Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Yesterday got crazy and I ended up not getting back in until well after 2am, with my first movie at 9am... Given travel times, cleansing, unpacking, repacking and catching the bus, that gave me a little less than 5 hours of sleep.
But I'm bright eyed and bushy-tailed, waiting for the new Tom DiCillo movie to start and thought I'd start writing up the other 2 films I saw yesterday. Well, I saw another, but it was terrible and doesn't have distribution, so I'm not going to kick it until it gets a release.
THE TEN was an experience. It was my first public premiere Sundance screening and it was fucking insane. For starters, I didn't have my ticket on me, I had to meet up with a fellow by the name of Jeff Hill, whom I had never met, a realization that didn't hit me until I was standing out in the cold in front of the Library Theater along with about 200 people praying for wait list tickets.
I finally found Jeff Hill after about 35 minutes of bugging volunteers, thanks to a really nice guy who wrote for Hollywood Reporter. Unfortunately, the HR guy was checking in to see if he could get a ticket and Jeff only had one, which he was holding for me. Why in God's name they'd give me a seat over the damn Hollywood Reporter is beyond me, but I got the ticket.
The line was another experience. I waited in the hall with one of the Weinsteins and I was about 4 people in front of the President of Lionsgate. I finally got in, brushing past Cheryl Hines (very tiny, by the way) and found a pretty decent single empty seat next to a big wig from Oddlot who grilled me on my thoughts of 300 and told me a little about Frank Miller's adaptation of THE SPIRIT. Nothing newsworthy, unfortunately, but still cool to hear the project is moving ahead.
If you don't know about the flick, it's essentially 10 sketches strung together with bits featuring Paul Rudd, Famke Janssen and Jessica Alba. The middle bits are just a giant, black room with towering stone tablets featuring the 10 Commandments. He bookends the flick and introduces each new skit, focusing on a different commandment. These are all modern day, so you won't get any HISTORY OF THE WORLD type period comedy.
Where else will you see Oliver Platt playing an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator or Winona Ryder fucking a ventriloquist's dummy or Jessica Alba tongue-kissing Paul Rudd or Justin Theroux as a horny Jesus Christ living in Mexico?
Of the 10 segments only the first one fell flat to me (about Adam Brody jumping out of a plane without a parachute and how he survives), but it sets up threads that appear in later, funnier, segments.
The standouts for me are the "Don't take the Lord's name in vain" segment, about a virginal librarian on vacation in Mexico, Thou Shalt Not Kill about a doctor that likes to "goof" on his patients (and the resulting murder trial, complete with a foul-mouthed judge who had me rolling), the commandment about not coveting thy neighbor's wife (with Rob Corddry... in an all male prison) and the Winona Ryder puppet segments. Honorable mention goes to the great Oliver Platt as a stand-in father figure for two grown black men born to two white parents. Oliver Platt always rocks. Also, there's an animated segment that is very strongly influenced by the FRITZ THE CAT and other Ralph Bakshi animation. Bonus points.
The theater was filled with industry people. The movie is actually funny and the cast is great. We'll see this come out.
For my money, the movie doesn't live up to this summer's KNOCKED UP, which screened early at BNAT. They are completely different films, of course, but KNOCKED UP has the edge for simply being one full story, where THE TEN changes gears every 10 minutes or less. Compared to Wain's previous film, WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, which is a more fair comparison, THE TEN continues that style of comedy. There are moments in THE TEN that go a little more slapstick, but the humor is in that vain. Super R-rated, low-brow comedy. My cup of tea.
There we have it. THE TEN, which I'm sure we'll hear about selling for an ungodly sum of money soon. All the ingredients are there.
Here's a pic from the introduction... sorry it's blurry, but my camera is small and tiny and I was far back. You can make out Wain (on the mic), Rudd and Janssen for sure.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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