Hey folks, Harry here... just got back from a great dinner with Elijah Wood & Claire Forlani and Lexi Alexander... oh and the irrepressible DUDE! Man, haven't had a chance to hang out with Elijah since the south of France back in the late spring of 2002. Nice to see he's totally got his shit together still. Though it is weird seeing him drink Shiner Boch instead of Stewart's Orange soda in Austin. Heh. Anyway - today totally got away from me and after 4 hours of chatting I'd missed everything. That's the problem with hanging out with movie people during a film fest. Speaking of, found out tonight that THE ARISTOCRATS which is just completely beloved during the opening night midnight screening... that it will have a second screening this coming TUESDAY at 10pm at the Austin Convention Center! So folks - if you missed it like me, check it out, it's apparently one of the most hilariously wrong movies you'll get a chance to see this year!
Hey everyone, Annette Kellerman here fresh from the opening night of the South by Southwest Film Festival. And what an opening night it was! After making it through the ever-chaotic registration lines, I headed to the Paramount Theater for my very first film of the fest.
THE WENDELL BAKER STORY
Written and directed by Luke Wilson and co-directed by his brother Andrew Wilson, the film follows (you guessed it) Wendell Baker and his often misguided endeavors. We are introduced to Wendell (Luke Wilson) as a fast-talking, full of shit Texas entrepeneur/slacker whose business is selling fake ID's to border jumpers on the Rio Grande out of a trailer that he pulls behind his girlfriend's El Camino no less. Unfortunately, Wendell's luck runs out- as does the patience of the his longtime love played by Eva Mendes.
In true wacky-romantic comedy form, Wendell eventually finds himself as an orderly at a "retirement hotel" run by a wonderfully creepy Owen Wilson. Although they never reveal it, I have a sneaking suspicion that Owen's character is actually the long lost brother of Ben Stiller's hilarious nursing home orderly from Happy Gilmore. Anyhoo, with the help of his old cronies from the hotel, Wendell pledges to win back his girl. I don't want to give away any more, but appearances by Will Ferrell, Eddie Griffin, Harry Dean Stanton, and (YES!) Kris Kristoferson make The Wendell Baker Story definitely worth checking out. It's not an outstanding film, but a lot of fun with all the quirkiness you expect from those crazy Wilson brothers. Andrew and Luke were in attendane to introduce the film, but unfortunately they didn't stick around for a Q and A. I guess sixth street was calling their names...
THE ARISTOCRATS
My second film for the fest was a doozy! How can I even begin to describe the film The Aristrocrats? Well, this guy walks up to a talent agent and says, "My family has a great act you have to see..."
Okay, okay, I'd better just back up. You see, The Aristrocrats is a documentary by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza that is about one of the oldest, well- known jokes among comedians, and the punchline of the joke is "the aristrocrats." Now, what falls between that punchline and the set up above is what an entire documentary can be based on.
As the joke goes, the man continues to describe to the talent agent any and all varieties of lewd acts that can be performed on a stage with all of his family members. And when I say ALL lewd acts- I mean every smutty, obscene, disgusting sexual and/or bodily function that you've never admitted to even flirting with thinking about (kinda like talkback, haha). And yes, I did say that said man is talking about said family- dog and all. At the end of the usually lengthy description of the worst kind of multiple violations imaginable, the talent agent asks the man what he calls the act to which the man replies, "the aristocrats."
Yes, the joke itself is hardly a knee slapper in the context here. The beauty part is that whoever tells the joke has license to tell it in any filthy way they deem acceptable...er, um, unacceptable I guess. In a staggering example of editing genius by Emery Emery, we get to see dozens of comedians tell their own version of The Aristocrats.
Right now, you're probably shaking your head in confusion- believe me when I heard everybody from Bob Saget to Robin Williams talking about felching, fisting, cumming, shitting- sometimes all at the same time- I was shaking my head too! I was also laughing my ass off! Phyllis Diller, Andy Dick, George Carlin, Sarah Silverman- you name 'em, they're in this movie and they all have their own version of the aristocrats. By the time I saw Cartman telling Stan, Kyle, and Kenny the aristocrat joke, I was almost sick from laughing. Thankfully, the film got picked up at Sundance by Think Film, so you too will have your chance to hear Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Reiser, or Don Rickles tell their version of the classic. Mind you, this is not a film for the faint of heart. Seriously. Offensive doesn't even begin to describe what comes out of the mouths of some of your most beloved comedians. I guess me and my friends aren't the only ones with sick, depraved gross-out games. This film will probably have a lot of people thinking the same thing- and laughing at the absurdity of it.
I'll be checking in with more reviews later in the fest!
Until then, Annette.
