douchebag ( film )
explain a film plot badly — douchebag farmer tries to escape from dust then ...
as this story goes to press, team douchebag are being seriously courted by a small film distributor .
jetter spoke via skype about his fine film and his experiences making “how to tell you’re a douchebag, ” which drops on itunes friday .
what can you say about the challenges of getting an independent african american film made and screened? your film played sundance .
this story appeared in the print edition under the headline “ douchebag at sundance. ”
doremus let the douchebag project marinate while he made the festival rounds with spooner last year .
although there are some amusing moments in the film, douchebag fails to live up to its compelling and risqué title. i suppose, then, the moral of the story is: never judge a film by its movie title .
but the name is douchebag, ” jones offers, trying to keep his friend’s spirits up .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing douchebag near you .
with a title like douchebag one would hope for an over - the - top character that would make viewers’ blood boil and cause people to yell the film’s title at the screen, but that’s not the case here .
doremus is now the first member of his afi class to have a film screen at sundance .
‘good - but - perfunctory dialogue’... brooklyn - set romantic comedy how to tell if you’re a douchebag. photograph: pr
called it “subtle as a blow to the head”. he considered it “a failure” if the intention of the panama film commission film panama wanted to convert hands of stone in a vehicle to increase domestic tourism, because “the film manages to make panama a dirty place that nobody wants to visit” .
this guy was essentially a background military type, but his douchebag ways essentially started the whole war between humans and apes. the dick .
a young woman in the crowd suggests doremus marry the real barger to help with the film’s marketing .
the film gives us a glimpse into the evolving relationship of these two awkward and very different brothers .
gary m. kramer is a writer and film critic based in philadelphia. follow him on twitter .
more reviews will weigh in on the film' s overall reception once warcraft premieres stateside in under two weeks .
, and the pace of the film only rises when the two legendary fights between leonard and duran are recorded .
is more like a gangster film, having the same rise and fall narrative like many movies in that genre .
dressed in a suit he picked up the week before at a los angeles thrift shop, drake doremus nervously trudges over to a microphone stand illuminated by a single spotlight as the end credits finish rolling for the world - premiere screening of douchebag at the sundance film festival .
that’s a buried memory by the time douchebag finishes rolling in the 164 - seat theater at the resort robert redford built. this audience reaction is downright boisterous .
the film' s constant raunch factor balances out its romantic center in a way that will likely surprise and please many .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
jetter’s debut feature, “how to tell you’re a douchebag, ” a comedy about millennials featuring an all - black cast, premiered recently at sundance. it found a distributor .
the director of the hour holds court in the next room alongside jones, dickler, stidham, schwartz, co - producer marius markevicius and actress amy ferguson, who has a supporting role in the film. decked out in their sundance best, team douchebag cracks up as photographers snap them against a festival backdrop .
there' s been considerable debate in the film community as to when / if the mumblecore movement ended. some purists like amy taubin…
: “a good film suitable for teenagers and adults. however, the feeing l that we have seen it before is inevitable. ”
the world wide web. planet earth. monday, jan. 25. following a weekend of douchebag screenings at sundance, the positive reviews pop up online. entertainment weekly ’s owen gleiberman calls it “a bubblingly sharp and fresh and dark and winning comedy. ” erik davis writes on urltoken that “ douchebag is great in its delivery of awkward, relatable humor. ”
he starts fretting about all those seats douchebag will have to try to fill in park city and salt lake city—3, 445 at six showings, not counting the press - only screening .
audiences both familiar and new to the world of warcraft can now witness the fierce battles of orcs and men on the silver screen, but some may—understandably—choose to wait on the film' s critical reception before seeing it for themselves in theaters. unfortunately, warcraft appears to only further perpetuate the trend of poor quality video game - to - film adaptations, with the movie being met with generally mixed to negative reviews from film critics and reviewers .
“with the festival halfway over, ” sharon waxman reports on thewrap. com, “so far features titles like douchebag, buried (which sold to lionsgate) and blue valentine have the most heat. ”
dickler concedes it’s weird being on the acting side of the sundance buzz - athon, as is having strangers come up and praise his acting or say they can’t believe douchebag is his first lead role .
this was the first film i saw at sundance 2016, and while my eyes were gleaming with the anticipation of watching a sundance film, i came out with the feeling of
meh .
this movie is definitely a product of our times which is both a good and a bad thing .
douchebag, which premiered at the 2010 sundance festival, follows the story of two estranged brothers who embark on a road trip — a plot that sounds as thought it has promise, but ultimately falls flat .
when talking about her son, kerr worries about coming off like she’s taking credit for his success. this is particularly true when she describes how he showed her an early douchebag scene but explained the project was on hold because his buddy jones had moved to new mexico. unbeknownst to doremus, kerr later got jones on the phone and said that scene convinced her he should return to finish douchebag and further pursue acting .
the end credits produce hearty cheers and applause, although film critics and distributors in the room are sitting on their hands like poker players concealing their tells .
