DELIVERED

Murder! Madness! Mushrooms and anchovies! “What do you do?” “I deliver pizzas.” “Oh, that explains it.” After paying nostalgic tribute to writer Joe Eszterhas' Cleveland boyhood with “Telling Lies in America” (21st CIFF 1997), director Guy Ferland takes his cameras to Seattle for a tasty dark comedy with everything on it. Failed philosphy student Will Sherman, like the unpublished comic-book avenger he draws, is a true creature of the night, prowling the corners of the great city on an endless quest to serve society's needs. In other words, he's a pizza guy, and not a very happy one at that, pouring his frustration with Generation X and workmates and his girlfriend into a tape recorder. On one nocturnal run Will unwittingly brings a pizza to the scene of a murder-in-progress – and to Reed, a serial killer of Seattle slackers. Knowing that Will is the only loser able to identify him, Reed begins a diabolical conspiracy to frame the delivery man, using the hapless hero's own disgruntled journals as a menu for mayhem. Imagine Alfred Hitchcock slamdancing with Kevin “Chasing Amy” Smith in a Seattle mosh pit and you've got the flavor of Ferland's latest order.