Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Rav’s 19 years old. He’s in a foreign country right now. He’s got press credentials and pocket money he didn’t earn. This kid’s got the whole world at his feet...
... and he’s spending his time chatting with the people in our chat room. The same people he chats with every day. With 6,000 registered press people and about 60 computers available for free use, this is how he’s spending his time.
If you see him there, punch him in the face for me, would you?!
heya moriarty,
This should be report number 2 but I am not actually writing an entire daily report, I’ll get to that later in the day. I’ve seen a bunch of movies today Edward Ponti’s Between Strangers and Tonie Marshall’s Nearest to Heaven, but none of that can even halfway compare to the genius comedy of Dylan Kidd’s Roger Dodger. This film has played Cannes and Tribeca so raving about it might be a little bit redundant, but I’m just not going to be able to hold myself back. This film was the most “buzzed” screening I’ve attended since I landed here in Venice, every seat in the house was full and the auditorium was full of laughter in the way you never see press react to films.
The film opens in a cafe where Roger is pontificating about the future of the male race, his friends sit across from him questioning his theory. His friends Joyce (Isabella Rossilini) and Donovan (Ben Shenkman) eventually applaud his entertaining arguement that men will be useless in the future once women learn to masturbate more often or something like that. Roger has been seeing Joyce on the side and this is complicating his friendship with all of his buddies at the same time, and also complicating his business life as Joyce is his boss at work. What complicates it more is that Joyce has just ended her relationship with him, keeping him from hanging out with his buddies as well. He comes back to his desk and discovers his nephew Nick sitting there, they decide to have lunch and Roger somehow decides he is going to change Nick’s life by helping him get women, as he is a bit of a geeky high-school virgin. From here, Roger Dodger becomes an adventure of sorts as basically the rest of the film is a quest in which Roger hopes to teach him to finally pick up a woman and get laid.
This film is just so perfect it’s kind of unbelievable. It’s a kind of unimaginable high to just be hit over the head with a movie this good. Swingers played in Venice years ago, I dont want to over hype it and make unfair comparisons, but this film does seem like it could be a cult hit in the same way swingers was. This is a debuet just as brilliant as Swingers, it shows a lot of new talent to come. Honestly I dont know where the fuck Dylan Kidd came from, all I know is that I love the guy now. Jessie Eisenberg (Haley’s Brother) is fucking amazing, and its great to see an actual 16 year old playing a 16 year old well. I believe we are going to see this kid much much more often, he’s also in the emperor’s club coming out soon (finally I do forgive the Eisenberg family for that annoying Regal theatres pepsi ad last summer).
Elizabeth Berkely is dare I say it really damn good as girl they pick up in a bar one night that winds up intrigued by Nick. Campbell’s Scotts Roger is completely quotable, and it is he never ceases not be entertaining to look at. Campbell Scott will never be as good as this, Roger is a character that will live on for quite a while, this is a film I would like to own on DVD like right now. I want to show this movie to my friends, and their friends and their friend’s friends. Hopefully Campbell Scott and Dylan Kidd get all the credit they deserve for this film, and hopefully we will be seeing another film from Dylan Kidd soon. Artisan releases this film in October seek it out and bring everyone you know along GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
Okay now I’m off to hopefully land a few interviews and listen to Tom Hanks and Sam Mendes talk about Perdition.
Laters,
