Doppelgänger Releasing.
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In a chaotically absurd world, the human mind can be forgiven for trying to impose some sort of order.
Take the new film Mr. K, starring Crispin Glover – best known for his work as George McFly in Back to the Future – as an itinerant magician who checks into an isolated hotel and finds himself unable to check out, as time, space and reality itself seem to impossibly fold in on themselves. What follows is a psychological drama operating on nightmare logic as Glover’s character loses his luggage, his clothes and, perhaps, any grasp on a comprehensible reality, as he continues to search for his ever-elusive exit.
“The thing is, when approaching it as an actor you’re thinking about, ‘What is the logic for the character?’ It seemed apparent that because the world was a bit unusual that it was important that it was not reacted to too much – that even if it was a bit askew, that there was a norm to the world, and then my character is attempting to make a certain sense out of it, which the character does do,” Glover told The Pop Break.
The film “explores the way we try to mold reality into something we can control and understand,” as writer and director Tallulah H. Schwab explained in a statement. In its own way, the journey Glover’s character goes on is strangely universal, speaking to a time when so many are trying to find reason in the midst of absurdity.
Mr. K, down to its title, owes a clear debt to the work of the Prague-born writer Franz Kafka. Glover, who has owned property in the Czech Republic for more than 20 years, reflected on his connection to the writer and his highly influential worldview.
“This (film) is perhaps influenced by Kafka as opposed to being an adaptation of Kafka, but when I’m the Czech Republic, I’ve owned my property there for more than 20 years and I’ve experienced culture shock, I still experience culture shock, because I was just there a few days ago, and I deal with things regularly that are differentiated in the culture and I can see still there are things that seem like what Kafka was relating to that are still a thorough through in Czech culture today,” Glover said. “But it also speaks to a universality of Kafka’s writing, because people use the word Kafka-esque a lot, he definitely captured something.
“In terms of Mr. K and today and Kafka and today, you can extrude them in different ways but yes that is to say there is a lot of confusion going on today in culture and society and I think a lot of people feel it’s a distressing time.”
Doppelgänger Releasing will unveil Mr. K in New York City at the IFC Center on October 8, and at the Music Box Theater in Chicago on October 24, followed by a nationwide rollout. It’s one of two films Glover is debuting this month; No! You’re Wrong. Or: Spooky Action at a Distance, screens 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 2 at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, part of an evening that includes the singular experience known as Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slideshow Version 3 as well as a question-and-answer session and a book signing. The film, which Glover filmed at his property in the Czech Republic and co-stars Glover’s father, Bruce Glover, then plays New York City’s IFC Center Oct. 10 to 16.
“I’ve been working on this for so, so long, really too long, so I’m very glad to be putting it out,” Glover said. “It’s the first time my father and I have ever acted in a film together and it was developed for that to happen but there’s a lot of things in the film, and I’m careful when I talk about the film as not to say too much.”
