Watching the frequently crude gagathon "Road Trip", it's possible to guess many of the punchlines before they're delivered -- not surprising, given the long cinematic history of youthful comedies -- but this direct descendant of the genre's big kahuna, "National Lampoon's Animal House," is relatively a classy piece of nutty, sexy fun.
A surefire boxoffice hit for DreamWorks, the production has been godfathered and executive produced by wily vets Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock, but the screenplay penned by Scot Armstrong and rookie director Todd Phillips -- best known for his award-winning documentary "Frat House" -- as well as the go-for-it cast, will really bring in the twentysomething target audience.
Some fans may not find it as fresh and successful as last year's "American Pie" or 1998's "There's Something About Mary". But, in the always-risky game of spending millions on silly movies that talk a lot about sex but rarely show it, "Road Trip" has a big quotient of collegiate pulchritude to go with the dick and boner jokes and nonsex comedy.
The ensemble cast is led by best friends Josh (Breckin Meyer) and E.L. Seann William Scott), who attend the University of Ithaca in New York and spend most of their energy dealing with the opposite sex. Josh is in a long-distance relationship with Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard), who attends the University of Texas in Austin. These two have been sweet on each other since childhood, and both have vowed to be faithful.
A cute framing device has eighth-year Ithaca student Barry (Tom Green) doing a cruddy job of leading a campus tour and relating instead the tall tale of Josh and Tiffany. With one hilarious moment in which the storyteller's insisting that girls in dorms always hang out topless is questioned by some of his audience of parents and prospective students, but then allowed to stand, most of "Road Trip" is technically one long flashback.
Encouraged by E.L. to have some fun with the bevy of beauties always in the vicinity, Josh is pursued enthusiastically by Beth (Amy Smart) but wants to stay faithful to Tiffany. He doesn't make it past a party of E.L.'s, where Josh outbids Beth's not-so-secret admirer Jacob (Anthony Rapp) in a goofy coed auction. Later, in Josh's room, Beth is the first of several aggressive females to crawl all over one of the male leads. She also uses his digital video camera to record their first tryst.
Said tape is stupidly left lying around and dumbly mailed by Josh's stoner egghead roommate Rubin (Paul Costanzo) to Tiffany, no less. The titular activity commences about 30 minutes into the movie, with Josh, E.L. and Rubin driving in the car of shy, dorky Kyle (DJ Qualls) to Austin to intercept the tape. Loony Barry stays behind to screw things up by telling Beth -- who really wants Josh and plans to confront Tiffany -- that the guys went to Austin, Mass. She decides he means Boston.
The jokes coming flying fast and thick, and most are admirably well-executed.
The quest for the tape takes the travelers into some inspired interactions with ornery, eccentric country folks. Early in the 1,800-mile trip -- during a great sequence that is simplistic yet so marvelously shot and edited that audiences will laugh themselves sick -- they destroy Kyle's car, bringing his bullheaded father (Fred Ward) into the mix of unfolding narrative strings.
Memorable cameos and bit parts include Andy Dick as a jerky motel clerk; Horatio Sanz as a disgustingly vindictive cook in a diner; Marla Sucharetza as a sperm bank nurse who gives E.L. assistance during perhaps the film's most outrageous scene; Edmund Lyndeck as Barry's Viagra-taking grandfather; Jessica Cauffiel as the "Wrong Tiffany", who Beth tracks down in Boston; and others truly too numerous to mention.
Used sparingly after the first half-hour, Green has an ongoing gag in which he tries to feed a live mouse to Rubin's pet snake, but nature does not take its course right away. The performances in general are perky and engaging. The talented Scott ("American Pie"), Meyer ("54"), Smart ("Outside Providence") and newcomers Costanzo and Qualls are energetic and twinkly eyed, as if inviting one to relax, enjoy and not take a single thing in the film seriously.
