Idiot Box

As three plots unfold in David Caesar's Idiot Box, the obvious question is, how will they all converge? In the film's main story, Mick (Jeremy Sims) is a romantic and dreadful poet; his pal Kev (Ben Mendelsohn) is a violent anarchist with a screw loose. Together they are two silly, unemployed blokes who sit around all day drinking beer, watching TV, and squabbling (often hysterically) with each other and Kev's mother. Tired of being broke and getting insaner by the minute, Kev cooks up a half-baked scheme to rob a bank. At the same time, two police detectives are trying to track down different criminals for a string of bank robberies in the area.

Idiot Box would seem headed for an obvious comic mistaken-identity ending were it not for the third storyline, about a married couple privately trying to cope with the wife's drug addiction. By not revealing what these two have to do with Mick and Kev's inevitable meeting with the cops, and by cutting with increasing frequency back and forth between plots, Caesar keeps the film engaging. The payoff disappoints, however: this Box comes up empty. Screens at the Kendall Square Thursday at 5:30, 7:45, and 10 p.m. and Friday at 2 and 4 p.m.

-- Mark Bazer

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