I was browsing a website called Youtube Time Machine; Google it if you want a few hours of entertainment; it's a website where you select certain categories (current events, movies, music, etc.) and you choose any year between 1860 and now: it will cycle through any content for that year dictated by the categories you had chosen. I had chosen 1994 and happened across a trailer for "Swimming With Sharks" in the movies category. The trailer looked pretty good, so I had to go out and find this film.
Now, the trailer seemed to depict the film as a comedy. When I finished this movie, that seemed not to be so much the case.It certainly had funny parts, but it was not a comedy film. I will now discuss the plot line and what I liked about the movie, because it definetly was good.
The scene finds a guy named..... well, Guy, and his new position as assistant to a Keystone Studios executive named Buddy Ackerman. They're in Show Biz, and you thought you knew how brutal this line of work could be. You thought you knew until you saw this movie.
Kevin Spacey, who plays Buddy Ackerman, is an abusive, egotistical boss who treats all of his subordinates like utter trash. On the first day of the job, Guy is already yelled at in front of the whole office over the fact that he brought Buddy sugar for his coffee, and not sweet and low.
Frank Whaley plays the perfect, naive young man who thinks it's going to be a ckae walk and thinks this new job will be his fast track to success and riches. Time goes on and Buddy still verbally abuses him daily and takes all the credit for his work.
But something happens. Guy snaps. I won't reveal too much as to the nature of why he truly does snap, which is revealed at the end and was unknown, even to me, until then. But, throughout the film there are flashforwards to a later part in the plot. A part where Guy has broken into Buddy's house, has tied him up, and is torchering him. You see a new side to Guy; he's in control- even noticibly derranged at times- which I suppose you would have to be to torcher anyone.
This film had twists and turns that had even me surprised, and I must honestly say it was a great film that I wish I ahd found sooner. Kevin Spacey was fantastic, and the rest of the cast were well chosen and fit into the film perfectly.
