Film / The Complex (2012)

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The Complex is a 2012 film written and directed by Josh Spiegel. It is currently available to watch on YouTube.

The film is unrelated to The Complex.

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The film provides examples of:

• Absurd Phobia: Madeline is afraid of even numbers.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Jay finds this exchange funny:
  Q: Dude, do you even know what time it is?
  Jay: No. Why?
  Q: It is script-o-clock.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Madeline has a mild form of HIV. It's feline HIV. Q is still willing to bang her bareback.
• Blatant Lies: This exchange following Jay's Overly Long Scream:
  Jay: (Screaming)
  Q: Dude!
  Jay: I'm making progress. Good progress.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Jay pees when the killer puts a gun to his head.
• Brother–Sister Team: A strange variant. Sam and Sammy. They're brother and sister, they're always seen together, and he's always giving her a piggyback ride. Even in the shower.
• Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: Q reveals that this is why the killer, who is an alternate version of him, can't kill Jay.
  Killer: I'm gonna kill you, cocksucker!
  Jay: Fine! Then go ahead and do it. I'm tired of your bullshit whining, so go ahead and just fucking kill me!
  Q: Oh, he can't.
  Killer: I can't?
  Jay: Dude, he's got the gun loaded in my ear hole. Suddenly I'm not doubting!
  Q: Bullshit. He's not gonna kill you.
  Killer: Why not?
  Jay: Yeah, w-why not?
  Q: Because you're his best friend.
  Killer: [whispering] Son of a bitch.
• Comically Missing the Point: This exchange.
  Jay: I know he's down there. I saw his car.
  Q: How do you know it's his car? Does it have tits on it?
  Jay: Well, he's parked like an asshole, there's a bunch of crazy sex shit in the backseat and a stack of scripts in the front seat.
  Q: Yeah, but that sounds like a million cars out there. What makes you sure it's his?
  Jay: Well, the script on top is called Rage Killer.
  Q: Oh yeah, that's his.
  Jay: So that raises a few questions.
  Q: Yeah, like, is he a killer that's filled with rage, or does he kill rage itself?
  Jay: No no, not those questions. Questions like where is he?
  Q: Well, yeah, clearly.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Madeline. They usually hide when there's people over.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Early on, Q says that calling some one retarded is okay because it’s a condition, but calling someone a retard is offensive.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: Discussed. Apparently Q licks his own reflection.
• The Ditz: Madeline and (to a lesser extent) Q.
  Q: We brought you a little something. A little gift for you.
  Jay: (Hands Madeline a bottle of wine)
  Madeline: Aw, that's so nice. (Confused) What-what is it?
  Jay: It's-it's wine.
  Madeline: But, doesn't it usually come in a glass? Why is it-why is it in this?
  Jay: It starts off in the bottle, and you have to take it out and put it into the glass.
  Q: It's like corn on the cob.
  Jay: It's nothing line corn on the cob.
  Q: It's exactly like corn on the cob. It comes in something, you have to take it out of that something, and you serve it in something else entirely. It's corn on the cob.
  Jay: It's not really similar.
  Madeline: Well, you know what would be really cool? If you did the whole "bottle into the glass" thing.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Penis crossed. Because it’s long enough to cross.
• Fanservice: Madeline in a bikini.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Jay tells Q, “Dude, look, this is LA. Trust me, your self-loathing match is out there somewhere. Less than five seconds later, they see Madeline in a bikini.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Near the end, a shot of Jay writing is interrupted by a single frame of Q sitting in the same spot and wearing his clothes.
• Go to the Euphemism: How Jay asks Madeline where her bathroom is:
  Jay: The baby's kicking. Where's the nearest delivery room?
• Hell Is That Noise: Q hears a strange sound whenever he gets near Room 350.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Cletus takes a bullet for Jay.
• Innocent Bigot: Cletus might be the most innocent and polite bigot in film history. He uses racial slurs, but never in a deliberately insulting way, such as calling Jay a “black bastard” in a friendly tone of voice or referring to a Hispanic cleaning lady as a "dirty spic" as though it's an Affectionate Nickname.
• Me's a Crowd: Q discovers that many people who live in the complex are alternate versions of himself.
• Mistaken for Gay: Both Mr. Bonswah and Cletus ask if Jay and Q are dating.
• Moment Killer: Jay returns from the bathroom just as Q and Madeline are about to kiss.
• Mood Whiplash: The film cuts from Sammy being grabbed by someone in the closet and screaming to Jay, Q, and Madeline having dinner and laughing.
• Most Writers Are Writers: Jay is a screenwriter.
• Narcissist: Q is a self-aware narcissist. Michelle, the woman he falls in love with, turns out to be a female version of him.
  Q: She said I was narcissistic.
  Jay: And you looked it up?
