expiration date Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Expiration Date, which debuted at the Seattle International Film Festival, is a black comedy about Charlie Silvercloud, a young man who has lived his life under the shadow of a family curse: His father and grandfather were both killed -- by milk trucks -- on their 25th birthdays. Expiration Date shows us Charlie's life and decisions in the week leading up to his cursed birthday. Director Rick Stevenson and lead actor Robert Guthrie were kind enough to sit down with Cinematical at SIFF and talk about their film.

Cinematical: Where did the idea for the film – this cursed young man and murderous milk trucks -- come from?

Rick: My cowriter (Hamish Gunn) and I kept meeting people who had fathers and grandfathers who had died at 35 of heart attacks. And from there it became a screenplay about fate, about how we would live our lives if we knew we were going to die. And when it became black comedy is when we decided that the character has actually accepted death and is going around planning his funeral. And it just absolutely opened up some wonderful doors to discuss fate and the power we have as individuals to shape our lives, to determine how we're going to live them.

Cinematical: How did the milk trucks come in?

Rick: That was my writing partner, and he left it to me to figure it out as the director. (laughs)

If you knew from the time you were a small child you were living under the cloud of a curse -- that you were going to die on your  25th birthday -- how would you live your life? Charlie Silvercloud III (Robert A. Guthrie) faces that situation in Expiration Date, a black comedy by director Rick Stevenson. Both Charlie's father and his grandfather died on their 25th birthdays, in accidents involving ... milk trucks. That's right, milk trucks. Charlie's grandfather was plowed down in the middle of his street, on the way to his own birthday party. Charlie's father, hoping to avoid the same fate, spent his birthday on a boat -- only to be taken out by a renegade milk truck that ran off the road, landing right on top of his boat. Talk about bad luck.