"Mister Organ" - Fantastic Fest 2022 Film Review
David Farrier has made a name for himself in the world of documentaries about nefarious people and places. His previous works have looked at dark tourism and competitive-endurance tickling videos, but Mister Organ is far more personal. Since 2016, Farrier has had multiple run-ins with a man named Michael Organ, who was clamping (booting) cars at an antique store in his New Zealand neighborhood. David’s continued writing about the saga of Michael and the antique store lead him to discover that this activity is only one of many scams Michael has pulled in his lifetime.
The premise of Mister Organ wears thin fairly quickly. The film feels like a personal argument between David and Michael that doesn’t speak to any larger societal commentary. The story itself isn’t sensational enough to warrant its existence on its own. There are plenty of personal stories that have been turned into documentaries, yet still manage to stand on their own when the audience doesn’t have a firsthand connection to the film’s subjects. David’s obsession with Michael seems to come from wanting to expose Michael simply because he was wronged by him and forced to pay almost $3,000.
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David mentions how frustrating it is that Michael will spend hours talking in circles without saying anything of meaning, so why doesn’t he hang up? Why is David still answering these phone calls and trying to find a rationale for Michael’s actions? Michael has taken David to court, lied endlessly to make himself the center of attention, and somehow gotten the keys to David’s home. Yet David stays. He doesn’t change the locks, tries (and fails) to back Michael in a corner, and answers every time Michael calls. It’s clear that Michael has a history of violence and intimidation toward women, but it’s unclear why he is the focus of this documentary. Michael is a scammer, but that’s not enough to jump on this bandwagon of true crime/con documentaries.
Mister Organ is a portrait of Michael Organ, a man who has been wreaking havoc throughout the “Beverly Hills of Auckland.” It seems that most people who live in this neighborhood have their own story about Michael, but that doesn’t warrant a feature-length film. David acts as if he’s trapped in this story because of Michael, but that’s just not true. David is trapped here because he refuses to acknowledge that the time and effort he put into documenting the life of Michael was for naught. It’s David’s own pride that keeps him here long after the audience wishes he would put away the camera.
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