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he says douchebag is more in the spirit of the shirt than spooner was. starring matthew lillard (scooby - doo, slc punk !), who attended tustin schools from first grade through high - school graduation, spooner was about a guy who had no interest in growing up until love came along. it was based on a story idea, doremus says, while the darker douchebag
is way more personal. ”
we decided we should make a movie, ” jones says .
we decided to base the film on one of the characters from the play. ”
; david and efraim are big fans of the film, they have a big poster in their office and the film even has a similar plot trajectory; men in miami quickly go up the ranks of an underhanded world, making bigger and bigger deals before their arrogance and crossing the wrong people leads to their downfall .
film festival headquarters. marriott hotel. park city, utah. sunday, jan. 24, 7: 20 p. m. standing with dickler, kerr and a family friend in the hotel lobby before leaving for an intimate douchebag screening an hour away at sundance resort, doremus is jazzed about a post that went up on an la times blog a couple of hours earlier .
the most surprising disclosure of the night is that dickler, who plays a committed vegetarian in the film and really is one, ate five hamburgers for one scene .
schwartz jokes spooner is now showing as a double feature with avatar. actually, it’s to be distributed on dvd and pay - per - view, although a douchebag – spooner package deal is also being floated to potential buyers .
although the film revolves around a road trip, it has no direction. one could argue that the film is more about the journey rather than the destination, but it leaves the audience asking, “what was the point? ” the ending is disappointing and leaves the viewer wondering why they were forced to ride along on this pointless trip .
seems to speak to a continually - budding generation of twitter - philes that are equal parts socially aware and self - obsessed .
— dan mecca, the film stage
shoestring productions of personal stories such as that of douchebag are exactly what sundance co - founder robert redford was talking about at the previous day’s opening press conference, where he vowed the festival had returned to its roots of presenting groundbreaking new voices .
writing about the thriller buried starring ryan reynolds being the first feature film to sell at sundance 2010, john horn reported that many of the festival’s most star - laden movies had not yet been snatched up .
instead, ” he wrote ,
the buyers’ attention was focused on smaller genre titles like the low - budget road comedy douchebag, the digital - age romance documentary catfish and the afghanistan war documentary restrepo. ”
“they wanted to take out the elements that made the film unique and make it more general, ” he says. famuyiwa found independent financing instead and made the movie his way .
it was entirely improvised with drake’s direction, ” jones says .
it was a very free - form, comedic improvisation. ” he also stressed that dickler’s douchebag character
was a wacky caricature of his personality, as was mine. ”
each movie in that sundance category last year was bought for movie - theater distribution—the holy grail for american independent filmmakers. douchebag is the only movie in that group this year without a single hollywood name attached to it as a star, director or producer .
we use the name of my fifth - grade girlfriend, my best friend is one of the stars, and my film editor from spooner is the other, ” he says .
so kung went with a new, inexperienced distributor who didn’t tell him until the week before the opening where the film was scheduled to play. “it was mortifying, ” he says .
the rise of funny, scruffy cable - tv sitcoms has made it all the harder for filmmakers to get much play with the kind of quirky, low - key comedies that used to be fêted at festivals. drake doremus’ douchebag, for example, is a scattered, slight, simplistic indie - com, and yet the movie’s leads are strong, and douchebag has moments that suggest how much better it would’ve been if doremus, his cast, and his co - writers had allowed themselves the space and time to develop their ideas. at 70 minutes, douchebag feels both rushed and way too slack, but the bigger problem is that the kind of characters and humor this movie traffics in can be found in a more compact, amusing package on the average fx show .
ray livingston is a blogger (occasionally dating black women) and plays the field - - dating multiple women at once. he confronts a woman on the street, and she gives him the dressing down of his life, calling him out as a douchebag .
