Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

After our first recent mention of this one, Bob wrote me to warn that this isn’t anything like the work he’s known for. He sounds quite pleased with the film, but he isn’t sure what the average MR. SHOW fan is going to thin of it. Sounds like it’s got at least one fan already...

Harry,

Just got back from the Slamdance screening of Melvin Goes to Dinner, directed by Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show fame. This film is brilliant. Sadly, I don't know that anyone will ever get the opportunity to see it...

Michael Blieden wrote the script, based on his play of the same name. He stars as Melvin, who is meeting his old friend Joey for dinner. Joey happens to run into his old friend Alex, who happens to run into her old friend Sarah. The four of them polish off several bottles of wine throughout the evening, and discuss religion, sex, infidelity, life, etc, confessing the kind of cathartic secrets that you can only tell a stranger.

Mixed in with the dinner scenes are flashbacks, told using still photos in a sort of animated way (kind of like Run Lola Run), and scenes from earlier in the day. Particularly nice are some little scenes between Melvin and his sister, played by Maura Tierney, and a photographic scene where Joey describes his encounter with a couple of hot stewardesses.

The film has the hilarious lines that you'd expect from Bob Odenkirk, plus great cameos by David Cross and another high-profile Mr Show alumnus. Funny as it, the only way to describe this movie is "deep," as most films dealing with people talking over dinner tend to be. I mean that in a good way.

Slamdance is great, and it's nice to see a film festival that isn't as "Hollywood-ized" as Sundance, but they do things kind of half-assed. They sell more tickets than they have seats, so people have to sit on the floor, and the configuration of the seats make it very hard to see their small screen. Worst of all was the sound. The audience seemed to enjoy the movie, but Odenkirk said every third line was unintelligable, or just missing entirely, because the Slamdance people hadn't configured the sound correctly. Needless to say, he was a little pissed. And it would appear that the audience I was in didn't get to experience the film to the fullest extent.

Anyway, this film is fantastic, easily the best I've seen at either Sundance or Slamdance this year. If it ever plays at a film festival near you be sure to check it out, as it doesn't seem like it would get distribution, even without the sound problems.

- Sawce

Gee, I hope that’s not true. I’d love to get a look at it m’self as soon as possible... maybe at this year’s South By Southwest...

"Moriarty" out.