CREEPY CRISPIN
BY MATTHEW ROSS
CRISPIN GLOVER IN WHAT IS IT? PHOTO: ROCKY SCHENCK
There hasn’t been, nor will there ever be, another Crispin Glover. As an actor, he has appeared in more than 40 films. And while he has only occasionally found parts worthy of the electric weirdness he brings to the table, when those choice roles have been thrown his way, Glover has delivered unforgettable, even iconic performances. Cases in point: George McFly in Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future (1985), Layne in Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge (1986), Cousin Dell in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990), Andy Warhol in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), Arlo in Milos Forman’s The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).
When not collecting a studio paycheck, Glover has situated himself firmly on the fringes of the avant-garde. He’s recorded a record consisting of passges from his books, original and cover songs; published four art books and, whenever possible, subverted his role as a junket-friendly public figure. In 1987, Glover cemented his cult status when he appeared on David Letterman in platform boots and proceeded to launch a kick at Dave’s head. (The clip is available on YouTube if you’re interested.) Was Glover disturbed, or were his actions actually a brilliant piece of agitprop performance art? Whatever the reason, the usually unflappable Letterman had not seemed so genuinely confused since the time Jerry “The King” Lawler body-slammed Andy Kaufman.
Then Glover got behind the camera, and things got even weirder. For nearly 10 years he shot, reshot, edited and reedited his debut fiction feature, What is It? At Sundance 2005, the finished film was finally shown to the public, and it ranks as the artist’s most singularly bizarre effort to date. Nearly every cast member has Down syndrome. The characters have names like “the young man’s outer sanctum friend and inner sanctum choking victim” and “the minstrel’s concubine, mocking tormentor and ultimate outer sanctum victor.” There is an explicit sex scene between two women and a man with cerebral palsy. The story, as Glover describes it, is: “Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe and how to get home as tormented by an hubristic racist inner psyche.” (Fairuza Balk speaks the part of the snail.)
Even when compared to the most opaque video or film installation, What Is It? is a remarkably hard film to access. The Down syndrome cast, with their limited range of facial expressions, is not easy on an audience. The rhythm of the storytelling, with its extended shots of snails and incomprehensible dialogue, is, like Glover’s other sui generis endeavors, deliberately disorienting. The film is, quite literally, the complete antithesis of a studio production.
But What Is It? is not merely a novelty act or vanity production by a Hollywood eccentric. I saw the film projected on a screen in the bedroom of Glover’s Gothic mansion in L.A.’s Silver Lake hills, and it has stayed with me ever since. It’s a haunting, complicated work borne out of a singular passion — outsider art told by someone who’s made on the inside, and the tension between those experiences is what gives the film its power.
“When I show a film starring people with Down syndrome, people will ask me why and what does that mean, or why did I choose to do that?” explains Glover. “And there are several reasons, but one is that when I look at somebody, the face of somebody who has Down syndrome, I see a person who has a history of living really outside of the culture. So when an entire movie is populated by people that automatically and innately have that quality, it gives the whole film that feeling on some level. Another thing that I think is interesting is that people who have Down syndrome tend toward not having a learned social masking that most people innately get as they’re growing up. There’s something very interesting and appealing about that, and it can come across very well on film because actors are always trying to remove that social masking to get to a truthful moment.”
Glover will be touring arthouses with What is It? this fall, and after each screening will present another work, Big Slide Show, which features illustrations and photographs accompanied by live readings from his books. For more information, visit www.crispinglover.com.
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