LOL on the Lot
LOL on the Lot by Roxanne McDonald
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Comedy [romantic comedy] rules the stage and screen this week, leaving voters a difficult choice. |
But first the worst news: two more eliminated. While Sam felt his action too long; Mateen felt his action stunt the best of the night (and I agreed); and Jason felt the same weekly
butterflies, Kenny Luby and Mateen Kemet were eliminated.
Kenny was humbled, saying he had learned a lot and learned there is a lot he doesn’t know. (Yes, folks, he actually admitted it!)
Mateen said this opportunity afforded him the chance to work in genres he might not have worked in on his own.
But as many of us were glad to hear: “The world has not seen the last of Mateen Kemet.”
And we will even miss you, too, Kenny, you iconoclast, you.
Tonight is promised to be comedy genre night, and the shorts deliver on that promise.
Zach has created “The Bonus Feature,” wherein a guy tries to impress a girl with the push of a button in his car: the newly dating couple end up in an unintended Rebel without a Cause chicken race, but instead of hurtling over the cliff are airlifted into space where they are met with an Alien/Jurassic Park creature. All from the push of the special feature button.
Carrie reminds Zach what a big fan she is, but says it was more of an amusement ride than a film. Though it incredible visually, she wants more story.
Guest director/judge Brad Silberling (just think baby calling aunt mayor of crazy town, ala Lemony Snicket) thinks Zach is a tremendous skill set in search of a great story.
Gary says that Zach always surprises him, and this piece which wasn’t exactly romance and wasn’t exactly comedy was maybe an homage to different directors…. That or Zach was, Gary suggests, maybe sucking up to Spielberg.
Adam has made “Girl Trouble,” featuring a chubby Chandler Bing with a Shallow Hall complex, a guy who is finally in love and tells his roommate his girl troubles are over. The roommate, however, is not convinced, is rather horrified, when the overnighter appears and is a man in a wig.
Carrie liked it very much, and did not see the Susan surprise coming. She thinks it is silly and funny and has a beginning, middle, end and characters with a nice touch of the American Beauty spoof scene. And, she adds, happy birthday, Adam.
Brad starts by saying he loves Adam’s filmmaker spirit, but that Adam has just got to kill it. Some of his choices were over the top, which ruined the ending…but a great effort nonetheless, Brad remarks.
Gary feels it was more like a skit than a movie…, even though the American Beauty and Mrs. Robinson [The Graduate] allusions were good. But, Gary continues, “Let’s see an Adam film instead of an homage.”
Okay, we have the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse word of the day, so now we can move on to the next funny film.
Will has made “Unplugged” for his kids, personifying two lamps who have an office romance…that doesn’t trump the IKEA ad with the European guy yelling at us for feeling for the discarded lamp, but, as this nod to Toy Story was intended, his kids will like it.
Carrie starts with how again, it is a lovely, charming piece. And who can make you care about lamps the way Will does, she asks. But…, we are back to the silent film again, she shakes her head, and she still hopes for dialogue from him, even though this is gorgeous visually.
Brad loves that Will is trying to put Pixar out of business, he chuckles. The actors behaved well, and the set-up of the concept is beautiful. The set-up of the humans could have been better, Brad adds, but the film still worked.
Gary says that the film made him feel for the lamps; he is glad it wasn’t so obvious and using two goosenecks necking; and the male and female plugs thing was sexy.
Andrew has created “Keep Off Grass,” another cleverly wrought (and I think funniest of the night) film featuring a yuck-yuck main character in his Bermuda shorts (that or those old-school boy knickers) who is doing his perfectionist thing with his garden and yard, headphones on, back turned—as a male and female superhero hurl invectives about Sinister Girl flirting with him and her mother being
handicapped as she cannot fly. The tornado their make-up lovemaking is just the bonus to such great lines of dialogue as the ferociously animated delivered “I hate Sinister Girl, too. She’s my ARCH-NEMESIS!” and “Don’t you bring my mother into this. You KNOW she can’t fly.”
Carrie stresses that it is a really great idea and is really ambitious of Andrew. And at the end of the day, it did what he needed it to do. However, she suggests, to have superheroes fight they would have to destroy a whole city, and why can’t the guy hear them fighting? [Um, really good headphones? Suspension of disbelief? Okay, I’m getting defensive and protective, here.]
Brad loves it as an original idea, which is fantastic, he says, but advises Andrew not to say so tight—that he should let us see the two arguing all over the yard. Plus, he could have the guy interrupt them…. But still, Brad praises, it is a very smart piece.
Gary loves the special effects, loves the argument and the bit on how mother can’t fly, and says that the gnome under the [birdbath], dead, is as T.S. Eliot would have said, that “That’s the way the world ends: not with a bang but a whimper.” Gary adds that Andrew could win this sucker!
Sam has made “American Hoe,” another original delivery of a classic concept (or issue): the bride-to-be bitching out the groom-to-be for screwing up…this time, the STAMPS for the wedding invitations, which instead of being the LOVE stamps she insisted upon are those featuring working class folk milking cows and HOEing rows. Some of the lines are absolutely hilarious, including when the woman scrams she doesn’t want nipples on her wedding invitations! Or better, when after at least five minutes of her tirade over stamps, the man gets all calm and serious and says, “Honey, we’re gonna get through this.” That KILLED me.
Carrie smiles and says that she wishes the guy had done this deliberately—otherwise it just a guy screwing up wedding plans…wooo. She tells Sam he has got to dial it up.
Brad advises to always have your characters have somewhere to go…, and the woman was already dialed up to shrew. And it would have been better, Brad adds, to have the guy on the phone confirming a pre-made golf date—to imply he intentionally blew the stamp task (as Carrie suggested).
Gary says he can’t give his “stamp of approval” (heh-heh) on this one. Gary says he doesn’t think the two should get married to begin with, as the woman is calling the man an “idiot” and all…which isn’t very nice.
Jason puts himself in his piece called “Old Home Boys.” With this short, just the concept is funny: retired thugs retaining everything from youth, including the rivalry for a pretty woman’s affections—a woman who after the dance-off tells the main character that was “sick”. LOL.
Carrie thought it was really good, she says, but it left her wanting more…of the dance-off.
Brad tells Jason that is typically the Europeans [Giuseppe Andres or Tornatore? and Josh ? Alkoff, for example, he says] who put their personal touch on a piece, but here he loves that Jason has put his on it and it is beautiful, Brad concludes.
Gary appreciates how Jason is working on the accent [Brooklyn thug?], but says it is a beautifully shot short and Jason is a born romantic.
Judges Favs
Carrie’s favorite is Adam’s; Brad’s favorite is Jason’s; and Gary is torn between Andrew’s and Will’s.
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