Boston Underground Film Festival 2009

There may be one thing worse than being a sex offender sent to prison: Being a sex offender released from prison. A (fictional) documentary crew follows a twenty-something convicted sex offender known only as RSO from his release from prison on the road to his unlikely rehabilitation. Through mandatory community service, group therapy, and the hunt for a job, his sarcasm and vulgarity manage to offend everyone he encounters. He is fired from his job at a Chucky Cheese-like family restaurant for insulting a customer, berates his girlfriend for refusing to sleep with him and openly hits on other women. At therapy, he mocks his sheepish counselor and threatens to sexually assault the office teddy bear. Throughout the film, RSO makes legally required visits to his neighbors, informing them of his sex offender status and each time concocting a different story for his crime.

His failure to change is frustrating not only to his girlfriend, therapist, and parole officer, but also to the documentary producers as they patiently await a breakthrough, which may never come. In an ironic twist, the producer suspends production, calling our anti-hero “sarcastic and cruel” and “not sympathetic enough.” Can he ever be reformed?

RSO features wickedly funny performances and a list of cameos that reads like a who's who of American independent cinema, including director Richard Linklater and Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha). Irreverent and wildly entertaining, this SXSW hit boldly mocks the conventional story of redemption with its perverse wit and in-your-face humor.