Marty Jackitansky (Joshua Burge) might seem like a caricature: a slovenly heavy-metal and horror-movie fan who eats disgusting junk food and barely punches the clock at his temp job at a mortgage company somewhere in the featureless Midwest. His most treasured possession is a Freddy Kruger-like videogame glove that he has retrofitted with knifes.
But Marty has real existential problems, most of them rooted in anger, paranoia and lack of cash. And despite being a slacker, Marty displays a surprising amount of creativity, moxie and flair for surviving on thin margins. The film's cold open, in which Marty closes his checking account, is an awesome exercise in petty scamming. But after Marty steals some checks from work, things spiral out of control, eventually forcing him to go on the run.
This dark indie comedy is written and directed by Joel Potrykus, who also co-stars as Marty's not-so-cool nerdy co-worker and sometime roommate. Buzzard walks a fine line, depicting Marty as both an unpredictable angry monster and a sympathetic lost boy of sorts. Burge, who has a fantastic "blank" face capable of silently conveying many emotions, does good work bringing Marty to life. They don't give out awards for this kind of stuff, but if ever there were one for "epic single-take spaghetti-eating scene," Buzzard is a lock.
