“You're gonna give me 5 stars.”
Mass State Lottery is an Adderall noir made on a next-to-nothing budget by a handful of talented homies. Anything with the façade of prestige or professionalism typically turns me off, but knowing just how much of a passion project this was—being privy to little behind-the-scenes bits that would drop on the //MOVIES podcast during the film’s development—I couldn’t help but be impressed and intrigued when the trailer that dropped teased something that looked slick as hell. Now, having seen an early screener of the final years-in-the-making production, I’m thrilled to report that while it is an extremely competent and professionally made movie, it has the heart and cojones to season every single frame with weird and often reckless creative choices. Jay Karales aka LowRes Wünderbread’s directing style feels like a bleeding-heart American savant taking equal parts influence from Shinya Tsukamoto, Beavis and Butthead, Million Dollar Extreme, and Hideaki Anno.
What’s it about, though?
The official synopsis of the film is either “a failing private investigator looks into a string of disappearances” or “a private investigator manipulates a grieving mother.” Both are true. Both are all you need to know going in as far as the plot goes. But without spoiling anything, I’ll just say what I got out of Mass State Lottery is it’s a visceral depiction of a bad acid trip disguised as a grisly murder mystery and homoerotic stalker noir. It’s also one of the darkest comedies to have dropped since William Friedkin’s 2011 banger Killer Joe.
In the first feature film from Karales, we are introduced to a unique directing style born of constraint, a chaotic blend of tonal shifts and weird editing choices that make you wonder how much of the vibe of this film is due to limitations necessitating creative workarounds and how much was pure vision. I have a suspicion the answer is a little of both. For example, there was a gap between shooting periods and instances of corrupted audio in certain scenes that called for getting crafty to salvage the footage. So we get obvious dubbing that seems obvious on purpose, we get subtitles for the sole sake of not sacrificing a gay joke, and we get connective tissue of plot points delivered in surreal voiceovers and clever title cards.
In every scene, the film marries high style with low class. The chopped-and-screwed structure of a decades-spanning plot involving secret identities, manipulation, and mutilation is peppered with jackass humor, with quotable lines such as “You don’t look like a water drinker” and “You can’t buy just one,” the latter of which is in reference to a cyanide pill. Another artistic decision likely sparked by budget constraints is the film’s use of invented technology and apps, such as a taxi service with an automated avatar of the driver and an analog, almost cyberpunk version of FaceTime. These world-specific flourishes heavily contribute to Mass State Lottery’s fever dream vibe.
Unless you’re familiar with the avant-garde sketch series CMFRT_SYSTMS or some very underground B-movies featuring Sheila Ball, this is a cast of mostly unknown actors, all of whom hold their own for what their respective roles demand. Jay Karales is fun and convincing as the loser asshole private eye Rathke, Nicholas Goroff kills it as Rathke’s partner who—for reasons I’ll leave suspicious—handles his character’s drastic rapid aging with seamless grace, my favorite Instagram comedian Kenney Dorcely steals his scenes as the dope dealer/fake ID plug named MySpace, Yvna Kim gives some classic facial expressions in her scenes bouncing off Karales as Rathke’s South Korean girlfriend, and Jerry Schultz and Liam Bannon have memorable small roles inside this spiraling, complex, non-linear plot overflowing with one-off characters. On that tip, major respect to LowRes for handling the last recorded role of the gone-too-soon Buddy Duress with such care. Buddy—known by audiences for standout roles in the Safdie bros films Good Time and Heaven Knows What; known by Rikers Island as a repeat inmate booked on heroin and identity theft charges—is easily the most recognizable presence in Mass State Lottery. His screen time, however, never feels like it’s overcompensating the star power or leeching off the clout of the recently deceased (RIP Buddy). The true star here, though, is hands down Hans Lam Barboza, bringing the perfect balance of awkward and psychotic to the iconic Devlin.
Mass State Lottery gives me the same excited, unnerved feeling as the best films of Takashi Miike or Harmony Korine, but it’s also unlike anything I’ve seen before. The competence, craftsmanship, and care colliding headfirst with all the crudeness and the chaos makes for an unforgettable, genuinely unique experience.
This movie is a masterpiece. I hope it is seen by millions soon.
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