Review of Chief Zabu (2016) by Deborah N — 08 Mar 2017

We were fortunate that our local film festival (Gasparilla, in Ybor City, FL) featured a screening of Chief Zabu this weekend, as a good dose of grownup wit (and more than a few belly-laughs) were just what we needed after a stressful beginning to 2017.

The film is not just *set* in the 1980s--it was actually *filmed* then, too, on a shoestring at that. And the tale of how the director and producer almost forgot about the indie project (a relatively new genre back then) and set about scrambling to reassemble it, then give up, then locate an unblemished original and release it some 30 years later, is a story in itself.

But anyway...on to the movie. It's about the hilarious scheme cooked up by a real estate investor named Ben Sydney (played perfectly by Allen Garfield) who is both a wheeler-dealer and social climber along the lines of you-know-who.

Ben, along with his partner and best friend Sammy Brooks (brilliantly played by Zack Norman), is trying to pull off an investment scheme that involves getting UN membership for the Polynesian island nation of Tiburaku (yes, it's fictional), meanwhile he and his friends will benefit from the fishing and building rights; make a massive fortune for themselves; and even gain some political power and entré in the process.

Of course, a few small things go awry, to hilarious effect. The satire could not be more on-point if the script had been written yesterday (the long, single-shot scene in the convertible, in particular, is pitch-perfect).

As the French might say (while carrying out tests on Tiburaku), plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (the more things change, the more it's the same thing).