  Q: I did. It was in the N’s.
  Jay: Do you think she’s right?
  Q: Of course she’s right. You don’t think that I know that I’m narcissistic? I’m awesome. I was like that when she met me, though, that’s my whole point. It’s not like I suddenly looked in the mirror and I wanted to lick my reflection.
  Jay: I’ve seen you lick your reflection once or twice.
  Q: That’s, again, my whole point. I’m saying that it’s not a new thing. I’ve been licking my shine since grade school.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Mr. Bonswah gets very close to Jay in the elevator and even leans his head on Jay’s chest.
• Off with His Head!: Sam decapitates the killer with a punch.
• Overly Long Scream: See Scream Discretion Shot.
• Police Are Useless: The detective investigating Sammy's death is hilariously over the top, borderline incompetent, and possibly racist.
  Detective: So you two were in your apartment the whole time doing God-knows-what?
  Madeline: We were eating dinner!
  Q: And it was delicious.
  Detective: Look, I don't need to know what kind of sick fucking food games you two were playing. I need to know where you were while four innocent girls were being raped! And mutilated!
  Jay: Wait, it's just one girl.
  Detective: Yes, but that one girl was anally penetrated!
  Jay: She's just missing!
  Detective: Look, you shut the fuck up, son. As far as I know, you're not the detective here. As far as I know, you could be the perp responsible.
  Q: Exactly what is the distance of your knowledge here?
  Jay: I'm not responsible.
  Q: No shit!
  Jay: I mean, I'm the one who found the brother. I'm the one who phoned it in!
  Detective: (Laughs) I just find it…coincidental that you move in one day, and there's a castration the next!
  Q: Woah! No, it’s just a raping.
  Jay: It's not a raping, it's not a castration, and no one's ass was involved either! The sister is missing, and there's foul play possible because of all of the blood.
  Detective: (Throws his notepad down.) Ass black!
  Jay: You don't know that!
  Detective: (Slams Jay up against the sliding glass door.) Do you wanna know what it is I do know? I know words! Words like defenestration!
  Q: Oh, that means poo!
  Jay: That's defecation! Defenestration means putting someone through a window!
  Madeline: Oh! You know what? That would be a really good word for your script.
  Detective: You're a writer?
  Jay: Yeah.
  Detective: (Lets go of Jay.)
  Jay: I just sold my first script.
  Detective: Oh, shit. (Laughs nervously.) I'm sorry, son. You must know a lot of words. Good, long words.
  Jay: Yes, but I'm a little more concerned with Sammy's well being right now.
  Detective: Well, I guarantee you, with me on the case, we will find justice for that little girl. Uh, do you have an agent?
• Relative Error: Q and Jay initially assume Sam and Sammy are dating.
• The Reveal: Two.
  • The killer is an alternate universe version of Q.
  • Madeline is also an alternate universe version of Q.
• Running Gag: Jay asking Q if he thinks Jay has a shot with Madeline, even as Q and Madeline become closer.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Jay’s agent, Chatham Knowby.
• Scream Discretion Shot: Jay screams in frustration while trying to write, and it's cut short when the movie cuts to Q knocking on Madeline's door. Amusingly, Jay is still screaming when Q returns to their apartment.
• Screw Yourself: Q has sex with Madeline, who he later finds out is a female version of himself.
• Shoulders-Up Nudity: Madeline during the sex scene.
• Shout-Out: Q wears a Johnny Cash t-shirt in several scenes.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Several characters, but Jay’s agent, Chatham Knowby, takes the penis-I mean cake.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Jay wears a gray tank top, often when he's writing.
• Smash Cut: Three are used in quick succession to show the passage of time when Jay stays up all night trying to write.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: This exchange.
  Professor Coymitto: Why are you calling me?
  Jay: I think there's something really weird going on here, and it rang a bell with something you said in one of your lectures, so I guess I'm calling for some advice.
  Professor Coymitto: What, advice for a script or something?
  Jay: Not exactly, but if it means you don't think I'm crazy then yes.
• Third Wheel: Jay becomes one for Q and Madeline when they have dinner at her place.
• Tyop on the Cover: Mentioned in this exchange, immediately following Blatant Lies:
  Jay: (Screaming)
  Q: Dude!
  Jay: I'm making progress. Good progress.
  Q: (Looks over Jay's shoulder) That's not even a real word.
  Jay: It's a good word.
  Q: It doesn't have any vowels. It's-it's not even a real word.
  Jay: I'm trying a new approach.
  Q: It's been done.
  Jay: DAMMIT! I knew it. I knew it'd been done before.
• The Unreveal: What's in Room 350.
  Jay: Yeah, that's about what I expected.
• Unusual Euphemism: Oh my sausage!
• Verbal Backspace: This exchange.
  Mr. Bonswah: If you’ll excuse me, I have some sniffing to do.
  Q: Wait, what?
  Mr. Bonswah: Paperwork. I said paperwork. The words are so similar.
• The Voiceless: It's unclear whether Sam is this or The Speechless.

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