in the end, she got a job as a pharmaceutical rep and saved $ 200, 000 of her own money to make her first film, “ go for it! ” lionsgate bought it, and it only made $ 180, 237, according to box office mojo. but it won audience awards in film festivals, and she found gina rodriguez, now of “jane the virgin” fame, on youtube, and gave the young puerto rican actress her first feature role. marron now earns a living writing and directing, and she is working on her third film .
errs in how much it asks the audience to juggle, and as a result, the things that the film does well (and i think there are many) are muffled somewhat .
filmed mostly on the isthmus with large bands of local extras, it was screened out of competition at the international film festival of cannes but the critics reception at best has been luke warm .
the negatives in jetter’s film come, problematically, with the more dramatic material. the big conflict comes when jake writes a drunken blog post about rochelle that goes viral. it’s not so much that anything is done poorly, it’s just that these scenes do feel somewhat rote. moreover, this is an extremely low budget film, and some drawbacks of what was no doubt a rushed production schedule inevitably end up on the screen. the flatter moments (which, unfortunately for the movie, are some of the more important moments) have the whiff of an elevated student film .
lost love · douchebag focuses on two long - separated brothers, sam and tom (andrew dickler and ben york jones), as they reunite before sam’s wedding and hit the road to try to find tom’s fifth - grade crush. - photo courtesy of prodigy pr
“ice cube and i have had long discussions about the need to not overspend, ” he adds. “any film you make, particularly starring people of color, you almost need to overdeliver. ”
in the few meetings she managed to get, she recalls sitting in rooms with “nine or 10 white guys” and her, a latina with an inner - city background pitching a film about latinos .
i was fortunate enough to get into sundance. all the money i got to make this film [ the budget was under $ 1 million ] was from family and friends. i had the goal of getting into sundance because it’s a great market and showcase, and supportive of indie films. but when you make a feature, you have to make money back if you want to make another film. we earned our money back because we were able to screen at sundance. if you don’t get into sundance, sxsw or tribeca, it’s hard to get distribution. when you make an indie film with a movie made for a niche audience, it’s a real gamble. but i think the producers wanted to give this film the best push. you won’t see anything like this in hollywood .
this moment, like many others in the film, has potential to be funny but misses the mark. as is the case with some films, the title generates more laughter than the actual movie .
there are some moments in the film however, that invoke a nervous, unintentional laughter just as with its title. there is a scene where sam and tom arrive at the doorstep of the “wrong” mary barger, forcing sam to ask her to give back the bouquet of flowers they gave her. viewers cannot help but chuckle at this awkward situation, but the film lacks enough of these small moments .
park city - - the unexpected reunion of two young men leads to an ill - advised eventful project in
douchebag ,
a clever diy comedy that could be this year' s
humpday
for art house audiences in search of characters they recognize from their own lives .
a young newspaper reporter and a music talent scout attempt to make a bi - coastal relationship work. i think that it is difficult to render the pressures of a long - distance relationship without resorting to what super reviewer alice shen calls
go - to distance conflicts .
as a former victim of a long distance relationship, i can attest to the fact that much of the conflict is internal and doesn' t lend itself to film. but at the same time, i can' t blame the film for trying. eventually what the film amounts to is a solid romantic comedy. the characters' relationship develops and degrades all in accordance with the formula that has been tried and true. there is an appropriate balance of pathos and comedy with some decent performances from drew barrymore and justin long. these people won' t stay with you for very long, but it' s nice knowing them for the film' s ninety - seven minutes. overall, this is a fine film but nothing to write home about .
in addition to the demands of submitting a completely finished film and doing three media interviews per day, he continues to play with his burbank - based east valley ymca league ice - hockey team, agent orange .
producer matt alvarez made “straight outta compton, ” pictured above. “any film you make, particularly starring people of color, you almost need to overdeliver, ” he says. (jaimie trueblood / universal pictures )
this feels like the new york city of right now, where brooklynites deal with gentrification as best they can, trying to stay true to their roots while admitting that artisan coffee shops and yoga spots aren’t all that bad. not unlike justin simien’s superb dear white people (which premiered at sundance in 2014), douchebag seems to speak to a continually - budding generation of twitter - philes that are equal parts socially - aware and self - obsessed. ray falls decidedly into the latter category, too often coming off too much like, well, a douchebag with little in the redemption department .
director carmen marron says that financing her first movie “was hell. ” granted, she was a high school guidance counselor with no actual film background. “my own mother wouldn’t even give me financing, ” she says .
