Mister Organ

Whenever a documentarian starts telling a story, there's an underlying question: What do they hope to achieve? There's a certain itch to be scratched, whether it be intellectual, emotional, or solely financial. But even David Farrier seems at a loss to explain why he keeps making Mister Organ, a documentary in which he seems in vague, constant peril from one of the most unhinged characters to ever be featured in a documentary.

Farrier delves into the same area of everyday absurdity as Jon Ronson (upon whose work The Men Who Stare at Goats was based). Like Ronson, the New Zealand documentarian goes tumbling down rabbit holes, hoping to bounce off some interesting mounds and down unexpected tunnels on the way. His debut feature, Tickled (codirected with Dylan Reeve), uncovered the seedy side of an underground competitive tickling syndicate, but was as much about the investigation itself, with Farrier as the lead character – a low-stakes Michael Moore.

Mister Organ repeats the equation, beginning with one of Farrier's investigative pieces about an antiques store charging extortionate prices to unclamp cars parked on their lot overnight. This is Farrier's first point of contact with clamper Michael Organ: At first appearance, a devious blowhard, but over time Farrier fills out the portrait of a parasite and a bully, dangerous and poisonous, with a long list of victims and now seemingly determined to insert himself into the filmmaker's life. In one of the most stunning scenes, Organ (or Organe, if he's trying to impress) threatens Farrier with a torrent of consequences – legal, financial, and even implied threats of darker outcomes – then affably agrees to sit down for a cup of coffee and a nice chat. It reinforces Farrier's contention that everything about Organ is performative. The downside is that it's all so ridiculous that you'll be left scratching your head why Farrier seems to never take him seriously enough. If Organ is as ubiquitous a threat as Farrier implies, (everyone, it seems, has a Michael Organ story), why doesn't someone do something about it? Why does Farrier spend five years of his life enduring and encouraging him? Why does he not realize there was already a snare down this rabbit hole, and he's willingly caught in it?

Every additional story makes Organ look worse and worse, but he spends his entire life dissembling, undermining, counter-accusing, or just going on and on and on and on and ... you get the point. Over time it becomes clear that Organ is, as Farrier desperately describes him, a fuckwit who bores people to death until they jump off a building. And again, you'll be asking, why doesn't someone, anyone do something about him? Why does Farrier repeatedly open himself up to this Antipodean Max Cady?

Maybe that's what Mister Organ is really about. It's less an examination of the psyche of one man than a PSA about manipulators. As a judge is quoted as saying: If you see Michael Organ coming, run. It just seems odd and sometimes infuriating that it takes Farrier so long to absorb his own conclusion.