Poor
Emmett Kelly must be rolling in his grave. The beloved circus performer would
be heartsick to see how clowns are now linked to horror movies, creepy
flash-mobs, and weird lurking incidents. This clown deliberately set out to be
provocative, but he may very well have inspired less thoughtful imitators. The
viral sensation tells his story—sort of—in Michael Beach Nichols’ documentary Wrinkles the Clown, which releases today
on DVD.
Maybe
you saw the YouTube video of Wrinkles sliding out of a trundle drawer under a
young girl’s bed and then ominously standing over her. You will definitely see
it several times before Nichols’ 75-minute film is through. Scaring kids became
Wrinkles’ thing. In fact, he advertised his services as a tool for parental
discipline. Basically, he would frighten them straight. Apparently, there was a
demand for this in South Florida (living up to its rep for strangeness). As
more videos of his handiwork dropped on YouTube, his notoriety spread.
Whatever
you think of Wrinkles (he actually has some rather thoughtful and nuanced
things to say), he is clearly a self-styled trickster with no malice in his
heart, rather than a psychopath or even a nasty practical joker. On the other
hand, some subsequent reports of real-life evil clown sightings had a truly
menacing vibe.
It
is easy to understand why Nichols was fascinated with Wrinkles, but the
resulting film is decidedly uneven and often rather dull. There are an awful
lot of YouTube clips in Wrinkles’ doc, but far too many of them do not even
feature Wrinkles. Instead they feature kids calling Wrinkles, talking about
Wrinkles, or making their own Wrinkles-inspired videos. Granted, working with
online videos presents some cinematic challenges, but Rodney Ascher’s The Nightmare presented that kind of
material in ways that were clever and completely absorbing. Not so for poor
Wrinkles.
As
a result, the first forty minutes or so are unfocused and pretty dull. At that
point, the film takes a surprise turn and starts to get interesting, but it is
hard to not resent everything that came before, because it really just wasted
our time. There is no question Wrinkles’ analysis of his own legend is the most
intriguing part of the film. That is why a fictional interlude in which
Wrinkles abducts a small child seems so out of place and unfair to the titular
clown himself.
A
filmmaker like Ascher could probably make an amazing film about Wrinkles.
Unfortunately, the film Nichols made is poorly constructed, terribly edited,
and features several highly dubious aesthetic choices. Let’s be clear, this is
totally a judgement on the filmmaking and not on the subject. Not recommended, Wrinkles the Clown releases today on
DVD.