ROAD TRIP
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and
the Montecito Picture Co. present
an Ivan Reitman production
Director: Todd Phillips
Screenwriters: Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong
Producers: Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck
Executive producers: Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock
Director of photography: Mark Irwin
Production designer: Clark Hunter
Editor: Sheldon Kahn
Costume designer: Peggy Stamper
Music: Mike Simpson
Casting: Nancy Nayor, Ann Goulder
Color/stereo
Cast:
Josh: Breckin Meyer
E.L.: Seann William Scott
Beth: Amy Smart
Rubin: Paul Costanzo
Kyle: DJ Qualls
Tiffany: Rachel Blanchard
Jacob: Anthony Rapp
Earl Edwards: Fred Ward
Barry: Tom Green
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
A surefire boxoffice hit for DreamWorks, the production has been godfathered and executive produced by wily vets Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock, but the screenplay penned by Scot Armstrong and rookie director Todd Phillips -- best known for his award-winning documentary "Frat House" -- as well as the go-for-it cast, will really bring in the twentysomething target audience.
Some fans may not find it as fresh and successful as last year's "American Pie" or 1998's "There's Something About Mary". But, in the always-risky game of spending millions on silly movies that talk a lot about sex but rarely show it, "Road Trip" has a big quotient of collegiate pulchritude to go with the dick and boner jokes and nonsex comedy.
The ensemble cast is led by best friends Josh (Breckin Meyer) and E.L. Seann William Scott), who attend the University of Ithaca in New York and spend most of their energy dealing with the opposite sex. Josh is in a long-distance relationship with Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard), who attends the University of Texas in Austin. These two have been sweet on each other since childhood, and both have vowed to be faithful.
A cute framing device has eighth-year Ithaca student Barry (Tom Green) doing a cruddy job of leading a campus tour and relating instead the tall tale of Josh and Tiffany. With one hilarious moment in which the storyteller's insisting that girls in dorms always hang out topless is questioned by some of his audience of parents and prospective students, but then allowed to stand, most of "Road Trip" is technically one long flashback.
Encouraged by E.L. to have some fun with the bevy of beauties always in the vicinity, Josh is pursued enthusiastically by Beth (Amy Smart) but wants to stay faithful to Tiffany. He doesn't make it past a party of E.L.'s, where Josh outbids Beth's not-so-secret admirer Jacob (Anthony Rapp) in a goofy coed auction. Later, in Josh's room, Beth is the first of several aggressive females to crawl all over one of the male leads. She also uses his digital video camera to record their first tryst.
Said tape is stupidly left lying around and dumbly mailed by Josh's stoner egghead roommate Rubin (Paul Costanzo) to Tiffany, no less. The titular activity commences about 30 minutes into the movie, with Josh, E.L. and Rubin driving in the car of shy, dorky Kyle (DJ Qualls) to Austin to intercept the tape. Loony Barry stays behind to screw things up by telling Beth -- who really wants Josh and plans to confront Tiffany -- that the guys went to Austin, Mass. She decides he means Boston.
The jokes coming flying fast and thick, and most are admirably well-executed.
The quest for the tape takes the travelers into some inspired interactions with ornery, eccentric country folks. Early in the 1,800-mile trip -- during a great sequence that is simplistic yet so marvelously shot and edited that audiences will laugh themselves sick -- they destroy Kyle's car, bringing his bullheaded father (Fred Ward) into the mix of unfolding narrative strings.
Memorable cameos and bit parts include Andy Dick as a jerky motel clerk; Horatio Sanz as a disgustingly vindictive cook in a diner; Marla Sucharetza as a sperm bank nurse who gives E.L. assistance during perhaps the film's most outrageous scene; Edmund Lyndeck as Barry's Viagra-taking grandfather; Jessica Cauffiel as the "Wrong Tiffany", who Beth tracks down in Boston; and others truly too numerous to mention.
Used sparingly after the first half-hour, Green has an ongoing gag in which he tries to feed a live mouse to Rubin's pet snake, but nature does not take its course right away. The performances in general are perky and engaging. The talented Scott ("American Pie"), Meyer ("54"), Smart ("Outside Providence") and newcomers Costanzo and Qualls are energetic and twinkly eyed, as if inviting one to relax, enjoy and not take a single thing in the film seriously.
