This leisurely, sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-harrowing dramedy by Jordan Susman concerns the misadventures of college dropout Puck (Devon Gummersall), a would-be anarchist who lives in a commune with other free spirits and whose anti-authoritarian misdeeds amount to low-key street theatre. That changes with the arrival of Johnny Black (Dylan Bruno), a violent militant who eventually controls Puck and his friends, briefly lands them all in jail, and later develops a monstrous confederacy of skinheads, gun nuts, and environmental extremists. The marvel of this film is that with so much harrowing stuff going on, The Anarchist Cookbook is a gentle yet solid character piece set against a peculiar history--a modern-day Flaubert tale of a young man's sentimental education. Standout performances from John Savage as Puck's supplanted guru, Katharine Towne as the hero's unlikely Republican girlfriend, and Gina Philips as an omni-sexual monster who sleeps with everyone but the hero. --Tom Keogh
