Review by Cameron Maitland

The cruel hardships that face an independent comedy are often ignored when a success is examined. Working indie comedies' effortlessness seems to prove that comedy is the genre to attempt on a low budget. Films that don’t work so well though, such as Cameron Labine's debut Control Alt Delete, bring light the fact that pitch-perfect writing, acting and directing are necessary for a bare-bones comedy to succeed.

If nothing else, the film has a unique premise; it follows the trials of a computer programmer who, facing the Y2K crisis and stress at home turns to having sex with his machines. Y2K and the increasing disastrous nature of his actions drive the plot, as well as a few romantic and comedic interludes in between..

Labine has written a film that mostly seems like a whimsical drama but much of the directing and acting, save that of Labine's brother in the lead, often errs of the side of slapstick or screwball humour. An entire b-plot about co-workers trying to find the computer rapist seems out of place compared to the subtler comedy at play in the main characters relationships. Thankfully the film never has moments where as an audience you can see a joke that doesn’t play. Instead Control Alt Delete just seems to consistently miss its own full potential by spreading itself so thin the audience is left confused as to the filmmaker's intentions both in story and direction.

Overall the film has chuckles throughout but unless you think a fat man nude or the idea of a man humping a computer is hilarious, you aren’t likely to think it much of a masterpiece. Still, for a first time Canadian filmmaker on a micro-budget, that may still be considered a triumph.

Control Alt Delete
Cameron Labine | Canada | 2008 | 91min