For a film that’s so short, IVORY TOWER sure does leave me scratching my head wondering where to begin…and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s a story that dares the true douchebag to please stand-up, and one that wants its audience to leave their mathematical thinking aside for a while, and try to see things in a more syncopated way.

Oh, and all of this takes place via scene after scene of people playing chess.

The film, directed by Adam Traynor is the story of two brothers. Hershell (Gonzales) is a chess master who has been selfishly and obsessively travelling for years. He has now returned to his hometown of Toronto in the hopes of launching his entreprenurial idea, “Jazz Chess”. His younger brother Thadeus (Tiga) has become a clean-cut success in his brother’s absence, and even used the window of opportunity to steal his girl Marsha away (Peaches).

The first thing that grabbed me about the movie, is just how easy it is to become the dick in any situation. Through flashbacks, we learn how slimy and selfish Hersh is, secluding himself in his own obsessions and ignoring those who care about him most. That’s the thing about most obsessions – they seem to come with a set of blinders buddy-taped to them. However, even though he should be scraping Hershell off the soul of his shoe, little brother Thadeus shows that the line between “Better Man” and “Preachy Asshole” is pretty damned thin.

Forgetting the fact that he has moulded Marsha into a fourth-string Stepford knock-off, he has bought into his own legend just a bit too far. He brags about having no “bad side” to his face, and uses phrases like “In a Toronto minute”. I live here, and I can assure you that nobody talks that way. But for a twerp like Thadeus, the phrase makes perfect sense.

The movie comes with shades of BUFFALO ’66, but with a lot more heart and charm. When at first you want to write Hersh off for being such a self involved twit (The guy uses terms like “Chessence”…as in ‘chess essence’), you realize that his once jackass nature has turned itself into unashamed loserdom. Where once we would scoff at him, we now pity him and wonder how in the world he’ll ever make something of the nothingness his life has become.

And through it all, there’s Peaches’ wonderful turn as Marsha. The electroclash icon is a wonder in this film, trading almost all of her shocking sensibilities in for a suburban haircut and some fetching sweater sets. She brings a softness I didn’t expect from the artist behind “Impeach My Bush”, and gives the audience someone to really pull for. As if the whole darned story wasn’t pathetic enough, here we have a one-time creatively gifted woman, whose disappointment is palpable when one brother doesn’t support her…and whose quiet restlessness rings true as another one takes her for granted.

I’m not completely sure how much acting Peaches feels like doing, but given the unexpected charm she brought to this film, I certainly hope she works it into her repertoire.

IVORY TOWER is a quirky story that’s more interested in playing with the black keys than the white keys. It calls attention to the mathematics of both jazz and chess, and how someone so mathematically skilled can still come up with the wrong answer when given the heart as a variable. For all it’s absurd “chessence”, it’s a film that is not to be missed.

IVORY TOWER plays North by Northeast on Friday June 167h – 2:00pm at Toronto Underground (186 Spadina Avenue).