Gordon's 'Outside Out' Neither Phish Nor Foul April 12, 2001 - The Boston Globe (ARTS; Pg. D5) by Steve Morse The old-school phrase "far out" comes to mind in describing this new film by Phish bassist Mike Gordon. The film is not called "Outside Out" for nothing. It's way outside the boundaries of conventional filmmaking, which is both its strength and weakness. Gordon is a talented, though resolutely quirky, lensman, jamming with the camera as much as he jams on bass. He studied filmmaking at the University of Vermont, then directed the Phish music video, "Down With Disease," and a documentary, "Tracking," about the making of one of the band's albums. All of which was a warmup for his feature-length film debut in "Outside Out," which has its moments, but bogs down in a sometimes off-the-wall and incomprehensible script. Gordon will attend the Somerville Theatre screening tonight, followed by a musical set by Col. Bruce Hampton, known for his work in the Fiji Mariners and Aquarium Rescue Unit. Hampton also stars in the film as the seller of an "outstructional video" designed to teach the protagonist, Rick Bault (played with a hazy, ganja-like daze by Jimi Stout) how to "unlearn" everything he knows about his guitar. The young Bault is a colorless nerd (a "major outcast," says a girl in his high school class) who is trying to get into a music college rather than attend a military school as his father (played with a Neanderthal charm by Ashley Scott Shamp) would like. The student keeps sneaking off to guitar lessons from Hampton, whose house has an "extraterrestrials welcome" sign out front. This leads to some really bad guitar playing (way too much for someone as skilled as Hampton) and much Zen-like advice: "Reason and logic were a wonderful thing for a long time," Hampton advises. "Neither of them work anymore." Unfortunately, the film ends up being a hodge-podge. The protagonist makes Andy Warhol's Joe Dallesandro seem like a Rhodes scholar. And Gordon makes a strange entry as Matt Gizzard, a country guitarist who tells Bault that Hampton actually died three years ago. The viewer is left wondering what is real and what isn't in a film accented by bizarre editing cuts, dream sequences, and mushy dialogue. And there's not enough great music, though "One of Us Is Truly Blessed" is an exception. Gordon shows flickers of brilliance as a director, but he's still a work in progress. He shouldn't give up his night job with Phish.