Indie Film Podcast Review: Clocking The T

When a commitment-phobic girl starts dating a professional internet troll, she can’t decide if telling the truth is a good idea when dating a liar for hire.

Written by Chuck Norton.

The Indie Film Podcast Review

Hollywood romantic comedies require that the audience put on their blinders, zoom in, and feel entertained while the two main characters play in the margin. The stakes crescendo and decrescendo, the relationship pushes and pulls, while the dialogue sways side to side all within a tiny box constructed during the opening act. Classic romcoms like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and even unorthodox romcoms that don’t cast Meg Ryan, like The Princess Bride, or Punch Drunk Love have entertained millions while leading them to a predicted, albeit intermittently questioned, outcome.

Independent, shoe-string budget, films are inherently rewarded for taking risks. Unique romantic situations represented in The Before series, Leaving Las Vegas, or even Lars and the Real Girl come to mind. However, even these “low budget” movies are dealing with bank balances in the millions of dollars. In Clocking The T, writer/director Michael Thibault came to the table to play, looked at the hand he was dealt, and went all in with his ledger balance. This play is always admirable in indie filmmaking, but there are ways to hedge your bets. The most important of which is to know your technical limitations before filming, and make sure you operate within those margins. Before I get into the technical critiques of Clocking The T, I want to talk about the performances, the dialogue, and the story, which were the highlights of this film.

Each scene has a highlight or moment of levity in the form of strong acting or witty dialogue.

The story of Clocking The T is one of hiding truth during new romance, and how that can lead to embarrassment and elation. The film begins with a day in the life of Dave, a professional internet troll. Dave is played brilliantly by actor Ben Hicks, and written with care and detail by Michael Thibault and Pedro Jimenez. As an internet troll, Dave has an arsenal of quips in his quiver and frequently lets loose with gusto. Dave’s life is consumed by his phone, laptop, and endless internet personas. In an attempt to escape his ugly daily routine Dave meets an online match, Candace. During the first meetup, Dave decides it best not to put on airs, and the date is a flop. Candace, elegantly personified by Jana Nawartschi, is a fiercely independent woman with a track record of lack-luster romantic partners. Her day-to-day work as an HR coordinator leaves her abused by her boss and loathed by her peers. Perhaps because of this unideal situation, she leaves herself open to Dave’s persistent requests for a second date. This meeting opens the curtains to the often awkward and frequently dysfunctional experiences many of us experience in early courtship.

Each scene has a highlight or moment of levity in the form of strong acting or witty dialogue. One scene in particular grabbed my attention. Candace, while high on MDMA, emotionally confesses her most embarrassing relationship moment. However, as a German speaker, she does so in her native tongue. Dave’s response to the potential bonding opportunity? “I wish I knew what you just said,” the moment of honesty successfully subverted by the humor in the situation made me chuckle. It kept with the most interesting theme in the film, hiding the truth and acknowledging the discomfort.

While the line-by-line writing and performances pulled me in, there were issues that reminded me I’m watching a low budget indie film. The individual scenes can be captivating, but the overall story feels loose. A loose structure can be forgiven, or sometimes ignored, but there were technical issues in this film that frequently pulled me out. For the duration of the film, a majority of the actors' lines were overdubbed, and while sometimes unnoticeable, I often found myself paying more attention to the asynchronous lip movements or sudden jolts of inflection than I was to the performances on screen. Less frequently, there are visual artifacts, noise in the image, or obvious greenscreening, which don’t break the spell as much as a cartoonish VFX monster, but coupled with audio issues, it became more noticeable.

Indie Film Podcast Recommendation: Rent this film!

In spite of the technical ceiling hit in Clocking The T, I do recommend that audiences pay to rent this feature film. One caveat, IF you are an aspiring editor, the Blu-ray includes some bonus scenes from the “film-within-a-film” that you can use to cut your teeth on, so if that is of interest to you, then definitely order a copy. I’m optimistic that Michael Thibault and his crew have more work up their sleeves, and I’m excited to see their next project.

Learn more about Clocking The T at www.clockingthet.com.