Your Name Here Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Your enjoyment of Your Name Here might depend on your tolerance for mind-bending narratives and acid-trip weirdness. Mine is low, I'll tell you that up front. But "Your Name Here" deserves credit for being different, and Bill Pullman's central performance is probably the most bizarre and demanding of his career.

Written and directed by first-timer Matthew Wilder, our story is set in Los Angeles in July 1974, when a trippy sci-fi writer named William J. Frick (Pullman) -- clearly modeled after Philip K. Dick -- is informed that he owes more than $100,000 in back taxes. If he could finish his latest novel, he could probably pay the bill. Trouble is, he's stuck on putting into words the spiritual epiphany he had on March 2, which he wants to incorporate into the story.

That's about the last part of the film that makes any kind of normal sense. Next thing you know, Frick is being approached by Nikki (Taryn Manning), a hot actress -- "the poor man's Ali McGraw," someone calls her -- who wants him to help her with the disaster epic she's currently shooting. Then Frick is being hurried onstage somewhere to accept an award. Then Frick is in the balcony, watching a version of himself deliver a spiel to an audience. Then Frick is being threatened by Kroger (M. Emmet Walsh), a government operative who demands to read Frick's account of the March 2 thing. Frick insists if they'd just let him go, he could go home and WRITE it, but that's not an option.

Oh, Taryn Manning. Sure, she occasionally tackles a different role here and there, but for the most part, she's made her career on a mixture of cinematic drugs, sex, and hooking over and over again. It's gotten to the point where you kind of wonder if that's what her career will amount to. But maybe it'll change now that's she trading in the needles for some flashy robotics. She is co-starring with Bill Pullman in the recently-wrapped Your Name Here, which Cinematical first told you about last year. (Note: The Matthew Wilder who wrote and directed this film is not the music guy.)

It's sort of a biography of Philip K. Dick, but it's being done sort of like Fur -- using his writing and fake world rather than being a straight-out biopic. (Pullman's name in the movie is William J. Frick.) MTV recently talked with the actress and got the scoop on the movie, which is currently being submitted for next year's Sundance. She plays Nikki, who is based on Victoria Principal (the woman Dick wanted to play the lead in Blade Runner).

As Manning describes it, Frick is "infatuated with my character... she starred in that movie Earthquake, and he is obsessed with her even though he has a wife. All around his office you see pictures of me. One day, he does a huge line, and the next thing you know he's in the back of a limo, and there I am!" Well, there she is as a robot. Manning says Frick "can't tell if it's a dream or I'm really there, and the next thing you know, I'm taking him into my world. [He thinks] we're going to live happily ever after." It's zany enough that it could actually be entertaining, and if Taryn is believed, it will be: "It's deep; the writer is great; and it's kooky. I think it'll be another cool cult movie."

A guy stars on the one the best TV series of all time, and all he can get is a lame, second-banana gig in the Matrix sequels. Then he shows up on a show of debatable quality that everyone watches, and he's got jobs coming out of his ears. Yes, I'm talking about Harold Perrineau. And no, I'm not surprised, just a little depressed. Don't get wrong -- I'm happy the man's getting gigs, just a little resentful that it didn't happen during Oz.

My own pouting aside, things are looking damn good for Perrineau these days: In the past few weeks he's signed up for gigs in three upcoming films. The first is 28 Weeks Later..., in which his role as "an upbeat American Special Forces pilot who documents and leads to safety the families returning to London after the viral outbreak" sounds likely to be pretty small (I'm thinking, like, Richard Dawson in King Rat small here). The others, however, could be more substantial. He'll be playing Richard Roundtree (who in my mind is at least three times Perrineau's size) in Matthew Wilder's Philip K. Dick movie -- recently retitled Your Name Here -- because, at least within the weirdass world of Wilder's film, Roundtree is obsessed with Dick. So to speak. In addition, Perrineau will appear in the harrowing-sounding Gardens of the Night alongside John Malkovich, Jeremy Sisto and Diana Ross' little boy Evan.