FrICTION

Hoback's well-received previous film, MONSTER CAMP, was a documentary about Live Action Role Players. Billed as "a feature film gone wrong," FrICTION applies the role-playing concept to an edgy story of a seductive teenage boy who comes between a married couple who run a drama camp. But there are a few extra twists: The actors are all playing themselves. The filmmaker, Cullen Hoback, is a character in the story, in which he is making a film about the events. How much is real, and how much is fiction? What actually happened? How much were the actors' real lives affected by the making of the film? Is this a new genre, one which Hoback calls the "fourthwall film?" Never less than fascinating, FrICTION is a melodrama wrapped in a documentary wrapped in an enigma. HDCAM video. (MR)