SF IndieFest: Beyond the Pole

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Beyond the Pole combines combines the best of Al Gore with the comedic timing of Better Off Ted. In mockumentary style, a la Paper Heart, Mark (Stephen Mangan) and Brian (Rhys Thomas), two Brits, band together and traipse their asses toward the North Pole. Mark, as the brains of the operation, wants to save the earth from environmental destruction, and he's convinced his lovable, puppy dog-like bud Brian that this is the best way to do it.

The film opens up with one of the funniest parts: Mark and Brian explaining the why behind hiking, training, and ferrying (no planes here!) to the North Pole. They banter back and forth and finally show off what's under their shirts: more shirts. The tees say, "Don't be impotent. Be important." Ah, boys. Tee hee hee.

But how will this trip save the world? And do they have to save the cheerleader first? (No to the latter.) The guys aim for the Guinness Book of World Records: to be the first carbon neutral, unsupported, organic, and vegetarian duo to trek on down (up?) to Santa's homeland. Along the way, they fight freezing temperatures, polar bears, their internal demons, and Alexander Skarsgård (who plays the hottest gay Olympic skier ever to grace the Little Roxie screen).

The director, David L. Williams, was in the house, and explained that he wanted to make an environmentally focused movie for the masses and not just the tree huggers (and boy, do I love to hug trees). He also delved into the location; most of the ice scenes were shot in Greenland over floating ice. The choice was mainly for visual oomph, and while I've never been anywhere this icy, it sure looked cold and Arctic to me. But filming on floating ice wasn't pretty, logistics wise; it proved difficult to film on due to cracking and ice movement. No two days of landscape were ever the same, so the crew had to buckle down and focus on the limited takes they had.

The film is short, clocking in around 85 minutes. Comedies done documentary-style can sometimes get bogged down in the investigative style, but this one moved quickly and assuredly. And the fact that I enjoyed it didn't hurt.

Beyond the Pole is based off a six-part British radio series. The plot and details have been massaged a little for the big screen, and while it has a release data set for the U.K., Williams is still searching for a distributor here in the U.S.