Posts tagged PatrickFugit at Cinematical

Posts with tag PatrickFugit

Review: The Amateurs

Posted Dec 8th 2007 9:32AM by Patrick Walsh
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Scripts, Distribution, Exhibition, New in Theaters

Filmed in the summer of 2004, The Amateurs has been in the can for over three years. The movie's title has gone through several changes, and imdb still lists it as The Moguls. The film has had a whopping six release dates going back to 2005, but it finally sputters into theaters today -- in Los Angeles and Dallas, anyway. Movies often have distribution trouble (you can read more about the problems this one faced in the Los Angeles Times), but the struggle of The Amateurs surprised me because it had all the makings of a sleeper hit. It's got a killer premise (think The Full Monty with porno) and an amazing cast. The film's struggle surprised me...until I saw it.

A queasy mixture of Boogie Nights sleaze and Patch Adams sentimentality, The Amateurs takes place in the small town of Butterface Fields (ho-HO!). That's where you'll find Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges, in shaggy dog Lebowski mode), a divorced dad who is down on his luck. His son (Alex D. Linz) is now living with a wealthy stepfather (the typically solid Steven Weber), and this makes Sargentee insecure. He's got to make some money, and fast. So, naturally, he decides to enlist the help of his friends and make an amateur porno flick.

Continue reading Review: The Amateurs

Is 'Wristcutters' the Next Teen Cult Flick?

Posted Sep 26th 2007 3:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Fandom

There's really nothing like a good cult flick. It's fun, engaging, and wonderfully quotable. Even the vibe is different -- fans of cult films don't just sit quietly, catatonically watching the screen -- they radiate energy -- hooting, hollering, and reciting. It's why films like Bubba Ho-Tep should be seen in a theater -- it's there to have fun. Others, like Fight Club and Donnie Darko, are a little darker and serious, but just as engaging. So, the question VH1 is asking: Is Wristcutters: A Love Story destined to be the cult classic?

I, for one, am dying to find out. Way back in the beginning of 2006, Karina Longworth reviewed it and said: "It's a bold first effort, with a distinct, swaggering sense of style and humor that's hard – even for a cynical blogger sick to death of indie 'quirk' – to resist." Sounds good to me! The flick also had a controversial ad campaign to elicit buzz and anger, while appealing to the darker more cult-driven movie fans. Topping all that off, it's even got a following already, according to Courtney Solomon, the head of After Dark films. While it's going into limited release on October 19, he says: "People do actually quote the lines, and it's gotten such an underground following just from doing the festival circuit." Maybe, just maybe, this is the next big thing. But either way -- people have to stop comparing these sorts of films to Heathers -- they never live up to it and just make expectations way too high.

Suicide Prevention Groups Steamed Over 'Wristcutters' Ad Campaign

Posted Mar 26th 2007 1:03PM by Patrick Walsh
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Romance, Lionsgate Films, Celebrities and Controversy, Movie Marketing

After Dark Films clearly has a marketing team that knows what it's doing. The company's movies are causing controversy and sparking conversation well before release. First came the graphic billboards for the upcoming Elisha Cuthbert thriller Captivity that caused an uproar and were taken down last week. And now even more scandal is stemming from the marketing campaign for Sundance hit Wristcutters: A Love Story -- read Karina's review here. We told you a few weeks back about the campaign in question, and reading about it, I get the feeling that controversy is exactly what they had in mind. The campaign was set to unspool in July in preparation for an August release, and was reported to include cardboard cut-outs depicting various ways to kill yourself. Courtney Solomon, After Dark's co-owner, said of the signs: "We just hope they don't cause too many accidents."

Fifteen suicide prevention groups, including the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America and the Suicide Prevention Action Network USA are outraged, and determined to put a stop to the campaign. Solomon says he has been "too busy" to reply to the groups because he's been busy re-shooting and adding violence to Captivity, in order to make it appeal to the gore-hungry audiences of today. He says Wristcutters and its promotion is certainly anti-suicide, but does concede that the marketing strategy may have to be altered, and that After Dark will offer screeners to, and welcome input from, the protesting groups.

