SXSW2005–cl.one/The Wendell Baker Story/The Aristocrats
“And I ask myself, ‘Is this ever going to end?’”
This is the first night of South By Southwest 2005 and I’m a little bit unsure of the lineup this year. There are a lot of big premieres (The Ring Two, Unleashed, The Wendell Baker Story, etc.) and five movies that I’ve already seen. (Of course, that’s through no fault of the festival’s. I’m just that good. Heh heh.) The celeb lineup is a little on the short side. (The biggest stars are Elijah Wood, who is always here, and Al Franken…which is really cool. And then there’s Jimmy Kimmel who is only here because his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, is here.) But I’m sure we’ll all survive and have a great time. Hopefully some of these movies surprise me. But we’re off to kind of a bad start.
When filmmakers decide to make a sci-fi film they have to make a conscience decision as to what kind of sci-fi film it’s going to be. Will be a cheesy one like some of those old 50s movies or Mars Attacks? Will it be a serious one about the condition of mankind today like The Day The Earth Stood Still or 2001? Or will it be a rousing action film like the Alien or Star Wars movies?
Of course there’s another category that most filmmakers don’t really think that they’re delving into: the pretentious dystopian sci-fi film with too many goddamn special effects that don’t make it any better.
Unfortunately, this is the route that Jason Tomaric’s cl.one takes.
It’s a few years after WWIII and everyone is sterile. The world has, somehow, been completely rebuilt within that few years even though much of it was reduced to rubble. The people of New Athens are trying to figure out cloning so that they can proliferate the species. Here’s the problem: the clones have no souls. So Derek Strombourgh, the head of the military academy, is after that one perfect person whose soul can inhabit all of the clones and still make them each different individuals. When he finds that person in one of the students, all hell breaks lose.
Here’s the amazing part of this movie: it was made for less than $25,000, has some decent (if a bit cartoony) CGI effects and a cast of thousands. It truly did bring an entire community together.
Here’s the not so amazing thing: it put me to sleep more than once.
The whole point of the movie has been done so many times that I’m kind of over it. (Do clones/androids/replicants have souls? Is the proliferation of the species/saving of a few lives worth killing thousands of people to perfect it?) The acting was stiff and, for the most part, just plain bad. And, most of all, it was boring. Not even bad enough to be fun.
The special effects, as I said, were just about the only cool thing about this movie. And they were only cool because of the budget. If these effects had been used in a mainstream movie with any kind of budget they would have been laughed off the screen. But, as it is, they are commendable and show that Jason has a talent for that sort of thing.
I felt really bad at the end when everyone left before the Q&A session started. Jason had introduced the film and was so proud of his accomplishments and was really, REALLY wanting to talk to people about them. He seemed like a really nice guy. Unfortunately his movie just didn’t keep anyone’s interest. He skipped out on the Q&A.
And speaking of first time filmmakers, the Wilson brothers may have been in a lot of movies (two of the guys, anyway), but they’ve never directed anything and Luke has certainly never written anything. It’s always been Owen’s job to be the brains of the outfit.
Luke’s story is about a longtime loser. Wendell (Luke) is a guy who really just can’t catch a break, but he thinks he’s the big time. He and his buddy, run a fake id shop out of an AirStream for illegals trying to find work in Austin. When they get caught, Wendell is sent to jail for a few months.
While he’s in Huntsville, his girlfriend (Eva Mendes) starts to realize what a jerk he really is. He’s more interested in the basketball game he and his prison buddies are playing than in her visit. Needless to say, she ends the relationship and hooks up with someone else. So the rest of the movie is Wendell’s search for her, himself and his new dream of owning a hotel.
Wendell is set up with a job at a retirement home where he meets some cool old folks (Seymour Cassel, Harry Dean Stanton and Kris Kristoffersson) and a few bad orderlies (Owen, Eddie Griffin). Things go only go uphill from here. This is, after all, a low-key, feel-good comedy.
And, really, that’s what the movie is all about: feeling good. There’s no deep message, no big diatribes on life (not very important ones, anyway) and no hopes beyond a few good laughs. Luke and Andrew (he’s the older one we haven’t really seen since Bottle Rocket) handled the great cast pretty well and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun with it. And they used Austin locales really well. (Although, having lived in Austin all my life, I probably thought the film was funnier than it actually was. The building that Eva works in at the beginning is actually an abandoned power plant. No pretty receptionist desk there.)
Check this one out if you’re a fan of any of these actors. It’s not a great film or anything, but it’s a lot of fun and the Wilson brothers are always cool to watch. Especially Owen.
There once was an old joke. It started off innocently enough and then turned into the dirtiest, filthiest, most disgusting joke ever told. Then the punchline came and it was kind of a letdown after what came before. But that didn’t matter, because what came before was always priceless.
Most of us have never heard this joke. It’s not one that most comedians will tell to their audiences, but they always tell it to each other. It’s always a chance to outdo everyone else. And whoever can make the joke go on longer and make it more disgusting is the winner.
Nearly legendary funnyman/magician Penn Jillette and writer/actor Paul Provenza decided that it’s time to tell that joke’s story. They got all of the comedians together that they could and just filmed them talking about their favorite joke and how they tell it. Robin Williams, Drew Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, George Carlin, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock, Bob Saget…just about everyone you can think of is in this movie. And they all love this joke with a passion not seen since Monty Python used a joke to kill Nazis.
With 100s of hours of film to choose from, how do you pare it down to 90 minutes? Very carefully. Editor Emery Emery did an amazing job of finding the best bits that fit together and telling a story just about the love of a joke. He even manages a slightly political statement about women and their place in comedy and the current state of the world and it’s screwed up vision of what’s decent.
This joke has been passed down for possibly a couple hundred years (the oldest person on screen was about 87 and he heard it as a young boy in vaudeville saying that it was really old then) and this film guarantees that it will be passed down for a couple hundred more years.
And for those of you who think that Bob Saget is just Danny Tanner from Foul House…heh heh heh. You won’t believe him in this movie. Half Baked was only a small fraction of the sickness that this guy has inside his soul. Provenza told us a story that I’m not so sure I should print for fear of Bob’s wife somehow finding my website and being very pissed at me, Bob and Paul. (I say this as if I’ve met any of these people.) Let’s just say that, even when it comes to his baby daughter, the man has no filter. There’s no one in his head saying, “Bob! Don’t say it!” I like him a lot more now.
When Penn and Paul called their cast, most of them said yes right away. Anyone who said, “call me back,” wasn’t called back. They wanted only the people who were truly passionate about the joke. And, of course, some of the best stuff was left on the cutting room floor. Terry Gilliam had a really long bit where he went through every shot of a movie that he would make of the joke. They got through the whole thing and realized that the sound wasn’t turned on. But, somehow, it will make it onto the DVD. Gilbert Gottfried told a version that surpassed even the version he told at the Hugh Hefner roast soon after September 11th. But the earlier version was more important, so that’s the one that made it. Saget’s version was about an hour long. Pretty much all of this will be on the DVD.
But first, the movie has a theatrical release! It may only be in the bigger markets, but if you live anywhere near one of those GO SEE IT IN JULY! It’s fucking hilarious. It’s the funniest movie I’ve seen this year and possibly last year, too.
And don’t confuse it with the Disney movie. Your kids will never forgive you.
