THE FILMS OF NEIL BREEN: Fateful Findings (2013)

Neil Breen is an auteur. And it doesn’t matter if you hate every single one of his movies, but you have to admit that he’s putting everything there is up there on the screen and I don’t feel like it’s an act. You’re getting all of him, no matter what that is.

His movies often revolve around the same themes. The government has been corrupted by rich people. Breen is the lead and he has been given near-omnipotent powers that will allow him to either save the world or destroy it. Also: He falls in love at the age of seven and it should last forever, except he’s either separated from this love of his life or she’s murdered. He has some crisis of faith and screams by himself for several scenes, but never forgets to remind us how many medals he’s won or how good he is at what he does or that no one can stop him.

He’s crowdfunded a lot of his movies, but before that, he was using money from real estate or being an architect to make them happen. He told Influx, “So, the myth was created years ago that I’m this wealthy real estate guy, which is not the truth.  I kept that real estate license active for only a year.  I have never made any serious money through real estate.  So, what I’m getting at is that this myth of real estate mega guy has been perpetuated for no reason.”

But as much as I’d love to speak to Breen and learn all about his movies, maybe I also feel like having them speak for themselves. They really defy any sort of convention or box. I don’t even know if I can put all of the ideas in this movie into one article, but really, should I? I just want you to experience this movie with the open mind and heart that I did.

Dylan (Breen) met Leah, the love of his life, when he was a child, but she had to move away. Before that, they found a black rock hidden in a chest and he kept it with him for the rest of his life. As an adult, he’s become a famous author with just one book but is nearly killed in a car accident. His friend when he was a child ends up being the nurse that treats him and he comes back to life with a mission: he’s going to hack into every corrupt government computer in the world and release the answers to who is on the take. Along the way, the system will addict his wife Emily to drugs, his best friend Jim will be killed by his wife Andy and it will be explained as a suicide, said best friend’s daughter will continually try to have sex with him and he will fall back in love with Leah. Literally, the moment that they kiss, Emily dies of an overdose.

There are so many scenes of Dylan screaming at computers and let me tell you, I relate. I have never hacked one by spilling coffee all over it, but I am not Neil Breen either. I can also explain the ending as much as I can and you still won’t be ready for it.

The thing about Breen’s movies is that wherever he stumbles as a filmmaker, there’s no chance of his work becoming boring or trite. They are infinitely his own vision, however alien that may seem to the rest of humanity that gets to watch these films. Every film is a miracle just for being completed and the fact that he’s made several and that they all present such a cinematic universe of sorts without falling into parody — they feel parody-proof — or him becoming self-aware. I hope that Breen keeps on making his films, because we need people like him that exist to make movies because, well, they just plan love making movies. It’s a dream. Even if that dream is to portray twin secret agents who know who controls the world or God walking to Las Vegas sure he’s going to destroy the world.