Camera Shy

Larry Coyle (Nicolas Wright) is a man with a plan. A city councillor, he’s working hand in glove with developer-tycoon Bob Sterling (Gerard Plunkett) to facilitate a new casino project. The proposed site is an environmental hazard, but for Larry that’s a detail that can be swept under the rug. He’s a politician willing to compromise for the sake of the bigger picture—a familiar type, of course.

Mark Sawers’s satire of political corruption comes with an extra charge of craziness, as we discover in the second scene: reclining in a motel room after some extramarital recreation, Larry looks in the mirror and sees a cameraman taping him. How did this guy get in the room? Turns out he’s everywhere: in Larry’s office as he crafts his shady deals, in his kitchen as he slyly manipulates his family and, ultimately, in his psychiatrist’s office as he seeks help for his mysterious plight. This film is a fable of the avenging conscience; its cleverness lies in its rendering of this classic trope in terms of the basics of moviemaking. The director positions himself as the cameraman, and poor Larry comes to believe that his life is a fictional contrivance—the very movie we’re watching. An arrogant optimist to the end, he thinks he can manipulate the movie; the fun lies in watching him being proven wrong.