the film, which includes robert de niro, edgar ramirez and ruben blades, is part of a group of limited release films. , it will not be in as many cinema complexes in north america as others like
for much of its 79 minutes, tahir jetter ‘s how to tell you’re a douchebag feels like the type of raw, diy and impressive indie picture that barely stands a chance of getting in to the 2016 model of the sundance film festival. if that sounds like a back - handed compliment, that’s more - or - less the intention. after all, it is a talky rom - com set in new york with no recognizable faces, no real visuals to showcase or even edgy subject matter to mine through .
at the time of writing, warcraft holds a freshness rating of 22% on film review aggregator rotten tomatoes based on eighteen reviews, and 37% on metacritic based on eleven. excerpts from some of these reviews read :
i know some people are going to hate it, ” he says of douchebag .
but if you add up the amount of people who will see it at sundance, more people will have eventually seen it than any of my other films. not enough people saw spooner to hate it. ”
starts with a scene that actually takes place in the middle of the film; it has a voiceover narration, shows men living a life of excess and as well as having a subplot involving the main character' s troubled relationship .
sausage party is the exception. sausage party is dumb and pointless and i hated it, although i am — to be fair — in the minority among critics who have delighted in what is the first r - rated all cgi - film (and it’s a hair away from being nc - 17). i hate feeling like the buzzkill on this film, but here we are. i’m not going to lie and say i liked something because everyone else did .
then came kerr’s phone call, which inspired jones to recommit to douchebag. so did e - mails from stidham, who is credited as a writer along with doremus, dickler and producer jonathan schwartz—although she was the only one who put anything on paper. as the line producer, stidham also scouted all the filming locations .
how to tell you’re a douchebag is made up of roughly 98% black people. at no point in the movie does anyone hold a gun or touch a drug that isn’t legal in the great state of colorado, and how goddamn screwed up is our entertainment industry that i even have to point that out as being something novel? point is that while this is very much a first film it is a solid one, and if the sundance next category is good for anything it’s for launching new talent. tahir jetter hopefully has some more stories to tell .
as david was more sympathetic, just a stoner loser who has to shape up - but the real david packouz has a cameo, so he probably wouldn' t have wanted to get involved with a film that portrayed him so poorly .
similar struggles abound, as many filmmakers of color are dealing with the typical headaches of being a newbie filmmaker. first - time director steven kung said he raised just under $ 1 million, which his mom gathered from “rich dentist uncles” back in taiwan. he made “a leading man, ” about a talented asian actor relegated to degrading roles. but there were no acquisitions agents at the festival where the film premiered. “maybe because it’s an asian film festival? ” he wonders .
the shirt, the first short film doremus made after afi, was about a guy who can’t find the perfect shirt, so he ultimately goes without one .
at the premiere, my dad took off his shirt, ” doremus says .
worst decision ever. the whole thing looked like a bad student film. the script made no sense, there wasn' t much of a plot, the lead character / writer tried to sound way smarter than he actually was. i rested my eyes for a bit during the film, and when i opened them 3 - 4 minutes later i would still be looking at the same shot. really? it was supposed to be a comedy too, which made it even worse .
bing bar. park city, utah. friday, jan. 22, 7 p. m. snow flurries have fallen all day on this former mining town. it’s pretty to look at—from inside a toasty room. thankfully for sun - spoiled southern californians, the absolut douchebag party—in deference to the official beverage sponsor, of course—is indoors .
along the way, the screenwriting team rations out little ways for andrew dicker to expose sam' s selfishness and unreliability. dickler fills the role with insight, aiming for believability instead of the broadness of the film' s title - - as a result, we don' t flinch when the brothers seem to be enjoying each other' s company and don' t find it impossible to believe when the script grants sam some abrupt insights. in the end, the douchebag isn' t the star of the show, but he' s an essential part of making it work .
the premise of trying to find a fifth - grade sweetheart, although outlandish, has potential. the idea of two brothers taking a road trip in search of a childhood crush could have made for some hilarious moments. but the film fails to deliver .
to that end, a new category called next was added for 2010, reserved for indie films “stretching a low budget to create big art. ” doremus (pronounced dor - ee - muss) submitted douchebag hoping that it would be chosen for next. instead, it is among 16 films singled out in the more prestigious u. s. dramatic competition .
well, andrew was my editor on my previous film spooner, ” he says .
i just had this crazy idea that my friend ben play his brother. it was in my heart and my mind, and i just had to do it. ”
years later, as soon as he graduated from film school, he pitched his mostly latino - cast movie “ the book of life ” to every studio in town. “every place told me the same thing: there’s no interest in latino content, ” he said .