Those raising the complaints have not seen the film and are not objecting to the movie itself, but they are concerned about the possible effect such an advertising campaign could have on the public. The letter from the AFSP to Solomon and After Dark states: "(We) know from more than 30 years of scientific research that media portrayals of suicide can be inadvertently harmful to vulnerable individuals, leading to what behavioral scientists call suicide contagion or 'copycat suicide.' Recent research confirms that young people in particular are vulnerable to this effect and can tragically act on depictions of suicide." Wristcutters follows a group of people who have taken their own lives and journey through purgatory. It stars Patrick Fugit and Shannyn Sossamon, and was directed by Goran Dukic. The film is set for a limited release on August 31st.

Sundance Hit 'Wristcutters' Being Promoted With Suicide Marketing

Posted Mar 7th 2007 2:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Cinematical Indie

I've been dying to see Wristcutters: A Love Story. It doesn't help that Karina Longworth gave it a solid review during Sundance 2006, or that the film won the Acura Grand Jury Award for Best Feature at the Gen Art Film Fest last year -- or any of the other awards it has nabbed since its premiere in Utah. The Goran Dukic film stars Almost Famous cutey Patrick Fugit, DJ-turned-actress Shannyn Sossamon, Arrested Development's Will Arnett and the wonderfully gritty singer Tom Waits. It follows Zia (Fugit), a young man who kills himself over a girl, and finds himself in an afterworld full of people who have committed suicide. When he finds out that the girl he killed himself for did the same deed after him, he goes on a quest to find her.

The film itself is making its way to theaters way down the line in August, with one hell of an interesting marketing campaign by means of AfterDark Films, who have the North American rights. Along with an Internet and college campus push, the marketing for the film will feature a lot of cardboard cutouts that The Hollywood Reporter describes as "potentially controversial." I think that's just a bit of an understatement. The cut-outs will be a collection of suicides -- characters jumping off a bridge, hanging themselves and electrocuting themselves. Hmm... At least they're not handing out razor blades? Courtney Solomon of AfterDark says of the scheme: "We just hope they don't cause too many accidents." Or maybe they're hoping that the controversy helps drum up buzz for their Wristcutters. Considering the hordes that get angry with video games, I can't begin to imagine the backlash this campaign will get.

Sundance Review: Wristcutters, a Love Story

Posted Jan 26th 2006 3:36PM by Karina Longworth
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Sundance, Cinematical Indie

There's nothing worse than slitting your wrists, falling to the ground to drift off in a pool of your own blood in an apartment you've just cleaned for the occasion ... only to discover, right before the life drains out completely, that you've missed a giant dust bunny. This is your last glimpse of life on earth: an accumulated ball of dirt, wrecking, and mocking, your plan for flawless self-termination. Could hell be any worse?

Yes and no. Wristcutters: A Love Story, is the directorial debut of Goran Dukic, who developed the script at the Sundance Screenwriters lab in 2004, based on a short story by Israeli writer/actor Etgar Keret. The film tracks Zia (Patrick Fugit), a young guy so wrecked by a break up that the only solution is to clean his house and slit his wrists. After dying, Zia finds himself in a special afterlife reserved for suicide victims. It's not quite hell, exactly – unless your version of hell looks an awful lot like industrial Los Angeles – but it's certainly not heaven, and though Zia is resigned to his lot, he can't stop thinking about Desiree (Leslie Bibb of Popular fame), the gal he offed himself in the name of. Zia wastes away most of his hours either working for minimum wage, or drinking with Eugene, a mutton-chopped Russian who got his ticket to the afterlife by electrocuting himself whilst onstage fronting what appears to have been an Gogol Bordello ripoff band (speaking of Gogol Bordello, Wristcutters has a feel similar to Liev Schreiber's Everything is Illuminated, except far less self-important and pretentious).

Continue reading Sundance Review: Wristcutters, a Love Story

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When in Europe do as the Europeans do: Get drunk and have sex GADLING TAKE 5: Week of 5/2 - 5/9 French trains go for British baguettes	Friday Happy Hour: One-Armed Bandit The deliciousness that is pimento cheese Peanut Butter Bread
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Review: The Amateurs

Is 'Wristcutters' the Next Teen Cult Flick?

Suicide Prevention Groups Steamed Over 'Wristcutters' Ad Campaign

Sundance Hit 'Wristcutters' Being Promoted With Suicide Marketing

Sundance Review: Wristcutters, a Love Story

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