Posted By Joe McGreevy on January 1, 2013

There are still a slew of unchecked boxes on my geek bucket list. I still need to high-five David Tennant, own a set piece from the Serenity ship, and even learn how to puppeteer like Jim Henson used to. However, after watching Unicorn City, I am going to add LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) to that ever-growing list.

“You are what you pretend to be”

Some spoilers ahead. Skip the next paragraph to see the review.

The movie Unicorn City is an independent film featuring Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite), Devin McGinn (The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu), and Jaclyn Hales. The story revolves around Voss (Devin McGinn), an unmotivated, unemployed, Dungeons and Dragons playing slacker who struggles with his living arrangements with his brother. Voss’ only real friend is Marsha (Jaclyn Hales), a socially awkward, quirky girl from his D&D guild, with a secret crush on him. After being banished from his guild from his overacting, psychological liar of a guild leader Shadowhawk (Jon Gries), Voss sets his focus on getting out of his small town a management position at a gaming company in Seattle. After being offered a chance for the management position, if he can prove he has leadership skills, Voss and Marsha come up with an idea to create a utopia for his former guild members, and other gamers, to quite literally become their gaming characters in real life. They invite everyone to a makeshift campground, which they name Unicorn City. As the rest of the story progresses, rivalries are established and romances flare up as they conquer their metaphorical, and quite literal, hero’s journey.

“We gather strength and charge!”

The film has some relatively cheesy acting and it’s campy, to a fault at times, but there is a lot of heart in the subtext of this film. With Unicorn City coming out this year well under the radar of the mainstream geek-busters like The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and The Hobbit, it still kept me as enthralled with its storyline, the same way those big budget films did. It does it in a way where it doesn’t water down the film with a bunch of special effects, CG scenery, or an A-list celebrity carrying the movie with their name. These types of low budget indie films find cult followings because they are creative with how they use their budgetary spending.

“I’m a Bardladin, Slaying and singing is what I do.”

“You’re doing it, you’re using your imagination Peter”

The reason this movie makes me personally want to go throw on some augmented football shoulder pads, some leotards, a shiny codpiece and run around the woods playing make believe with abunch of fellow nerds is because of this film’s ability to show the emotion, and passion, though the eyes of some very child-like imaginations of grown adults. Like in the food fight scene of the 1991 Robin Williams movie Hook, Unicorn City treats you like an outsider who has forgotten what it’s like to imagine. As the story progresses, you start to see past that veil of logical thinking and really start to believe that these characters, and the quests they take on, are real in the thoughts of our imagination. From time to time, I’m sure we all wish we could still enjoy that realm of make believe we all left as kids and not be judged by the majority of society. This movie is a defibrillator to that imaginative inner child most people have forgotten about. So if you’re looking for a feel good movie that will make you think that spatula you flip burgers with could also be a level 20 wizard’s wand, check out Unicorn City.

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Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: D&D, Gamers, Imagination, Indie film, LARP, NerdSpan Hot Topics, Netflix, review, role playing game, RPG, Unicorn City