doremus mentions to the crowd that while his feature debut, spooner, was being shown at last year’s slamdance film festival, a smaller and scrappier event that runs concurrently with sundance in park city, he snuck over to the racquet club to watch the then - unknown precious .
ahir jetter’s first feature opens with one hell of a gambit. this funny relationship film (i hesitate to call it a rom com) starts with some postcard shots of new york city, just like woody allen’s masterpiece manhattan. but this isn’t in black and white and even out - of - towners will recognize that these aren’t the usual landmarks. how to tell you’re a douchebag (yes, that’s the actual title, unfortunately) is 100% brooklyn, but it doesn’t make a big showing of it, shouting “represent! ” or “718! ” or anything like that. brooklyn is just the borough where the filmmakers of the next generation live .
whilst albania was filmed with a drab, grey look [ how hollywood generally sees eastern europe ]. an action set - piece where david and efraim try to smuggle guns into iraq could have fitted in a bay film if it had more explosions. despite being marketed as a comedy
charles brice plays ray livingston, a freelance writer trying to attract attention with a blog, occasionally dating black women, whose self - pitying tone doesn' t jibe with the cavalier way he treats the women he takes to bed. he' s a douchebag, all right, no matter how much he claims to be looking for love and blames his emotional unavailability on new york city .
it kind of does, in theory. and maybe it will be for you. i thought it was moronic. and often offensive. for instance, the villain in the movie is a douchebag — a literal douchebag — filled with vodka that tries to flex its muscles and drunkenly rape a hot - dog bun. but it’s comedy, right, so it’s … ok? and there’s a lot of ugly racial stereotypes, but it’s only hot dogs, and cans of beans, and a gay twinkie and firewater — which is obviously a native american stereotype — so we shouldn’t take offense, right? well, why not? because if the “firewater” were played by an actual native american, or if a live - action craig robinson was playing an actual african - american stereotype banging the “crackers” that wouldn’t be ok .
the 26 - year - old filmmaker squints as he tries to make out the people filling nearly all 608 seats of the temporary cinema space. he asks douchebag cast and crew members to join him up front for audience questions. eight people who have worked on the quirky slacker dramedy off and on for two years—and who also managed to make it to park city—surround their director. the remaining two crew members are back home .
the romantic leads are both writers. language is very specific in the film, particularly when one of ray’s ladies asks him “how do you feel about me, ” which he understands as “what do you think about me. ” can you talk about how you used words so precisely? rochelle is particularly verbal .
while editing spooner, doremus had told dickler he was too funny not to be in a movie. to the amazement of doremus, dickler went for it. somewhere along the way, the director got the idea of playing the strong - willed editor off his mellower friend jones. a 30 - page outline for what would become douchebag was shot with the newbie actors. jones and dickler supplied all the dialogue as it came to them .
contrary to their name, slow motions are often anything but slow. they are generally characterized by short, jerky movements. when done properly, they often appear erratic and involuntary. achieving this seemingly spasmodic display takes years of practice, the difficulty of which is often underappreciated. rather than coming off as slow, individuals untrained in these motions usually just look like a giant knobber. the description
douchebag
has also been used by others .
i’ll be nervous friday night, ” doremus says .
it’ll be the first time anyone has seen it. the la times will be there. it’s so nerve - wracking. it’s not like slamdance, where you’re showing the film to 100 people. this is the biggest stage for movies in the world besides cannes. ”
although director / co - writer drake doremus cues us initially to view tom as the eponymous douchebag - - he' s an adult sponging off his parents and makes excuses so lame they hardly merit the name when first invited to the wedding - - actor ben york jones doesn' t let us harbor that illusion for long. moist - eyed and vulnerable, jones projects an endearing willingness to reconcile with his brother even though he clearly fears some kind of mistreatment .
if tv looks far more diverse today than film, it’s due in large part to the work of nogales and his colleagues. in 2000, they forced the networks to sign memorandums of understanding saying they are committed to diversity. since then, the networks have counted the number of minorities they hire and have created various diversity - pipeline programs .
while the film isn' t scheduled to be released in north america until june 10th, the long awaited warcraft already started to roll out internationally earlier this week. the movie adaptation of blizzard entertainment' s hit gaming franchise of the same name was first announced a whole decade ago as a collaboration between the developer and media company legendary pictures .
written and directed by jetter and based off of his blog ‘occasionally dating black women, ’ douchebag tells the story of womanizing blogger ray livingston (charles brice) and the comeuppance he receives at the hands of quasi - famous internet writer rochelle marseilles (dewanda wise). filled with self - reflective voice - over and extended musings on things like cat - calling and its virtues or the expectations following a hook - up, jetter establishes an insightful - if - familiar aesthetic .
