A Fool's Advice: Elevator Operators and Bad Politics

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that feel like they were held together by tape and pure ambition, sure. It is for people who enjoy watching character actors do way too much in very small rooms. If you need tight, polished storytelling, you will probably hate it within ten minutes. 🎞️

Franklin Pangborn is doing that thing he does—the jittery, nervous energy that makes you want to both help him and tell him to just take a breath. He is an elevator operator here, which is a perfect job for a guy who looks like he is constantly one minor inconvenience away from a total breakdown.

The whole premise of an elevator guy taking down a politician with a machine is… well, it is silly. There is no other word for it. It feels less like a real plot and more like a fever dream from someone who spent too much time in a basement with a soldering iron.

There is a scene halfway through where the machine is finally unveiled. It looks like a prop from It's a Bird that got lost in the wrong studio lot. It just sits there, humming and looking vaguely dangerous in a way that is clearly just a lightbulb flickering behind some tin.

The pacing? It’s a mess. It sprints through the setup and then just sort of wanders around the lobby for the rest of the runtime. You can almost see the actors wondering where the scene is actually going.

Bits and bobs:

• The elevator sets are so obviously fake that it becomes its own kind of art.
• I swear the background actors are just repeating the same three hand gestures for the entire duration of the city hall sequence.
• Watching Buster Phelps try to act natural is like watching a cat try to wear a hat.
• The lighting in the office scenes is so flat it makes everyone look like they are made of cardboard.

It reminds me a bit of the frantic, low-stakes energy in Home Talent, where the movie knows it is ridiculous but keeps pushing anyway. You have to respect that, I guess. It is not trying to be a masterpiece, and thank god for that. We have enough movies that take themselves seriously.

Sometimes the movie gets stuck in these long, dialogue-heavy stretches that go nowhere. You want to reach into the screen and edit the script yourself. But then Pangborn does something weird with his eyes, and you are back in.

It is not going to change your life. It is not even going to be the best thing you watch this week. But it is a weird little artifact, and sometimes that is enough for a rainy afternoon. 🌧️