Four Eyed Monsters

Without knowing anything about Arin Crumley & Susan Buice's film “Four Eyed Monsters”, I hunkered down with a bowl of popcorn and was pleasantly surprised to find a thoughtful and provocative piece about unconventional coupledom between artists. The YouTube-hosted film was recently chosen by Spout.com as the recipient of a $100,000 matching grant and I wanted to know what the hype was all about.

THE STORY
Topher Grace look-alike Arin is a lovable sex prude and quirky stalker with a panache for film making. Susan is a world-wearied 2-D artist with a checkered romantic past and a waitressing job she loathes. After finding each other via an online social network and deciding to speak via their art, this story unfolds in beautiful snippets of mixed-media.

However, while watching this film I couldn’t help but think, “First Milli Vanilli, then Lonely Girl 15…am I being duped? ”

There are huge chunks of this film that appear to be traditionally animated and do not even pretend to document reality. Nevertheless, the idea behind the making of “Four Eyed Monsters” is that Arin and Susan’s love story actually happened in a way similar to the film’s narrative. As a YouTube fanatic and Left Wing loafer I was extremely cynical.

Then I watched the couple’s short episodes chronicling some of the darker moments of their relationship.

I’ve decided I’m a believer. It’s like this: What kind of a world do we live in when we can’t even trust the things that bring us joy?

Santa, I hope you’re listening. I am still waiting for my castle lego set.

THE ARTS FUNDING MODEL
So imagine a world where great art is rewarded for its ability to draw eyeballs? No more month-long grant applications and no more sponsor requests to make the logo bigger. Spout.com, a Michigan-based online film community is giving up to $100,000 to Arin Crumley and Susan Buice based upon the filmmakers’ ability to draw service subscribers. For every subscriber, Spout will give one dollar towards paying off the debt of “Four Eyed Monsters.” With over 20,000 Spout subscribers in the film’s YouTube infancy and more than 500,000 views, the duo are already well on their way to paying off their maxed-out credit cards.