“i dreamed that someday i’d have a film playing in this room, ” he says, still amazed at what a short, strange trip it has been. he had no idea in january 2009 that his “very personal” picture—shot in 20 days with a minuscule budget, unknown lead actors and a tiny crew—would fulfill his dream a mere 12 months later .
but, for the next two years, jones co - directed music videos in la with fellow chapman alum joseph armario under the pseudonym jurassic technology. jones did perform a small walk - on part in spooner, and while that film was being edited, doremus called to say there was a guy he had to meet: spooner ’s editor, dickler .
and where young people live they fall in love, or at least try to fall in love, and how to tell you’re a douchebag tells the tale of aspiring writer ray (charles brice) eventually realizing that maybe his womanizing ways won’t lead to happiness. he discovers this when he first hollers at rochelle (dewanda wise) while trying to impress his buddy jake (william jackson harper). little does he know that rochelle is a powerful woman in media and more than a match for his wits .
there was just one problem: after about half the film had been shot, jones suffered what he called a
mini midlife crisis” and retreated to albuquerque, new mexico. the official reason was to learn carpentry from his father, but the more he talks about it, the more it is obvious he needed to find himself after he discovered he hated directing music videos .
doremus recalls that 10 years ago, in this very same room, he and jones hosted a screening of the bum .
we projected it onto a big screen, and we had 70 folding chairs set up, ” doremus says. once the lights came up at the end, the teens solicited donations from friends and family members for the just for laughs film festival entry fees .
that was more of a troll question meant to suggest ray is a douchebag. he’s mocking rochelle in a way that even he doesn’t believe, but he’s confident that he can get a rise out of her in that scene. it speaks to how black men get on black women’s nerves. we can see how black women bring up causes, and black men will troll them for it. that scene is a representation of that tug - of - war that we experience. we are our privilege to a certain extent. ray is aware that he’s good looking, a ladies’ man, and well - spoken, but that’s his charm to a fault. i wanted to see the paradigm of this man not getting what he wants, what that means and feels like, but in a larger sense, the film is about how everyone doesn’t get what they want in the modern dating milieu. sometimes things don’t go your way .
we had ridiculous expectations, ” jones says .
we thought we were going to make a 90 - minute feature film... . we pieced it together into an hour version, and then a 13 - minute version. we showed it to people for fun. it was our first foray into filmmaking together. it’s the first time we made something together and realized people liked it. ”
despite being directed by duncan jones and having a cgi budget seemingly the size of a small country' s gdp, warcraft the movie never quite manages to come together as enjoyable. while fans of the franchise can most likely derive some satisfaction out of seeing the faithfully recreated video game settings, the wooden acting, breakneck pacing and excessive amounts of fantasy jibber - jabber mostly renders the film nonsensical to everyone else .
the film was trying to start a conversation on male masculinity, feminism, our current technology, and blogging, yet while there were many points made about the subjects, i left wishing they delved more deeply on the critiques. the funny thing about their biggest critique, which was on our current state of technology (especially blogging), is that the characters the filmmakers decided to focus on were at extremes. everyone sounded like…
this movie is real. these situations are real. street harassment is real, entitlement is real, people get possessive and demanding even with new relationships and encounters. they get petty and when things don' t go their way they cross boundaries. this happens all the time and this film isn' t here to preach about it, it' s just telling a satisfying story about how people can grow and learn and better themselves .
a womanizing blogger gets put in his place in how to tell you' re a douchebag, tahir jetter' s feature debut. not funny enough to call a rom - com, though it borrows many of that genre' s tropes, the movie plays like a technically proficient, very expensive substitute for going into therapy after a painful breakup. heartfelt but lacking some key ingredients, the pic has limited commercial potential; in any event, it' s certainly much too conventional for sundance' s next section, meant to showcase titles with an
innovative, forward - thinking approach to storytelling .
when she came home at 2: 30 p. m. one day after doremus had earned his diploma and found him lying on the sofa in his boxers, eating ice cream and watching movies on tv, she threatened to kick him out of the house if he did not find a job. he instead applied to the american film institute (afi) in los angeles and, at 19, became the youngest member of his class .
