Writer-director Wynne has a simple enough set-up to explore these ideas. A wanna-be rapper and an older man covered in white makeup playing a vampire are set against a green screen stage for a music video. This video is meant to draw up visuals of the sci-fi, dystopian nature. Something seems off from the start when, after the filming, the older guy asks for more money for his contribution. Jake Squire is Steve, the bearded young director who is uncertain of his work and so is his collaborator Jessica (Jacqueline Kramer), who is hard to please. The older guy (Gregory Cohen), who turns out to be the Master, a hotel owner, takes the drugged-out, almost permanently stoned rapper to his hotel. After a terse exchange between the two with the Master telling the rapper, Aidan (Rafael Moreira), that he's untalented and his work means nothing, I thought for sure we were entering some horror movie scenario. What does the Master intend to do with the rapper at the Winnedumah hotel? Why is there a green fluorescent cross that keeps getting dismantled? Why does the Master's daughter always eavesdrop on her father? And what are we to gather from Jessica's Catholic school dress and making faces at her reflection in the mirror?
"The Trick" will not answer any questions nor does it raise any. It is a film meant to draw us from our own reality and question it - usually a desert setting helps to invoke such cerebral thoughts of the meaning of our existence. There are philosophical questions and ruminations regarding righteousness and I would have loved a deeper insight into such complex thoughts. For a 77-minute film, though, there is plenty of story and there are supporting characters who are not insipid but rather intelligent, and some humorous moments between Jessica and Aidan (Aidan's supposed music is truly terrible). Though the relationship between Steve and his girlfriend leaves a lot to be desired, "The Trick" keeps us on our cerebral toes with some deft handling of green screen imagery and an enveloping sound design that truly hooks you in and startles you. This is a film you can revisit and still be unsure on how it all coalesces. The very definition of trippy delusions.
