My Big Fat Independent Movie
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| My Big Fat Independent Movie | |
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| Directed by | Philip Zlotorynski |
| Produced by | Chris Gore |
| Written by | Chris Gore Adam Schwartz |
| Starring | Pauly Shore Jason Mewes Clint Howard Paget Brewster |
| Music by | Joe Kraemer Jeremy Sweet (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Scott Peck |
| Editing by | Philip Zlotorynski |
| Distributed by | Anchor Bay Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | September 30, 2005 |
| Running time | 80 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005) is an independent movie spoofing well-known independent films, such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Memento, Swingers, Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, Amelie, Reservoir Dogs, Pi, The Good Girl, Run Lola Run, and El Mariachi. My Big Fat Independent Movie inspired an online war of words amongst die-hard independent film fans who felt that the film was blasphemous toward the genre. [1] The film was produced, directed and co-written by film critic Chris Gore, who founded the now web-based magazine Film Threat. My Big Fat Independent Movie was eventually acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment distribution and the film was released on DVD. Broadcast cable rights were picked up by Showtime, The Movie Channel and Sundance Channel.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film begins with a racially-charged scene where a thuggish stereotypical African-American is anally penetrating a stereotypical pale white mentally disabled man who has trouble remembering events for more than 15 minutes at a time. The film then cuts forward in time to two talkative hitmen, Sam (Neil Barton) and Harvey (Eric Hoffman), who mistakenly believe Johnny Vince (Darren Keefe), a hipper-than-thou swingin' hepcat and band trombone player, to be the third member of their gang, assembled by their evil crime boss to pull a "botched robbery" in Las Vegas. Along the way, they take a beautiful hostage – the lovely, desperate and lonely cashier Julianne (Paget Brewster). Little do they know that she will forever change their pathetic lives. During the journey, the foursome encounter a variety of characters inspired by famous independent films, including a bald genius, a forgetful thug, a jogging red-head, a bound and gagged girl, rabbis on a mission, lots of lesbians, Project Greenlight's Pete Jones, a crazed though well-dressed mechanic (Clint Howard), a horny answering machine (Jason Mewes), a naive mariachi, an obnoxious practical-joking love-struck French girl, and finally Pauly Shore as himself.
[edit] Reception
My Big Fat Independent Movie was a [[]], experiencing a very limited theatrical run in 10 markets, earning only $4,655 in box office receipts during its national run.[] The film was poorly received by the public and critics, receiving a very low 23% rotten rating over at [[]]. The film was also rejected by the Sundance film festival and the Slamdance film festival yet the film went on to play at some lesser known film festivals such as Cinequest, South by Southwest, San Diego Film Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Worldfest Houston and the Temecula Valley Film Festival, where it won best feature.[2] A firestorm of internet debate soon erupted over the film's lowbrow treatment of independent film classics and, as a result, the movie suffered a backlash from die-hard independent film fans, many of which considered the film to be blasphemous toward the genre.[3]
Chris Parry, entertainment journalist and film critic for efilmcritic.com offered the following analysis about why "My Big Fat Independent Movie" failed to catch on with the public, stating:[4]
| “ | If the makers of MBFIM had chosen only awful indie films to ridicule, they might have found it easier to keep the comedy standard high. Alternately, if they decided to go way over the top and jam as many pop culture references in as possible, as a true test of the indie film fan’s knowledge, they might have carried things off on pure geek homage value. But the film as it stands is stranded in a dire middle ground, where the target audience loves the films being ridiculed too much to go along with things, and the wider audience simply won’t get what films are actually being referenced. | ” |
[edit] Trivia
- The title My Big Fat Independent Movie is a parody of the highly successful independent film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
- Jason Mewes recorded most of his dialogue, improvised, in a single day. The dialogue was then creatively edited into the film to make it look like an answering machine was hitting on female characters in one of the movie's many slapstick scenes.