not necessarily incendiary and diabolical, this relatively innocuous indie film, shown only in a few select theaters, still had the ornery temperament of a relentless curmudgeon and the razor sharp guile of a confident screenwriter. two estranged brothers apprehensively join forces to find a lost love. emotional indigestion follow. a cool, remarkably airy score by goddamn electric bill make this one of the most sentient, blue - in - the - face road films in the past decade .
that’s a silly premise, especially for a movie that doesn’t take a silly approach to the material. at times, doremus and company seem to be struggling to force a narrative arc onto douchebag, when it’s clear they’d rather be watching the characters just hang out. doremus has a good eye for the varied landscapes of california, and dickler creates such a distinctive type—a self - centered man - child who covers his preoccupation with toys, games, and girls by feigning a detached, scholarly expertise—that it’s a shame they slip so easily into conventionality. these people and the world they inhabit are vivid enough to sustain something much more original .
in the end, neither character is extremely likeable, but they are not utterly detestable either. in fact, audience members don’t have strong emotions about the characters either way and remain indifferent about them throughout the film. because audience members lack interest in the two characters, it is difficult to remain invested in the story. on the surface, the characters’ differences make for an interesting story and good material for dialogue, but the characters fail to capture this potential .
i do think the likability comes from the fact that despite his looks and charm, he’s a bumbling person and that makes him endearing and human. i wasn’t worried about making him unlikable; he was interesting. i gravitate to films that are about [ flawed ] characters. i know a lot of men who saw the film who said they acted just like that, and saw a lot of themselves in ray. or women who said they were one of those women .
such a cute romantic comedy :) justin long & drew barrymore were just amazing & christina applegate was great as drew barrymore' s sister & charlie day & jason sudeikis were great as justin long' s best friends. just a great movie about love & how by going the distance your love will survive :) just watch this adorable film :) you won' t regret it! :) :) :) :) :) :) :): )
this time around, the nervous - laughter factor comes from the movie' s barely printable title instead of its premise, which is hardly as outrageous as two straight men trying to make a gay porn film: brothers sam and tom, estranged for two years for reasons we don' t know, are brought together by the former' s fiancee, who arrives unannounced at tom' s door and all but insists that he come back with her to be at the wedding .
marauders is like a sophomoric college essay: it’s full of interesting ideas that get bungled in the execution. interspersed with some well - done robbery set pieces, the film as a whole strives for unearned depth, dropping an entire thesis about the nature of legality and ethics into a straightforward crime flick, thereby making the latter elements needlessly confusing while the former get watered down into lackadaisical platitudes. attempting the profound when you’re out of your depth is the definition of pretentious, and marauders succumbs to this temptation .
the racquet club. park city, utah. friday, jan. 22, 8 p. m. the temporary, ascending rows of theater seats quickly fill up. if it’s not a full house, it’s pretty darn close. after a brief welcome from doremus, the film begins. it’s funny and better - paced than spooner, although that could also be because of the things coming out of the titular character’s mouth. you’re on the edge of your seat wondering what dickish thing dickler will say next .
the main character, ray livingston, has a job that seemingly only exists in film. he runs some dating blogs, and somehow makes a living from it. scenes predominantly feature young people who seemingly have nothing but free time to walk around and talk to each other, and eat with each other at fancy restaurants. this is the type of movie and characters i frequently hate, so why did i find myself loving it so much? why did it feel fresh, original and unique, like something i had never seen before? because these were roles and depictions always reserved for white actors .
the problem at this juncture is this: we have no reason to care about ray' s wounded pride. nothing in the script has given us a reason to think there' s more to him than we see, and brice doesn' t project enough personality here to make up for the screenplay' s failings. we' d much rather spend time with jake (william jackson harper), the wry best - friend character who routinely takes the air out of his puffed - up pal (
you ever think you might hate women, ray ?
