim of this mission, it's still pretty disturbing.

I guess to fully understand "Triangle", you have to understand the history of Mr. Triangle. The first 5 Mr. Triangle games, the "slimy Adventure" series, predominantly featured Mr. Triangle wandering from town to town beating up "faggots" for.. whatever reasons came to mind. Every textbox featured profanity whether it needed to be profane or not. Hawk's parody is right on the money in that department. The only problem with "Triangle" is timing: in the 8 years since the last "slimy Adventure" RedMaverickZero did a lot of growing up and the Mr. Triangle character grew up with him. All of us did and said things when we were younger that we regret now. It's not fair for my mom and SDHawk to keep bringing them up. I can't even imagine how mortified I would be if someone made a movie called "No Ingles" to remind everyone of the stupid ways I tried to be "offensive" and "edgy".

As "Wandering Hamster" continues to fade somewhat in relevance, it's inevitable that certain people, characters and games will be iconified within the community. While I agree with what seems to be Hawk's point, that we need to make sure our unofficial mascots have a respectable history (we don't really want a newbie to think "Mr. Triangle's slimy Adventure" is something to gun for), we also don't want newbies to think they have to worry about their first games forever. People change over time, they improve and mature into wiser people and for the most part RMZ has done that. He's not perfect, but none of us are.

Even given the questionable tone, "Triangle" is a masterfully directed movie that proves its point, no matter how late that point might be. I think SDHawk made the right decision not to use voice acting. Without having to rely on the skill of a voice actor, the text can speak for itself. At the point where text would lose meaning "Triangle" quits using text, letting the actions and gestures of the characters do all the talking. This adds a lot of emotional power to the composition and it's that emotional power that makes this my favorite movie of the contest.

It's not the kind of movie you can really recommend someone watch for a good time, but if you want to see the more serious side of the OHR spectrum, give "Triangle" a look.

Score: 9/10
2011 Score (Per May 26th): 70/100

Part of Gomey's 2011 Year In Review
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