‘The Five Rules of Success’ Review: Dir. Orson Oblowitz [Fantasia 2020]

In 2018, director Orson Oblowitz brought his home invasion horror film, Hell is Where the Home is aka Trespassers, to Arrow Video FrightFest. The film offered some fresh perspective on the slightly stale home invasion formula, but his latest film, The Five Rules of Success, is in a completely different league. Clearly a much more personal project, Oblowitz wrote, directed, and shot the film himself. The story joins young man, X (Santiago Segura), as he is released from prison. He’s been incarcerated since being a juvenile and finds the ‘free’ world rather daunting at first. Luckily, he has a series of mantras that he strives to live by in order to achieve his dream of running his own restaurant. Things start to get better when he manages to get a job as a delivery driver for a local restaurant, but after being tasked with looking after his boss’ wayward son, X finds himself firmly back on the path to jail. Can his mantras help prevent this, or is he doomed to go back inside?

Orson Oblowitz certainly has an awful lot to say with The Five Rules of Success. He perfectly illuminates the issues and stigmas that ex-convicts experience, and uses the film to explore the American justice system, and how fundamentally flawed it is. When reformed prisoners are released from jail, the last thing we want is for them to re-offend, and yet many, just like X, are left with few other options. Here, X is lucky with what he manages to get on the outside, but that’s where his luck ends. His probation officer is power-hungry and preys on X’s vulnerable situation to her advantage, keeping a stranglehold on his ability to do anything financially independent, and thus sends him back down a dark path. This is the kind of story that you hear about from many ex-cons, but it’s rare to see it on screen, and even rarer still to see it handled in such a caring and respectful manner. As we the audience witness the starkness of X’s reality, we too begin to feel the anger inside us begin to bubble. If this film isn’t a call to arms against injustice, I’m not sure what is.

The biggest reason for the sense of injustice that X endures is that it’s repeatedly mentioned that he has been in the judicial system since he was a child. The reason is slowly teased, the audience being drip-fed little nuggets and flashes of memories here and there. The revelation is a traumatic and excessively brutal moment of the film, and it’s one that should shock the audience into action. When we finally get to the truth about what got him banged up, you realise that the system has been failing him forever as there are definite and desperate reasons behind the actions that lead to him being incarcerated. Again, it highlights that in many cases, it just seems easier to lock someone up and throw away the key instead of offering help in a time of crisis.

It’s not just Oblowitz’ message that makes The Five Rules of Success such a compelling movie, it’s also how he tells it. This is a film rich in meaning and style. There’s an effective narrative framing that splits the story into sections, each one linked to one of X’s five rules, and within these we get a lot of clever ‘to camera’ pieces from X. In these moments, we get up close and personal with X; Oblowitz offers an unflinching look at our protagonist. He also peppers the film with vivid colours, helping reflect the inner workings of X and his mindset at that given moment. There’s some stunning moments of image overlap that also serve as a way to reveal some of X’s secrets without need for the standard clunky exposition. Oblowitz manages to capture Los Angeles in all it’s down and dirty, seedy, glory, offering a wonderful juxtaposition to the typical clean and shiny portrayals we usually see on screen.

What makes The Five Rules of Success so special though, is the performance from Santiago Segura. X is a tough role to play, he’s not necessarily instantly likeable and yet we have to want to root for him. Segura manages to convince us that X is worth the time, but does so without compromising the character or what he stands for. X is an understated character. He’s a young man filled with rage, angry at the world for the life that he has been handed, but he does his best to stuff these feelings down. His rules are simply his coping mechanism to ensure that he doesn’t fly off the handle. This internal struggle is portrayed through Segura’s performance in a way that is reminiscent of a tightly coiled cobra – you know that he’s going to strike, it’s just a matter of when. When the rage is unleashed, it feels almost primal; Segura clearly taps into some of the darker parts of his own psyche. It’s a truly magnificent turn, and hopefully one that will lead to a great deal more work for the young actor.

In Orson Oblowitz we have a filmmaker that has put a huge amount of thought and consideration into every fibre of every frame. By spending so much time and dedication nurturing the story, performances, and aesthetic, he has crafted a genuine work of art, one that will encourage discussion, debate, and will open some eyes to the bleak plight that many are faced with. A truly magnificent film that needs to be seen by everyone immediately!

The Five Rules of Success was reviewed at Fantasia 2020.