) and who gets most of the film' s intermittent laughs .
marauders wants us to ask difficult questions about the value of staying within the confines of the law, and to its credit, it does so by explicitly rejecting the reactionary dirty harry ideology that drives so many cops - vs. - robbers stories. rather than endorsing the fast - and - loose “fuck the law” attitude of heroes we’re meant to laud for their internal moral compass, the film suggests such ethical compromises end up doing more harm than good. even better, it ultimately leaves judgment in the hands of the viewer, refusing to grant either legitimacy or condemnation to well - intentioned criminality. if only marauders didn’t have such difficulty wrangling its own contradictory intentions .
the social network
explores the moment at which facebook, the most revolutionary social phenomena of the new century, was invented - - through the warring perspectives of the super - smart young men who each claimed to be there at its inception. the result is a drama rife with both creation and destruction; one that audaciously avoids a singular pov, but instead, by tracking dueling narratives, mirrors the clashing truths and constantly morphing social relationships that define our time. drawn from multiple sources, the film captures the visceral thrill of the heady early days of a culture - changing phenomenon in the making - - and the way it both pulled a group of young revolutionaries together and then split them apart .
ray’s friendship with jake (william jackson harper) allows for the strongest scenes in the film. the two have a great chemistry, harper finding comedy in moments that would otherwise play dry, even obnoxious. wise’s turn as rochelle is also a highlight. tough and beautiful with a penchant for snappy delivery, the young actress is at her most engaging when she’s dressing down ray for his childish, navel - gazing thoughts on love and sex. when the movie works – and it works just enough – it’s gleefully aware of ray’s asshole - ness. the man’s got good friends and the charms to find the right woman (not to mention a nice brooklyn apartment), but an inability to get out of his own way and get over himself .
i looked at a lot of woody allen and “high fidelity, ” which is precise and particular of how the main character describes his perception of the world. it’s a low - budget film so people are going to latch on to the dialogue, and i wanted rochelle to sound like one of the talented women writers on twitter who has thousands of followers and can rattle off a dissertation at will. i wanted to make ray sound much more banal as a writer, one who does navel - gazing think pieces about their own lives that are silly, but can make a name for yourself and a living. he wants to be a good writer. what attracts him to rochelle aside from her demeanor and poise is that she can actually write a novel. i was intent on trying to convey that, and how these characters spoke to each other .
the racquet club. park city, utah. friday, jan. 22, 9: 30 p. m .
prodded at dinner with the couple to open up about his love life, tom reveals he’s still carrying a torch for his fifth - grade girlfriend, mary barger (the actual name of doremus’ fifth - grade girlfriend at oakridge private school in orange). she must be found, it is resolved. much googling ensues, and it turns out there are mary bargers in santa monica, palm springs and san diego .
sam’s wedding day nears, and many errands must be run. so, naturally, he volunteers to help tom find out which mary barger is his mary barger, who can then be the younger nussbaum’s date to the wedding. this leads to a road trip in which the full scope of sam’s douchebaggery and the brothers’ loathing of each other are exposed .
and yet, by the end credits, a real love story has emerged, and it’s not the one you expected .
depietro performance center. santa ana, california. thursday, jan. 14, 11 a. m. newspaper clippings cover bulletin boards in a hallway inside this brick building; several yellowing los angeles times and orange county register articles follow the youth stage work of doremus, beginning when he was very young up through his teens. he was obviously a genuine prodigy .
“drake was always with me at the theater, ” cherie kerr says as she sits in a conference room, flipping though snapshots of her son. “it was not forced on him. he loved it. ”
named after late jazz bassist charlie depietro and his singer wife margaret, the depietro includes offices where their daughter kerr runs kerr public relations and execuprov, a communications - skills training center for business people .
adjacent to those offices is a 70 - seat black - box theater that is home to the orange county crazies, which kerr, a former cast member with the groundlings in la, founded 20 years ago. then based in huntington beach, the crazies were a comedy troupe with an inaugural cast of 12. kathy griffin, who' d also been a groundling, helped kerr with the auditions. known for topical sketch shows with titles such as orange side story, orange - lahoma! and orange flew over the cuckoo’s nest, the crazies moved to santa ana in 1993 and shifted the focus to improvisational theater. it’s now a school for improv, although kerr hopes to mount a new crazies’ sketch show later this year.
douchebag is a 2010 film directed by drake doremus . the film is a black comedy set in los angeles , focusing on thomas nussbaum ( ben york jones ) , his older brother sam nussbaum ( andrew dickler ) and sam 's fiancée steph ( marguerite moreau ) . 
douchebag is a 2010 film directed by drake doremus. the film is a black comedy set in los angeles, focusing on thomas nussbaum (ben york jones), his older brother sam nussbaum (andrew dickler) and sam's fiancée steph (marguerite moreau).
douchebag is a 2010 film directed by drake doremus. the film is a black comedy set in los angeles, focusing on thomas nussbaum (ben york jones), his older brother sam nussbaum (andrew dickler) and sam's fiancée steph (marguerite moreau).