A five-year war of attrition
Mister Organ (M, 96 mins) Directed by David Farrier Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★
Six years ago, documentarymaker and writer David Farrier should have been basking in the glow of the success of his film Tickled.
Tickled started out innocuously enough, with Farrier researching a piece on an online sub-culture of people – mainly young men – and ‘‘competitive tickling’’. It was a story stranger than fiction, but eventually all roads seemed to lead to one shadowy figure, who Farrier tracked down and confronted.
But the ‘‘tickle king’’ had little to say for himself and seemed to hate that he had been unmasked.
If only Mister Organ could have worked out the same way, Farrier would be a far happier man today.
In 2016, with that mix of guilelessness and doggedness that he seems to have cornered the local market in, Farrier decided to look into the strange case of Bashford Antiques, in Auckland’s Ponsonby.
A colleague had left her car outside the business, in a place she thought was OK to park. Her car was hooked to a tow truck within minutes and $250 – in cash – was demanded. Farrier was still working at TV3 so he decided to put together a story on the antiques shop and its relationship to the towing company.
And then things got weird, fast. Lurking behind the towing operation – and also claiming to be a lawyer representing the owner of Bashford Antiques – was one
M D A Organ, who turned out to be a one-time impersonator of royalty, former sex-shop owner and a convicted boat thief by the name of Mr Michael Organ.
Organ is possibly the most instantly dislikeable actual human being you will ever see on a movie screen. He comes across as a delusional, narcissistic blowhard with a penchant for manipulating the people around him to get his way.
When cornered, as by Farrier, he turns into a litigious bully. Farrier seeks out a few people who have encountered Organ in the past and their stories range from the bizarre to the absolutely tragic.
Mister Organ is an account of the dance that Farrier has had with this man for five years. At first, Farrier was enthralled, I guess, to have stumbled on such a selfgenerating headline as Organ. But as the years, inanities and letters mount up, Farrier found himself in a war of attrition with an apparent madman.
Mister Organ is everything you are hoping it will be. This is a dark, compelling, bleakly hilarious and – at times – disturbing film.
You might ask whether it was wise of Farrier to pursue Organ and to then perhaps goad him further by making this film. But you’ll be glad that he did.
Mister Organ is as bonkers as it is jaw-dropping and disturbing. Go and have a look.
Mister Organ is screening now in select cinemas.