Gregor Wakes up in a Dress
Gregor Wakes up in a Dress by Roxanne McDonald
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A fresh twist on the Kafkaesque sees the final four making films about what happens when a guy wakes up and discovers [or doesn’t] that he is wearin a dress. |
Only thing worse is waking up to discover you have been eliminated—which is what happened this week to ZACH!
Zach! Man were the others sorely affected. And really nervous now, for as Will puts it, they were sure Zach was going to win…, so now the game is really on.
Will has made “The Yes Men,” which he says should feel like a Cohen brothers film. Rather than focus on the central character’s reactions to waking in a dress, he will emphasize the reactions of those around the guy. It’s a chuckle-inducing piece [as when Lynn Shea appears as the administrative assist in the same dress as her male boss], but logistically has a couple of snags [at least I didn’t like the flip-flop of everyone in dresses at end save one guy…etc.]
Carrie squeals [well, almost] that there was SO MUCH DIALOGUE in this one she almost didn’t recognize it as Will’s. The film had a great look, she adds, great spoof, and, again, he did well with the dialogue.
Guest judge F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job; Set it Off; Friday) also says Will did a good job and he thought it was funny. He tells Will he went all out with production, and F Gary loved the design, even though he could do a little more with the music….
Gary thanks Penny for subbing and rambles a minute, then gets back to saying that was some great sucking up to the boss…like the X Games of sucking up. It had the emperor’s new clothes; the actors were funny [another nod to Lynn Shea and one to the delivery guy]; and Gary salutes Will.
Sam made “Dress for Success,” a classic tale of revenge that is classically eh—though I cracked up at the slapping hand machine. He discussed letting the actors improvise and how this has been the toughest week for him for he thinks either he or Adam will go home. [Methinks differently, now, though.]
Carrie says she thought this a little reminiscent of Nine to Five and Saw [which sets off a whole wordplay of I saw Saw/did you see Saw…. Carrie explains that you can do that as a kind of homage, IF you do something incredibly original. And he didn’t do that, she says.
F. Gary continues with the “I did see Saw; saw Saw”…thing, and says he thought the pace could have been a little faster.
And Gary [whose name I think I have been misspelling all along, sorry] refers to how generally this competition is so hot now for them all that it is like a family and he hates to see anyone have to go…, but Sam’s film could have been a drop higher, he says.
Adam made “Army Guy,” with a central character who is a soldier with amnesia…who wakes up in a very tu-tu fluffy
dress. That’s all I am going to say, in spite of how much I LOVE this film, because if you haven’t seen it, you need to catch the reveal on your own and I do not wish to give away anything…save hinting this is just a brilliant nod to Hitchcock.
Carrie calls it the most innovative, freaky, fantastic film she has seen in this competition, says it is unbelievably inventive, and all the people from Grateful Dead concerts will love it.
F. Gary calls it a brave, great job that is not only inventive but, as he loves Fellini, finds it Felliniesque. F. Gary also recommends that if Sam had just a little more to hold onto in the middle, the reveal will be even more brilliant. [Yes, I defer in most cases, especially to genius filmmakers like Gray, but I disagree here: all one needs is there in the Kool-aid.]
Gary says it is certainly funnier than Ibsen’s Dollhouse, and tells Adam he pulled out all the stops, artistically. Gary mentions some elements, the character with the car, all the [Candis], and I will stay untrue to the actual comment and Gary’s final example, again, to leave you to your own appreciation of what I think is this week’s winner.
Sorry Jason.
Jason is last to show the film he has made, “Oh Boy”. He, too, has made a classic revenge tale, this one with the [now adult] high school dork (played by the wonderfully whiney Patrick Kerr) attempting to exact revenge on the [now adult] bully, who wakes up on his lawn in a dress made for dancing.
Carrie tells Jason he has a signature of pranking and high school in his films and calls this one sweet and relatable. He is, she adds, back to his usual good work.
F. Gary thinks Jason is getting better, that he has improved technically, and F. Gary likes what Jason is doing with his actors. It is funny, he says, but safe. Too safe.
Gary has now apparently recovered from his jet lag and all and finally brings in the reference to a famous German, Rainier Maria Rilke, who said, “There is a power within me to grasp and shape my world.” Jason has that power, Gary says, to deal with human kindness…, and this, Gary thinks, will make Jason a great filmmaker.
And the judges’ favorites? Adam, Adam, and Adam. See, I told ya.
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