Ellington

Attend "Daddy Cool" Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Millsaps College, Ford Academic Complex, room 215. Free. 974-1299.

In that special moment when dreams become surreal nightmares is the realm where "Daddy Cool" resides. What hope is there for a sadistic Daddy of a mad scientist turned TV evangelist, with a penchant for crimes against nature? Daughter Roxanne, who began her life as a boy, obsesses through her innermost dementia, in search of personal identity, apart from her dysfunctional father. What if your psychiatrist's only recommendation is murder? DadaDahhhhhhh! (insert scary '50s sci-fi horror organ music here).

Roxanne consults the visions in her TV, and is haunted by her past, in this narrative dark comedy. "Daddy Cool" begins with the visually surreal and fresh stunning wit of a low budget "Big Fish," "Raising Arizona," "Kentucky Fried Movie," or the '50s sci-fi retro horror of "I Was A Teenagee Werewolf." The silly, offbeat, overactive, imaginary and subversive quirkiness gives way to signs of impending apocalypse. I won't even mention the werewolves!

The Millsaps Southern Circuit Free Indie Film Series will bring the eagerly awaited "Daddy Cool" and its writer, producer and director Brady Lewis, to the Ford Academic Recital Hall on Monday, Feb. 23. Lewis is the director of the Pittsburgh Filmmakers film school and will answer questions immediately after the screening.

"Daddy Cool" is beautiful in its Kafka-like metamorphic undertaking and is a fantastic journey into experimental narrative. It searches for change, fate and even one's personal relationship with God. It expands some of the boundaries of what independent filmmaking today can explore. Like previous films touring on the South Carolina Arts Commission circuit, there are a few lagging moments without your usual Hollywood climax, but they are easily overlooked by the film's kaleidoscopic existential bombardment in utero. Independent film and all the arts are saved by or thrive on your level of community support.