People are voting emotionally.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Scene after scene of American idiocy and simple lack of decorum on the part of pretty much every character. A view of what people become when the refuse to live by standards of conduct or character.

Recently screened at the 60th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, Bob Byington's "Infinity Baby" has all the hallmarks of modern independent film – a quirky concept masking a comment on the modern human condition, crisp (black and white) cinematography, a soundtrack by some hip musician and a cast of indie stalwarts. Combined they make for a film that, at 71 minutes, actually makes you wish it had fleshed out its ideas a bit more.Set in the not-so-distant future, screenwriter Onur Tukel's quirky concept at play is that through a stem-cell research project gone bad, there are now about a thousand babies running around being "marketed" by a company (Infinity Baby) that never age and can be fed and be expected to poop just once a week. They never grow up. A ha! The same can be said for the film's protagonist Ben, an employee of the company and commitment-phobic guy who dates women just long enough to have his mother disapprove of them and then move on. A side plot involves two other employees of the company looking to make a quick buck by keeping one of the babies for a while, but things fall apart pretty quickly.The film is on "hold review" so a full critique will have to wait, but there's much to like about this film, beginning with the cast – Kieran Culkin as the man-child, Megan Mullally as his mother, Nick Offerman as the company boss (they're both Executive Producers on the film,) as well as Martin Starr, Kevin Corrigan and Stephen Root.The film looks good with cinematography by Matthias Grunsky and some retro-editing by Kris Boustedt. The film sounds good with a soundtrack by Aesop Rock. Director Bob Byington has indicated in some interviews that it might be re-edited, so perhaps its interesting premise will be expanded on in future screenings and before its eventual release.www.worstshowontheweb.com

I really liked Infinity Baby. After reading that it opened to uproarious laughs, I found the humor somewhat quieter than I was expecting. That said, I saw it in the afternoon on a weekday at SFIFF, so we were probably a less lubricated, tamer crowd. Kieran Culkin as Ben is great, and every woman in the cast gives a stand-out performance. One of the best tricks of the film is how we watch Trieste Kelly Dunn's character Allison through Ben's warped perspective, and then later see her personality re-framed more objectively. This is in part, thanks to Dunn's acting, though I'm sure it's also in the direction. Having seen it only once, I can't put my finger on how the shift is so palpably realized, but it's fantastic. I'm pretty sure there's no sound effect of a record screeching to a halt in the soundtrack, but that's the feeling that is captured during that scene. After an intentionally-predictable (and perfect) plot twist, the film hits its stride both in terms of humor and its hints at depth, but then it ends, sooner than you'll want it to. It makes sense that the laughs would build once we're familiar with the world of the movie, but I'm not sure the depth felt earned or explored as much as it could have been. Nick Offerman is a lovable actor, and while I love watching him as Neo, it also felt to me like he was being brandished like a secret weapon, when this movie didn't need a secret weapon. Everything and everyone around him in Infinity Baby is already strong and held more surprise. After the screening, I waited in line for the restroom and a man (whom I later confirmed was the critic for Variety) asked me skeptically, "Did you get something from that?" I said an agnostic "I did, yes." He said that the movies make him laugh a bit but don't amount to anything for him. I felt a little tongue-tied, and conveniently the restroom became available just then, so I said "I have many thoughts about this, but I'm going to go to the restroom now." The main thought I opted not to share with the critic is that my review is biased by an unwieldy crush I have on Bob Byington, whom I met by happenstance last November before I'd ever seen any of his movies.

Infinite Baby premiered at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. This local product was a failed attempt to satire something although it wasn't really clear what it was trying to do. The audience seemed confused and befuddled and asked the director – who seemed like he might be drunk – fairly gentle questions, because they didn't seem to know how to break it to him. There was some attempt to make fun of parenting and dating relationships. Some individual scenes were mildly funny and might have worked as SNL sketches. But the screenplay was a mess and the skilled actors couldn't really save it. There is no point in this film being widely released. Back to the drawing board.