ROAD TRIP
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and
the Montecito Picture Co. present
an Ivan Reitman production
Director: Todd Phillips
Screenwriters: Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong
Producers: Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck
Executive producers: Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock
Director of photography: Mark Irwin
Production designer: Clark Hunter
Editor: Sheldon Kahn
Costume designer: Peggy Stamper
Music: Mike Simpson
Casting: Nancy Nayor, Ann Goulder
Color/stereo
Cast:
Josh: Breckin Meyer
E.L.: Seann William Scott
Beth: Amy Smart
Rubin: Paul Costanzo
Kyle: DJ Qualls
Tiffany: Rachel Blanchard
Jacob: Anthony Rapp
Earl Edwards: Fred Ward
Barry: Tom Green
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 5/15/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NANTUCKET, Mass. -- "The Autumn Heart", written by Davidlee Willson, who also plays one of the central roles, exudes a palpable emotional sincerity that is redolent of its autobiographical inspiration.
The tale of a reunion between a well-heeled Harvard student and the three sisters and mother who were separated from him because of a divorce years earlier, is a well-meaning, obviously heartfelt effort that suffers from typical debut filmmakers' mistakes, including an obviousness and crudity that detracts from its impact.
Don't tell that to audiences, though: At the Nantucket Film Festival, where the film received its East Coast premiere (it played earlier at Sundance), the sold-out crowd unleashed a veritable cacophony of sniffles, sobs and nose blowing. It tied for the 1999 Audience Award for best feature film.
The film, directed by Steven Maler, features Tyne Daly as a Boston-area working class woman who suffers a heart attack. Lying sick in her hospital bed, she implores her three daughters to go find their brother, who they have not seen since the family was torn apart 16 years earlier. It turns out that Daniel (Willson) is a student at Harvard, and his father, Lee (Jack Davidson), has made himself into a millionaire.
This is quite a contrast for the three women, who encompass a broad range of personalities. Deb (Ally Sheedy) is embittered, hardened and hostile to the father who she sees as having abandoned his family. Donna (Marceline Hugot) is an earth-mother type struggling with four children, and Diane (Marla Sucharetza) is a sexy vamp with a propensity for dirty talk and tight animal skin outfits. Needless to say, their arrival comes as a shock to Daniel, who faints dead away when they show up unannounced at his class at Harvard.
The resulting emotional reconciliation that occurs among Daniel, the parents and the sisters forms the heart of the film, which also seeks to explore the cultural and class divisions that threaten to derail the healing process. Willson's script is never exactly subtle, and for every effective and moving scene there is another one that we've seen a thousand times before, such as when a bevy of male strippers hired by Diane invade the bridal shower of Daniel's upper class fiancee, resulting in predictable comic hysteria. The culture clash is played up for maximum comic effect, and though the results are frequently amusing, they tend to derail the overall verisimilitude and emotional impact.
The performers tend to accentuate the script's flaws by overacting, with even the normally reliable Sheedy overdoing her character's negativity, going through the film looking more deranged than resentful. Daly, who has chewed up the scenery on more than one previous occasion, is, on the other hand, quite restrained and moving as the dying mother, and Davidson, as the father, brings depth and sensitivity to his role.
THE AUTUMN HEART
A Film Cellar presentation
Credits: Director: Steven Maler; Screenwriter: Davidlee Willson; Producers: Kelley McMahon, Jerri Sher; Executive producers: Marc Chabot, Lisa Schiller; Director of photography: John Leuba; Editor: Joel Hirsch; Music: Sheldon Mirowitz. Cast: Ann: Tyne Daly; Deb: Ally Sheedy; Daniel: Davidlee Willson; Lee: Jack Davidson; Diane: Marla Sucharetza; Donna: Marceline Hugot. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 105 minutes.
The tale of a reunion between a well-heeled Harvard student and the three sisters and mother who were separated from him because of a divorce years earlier, is a well-meaning, obviously heartfelt effort that suffers from typical debut filmmakers' mistakes, including an obviousness and crudity that detracts from its impact.
Don't tell that to audiences, though: At the Nantucket Film Festival, where the film received its East Coast premiere (it played earlier at Sundance), the sold-out crowd unleashed a veritable cacophony of sniffles, sobs and nose blowing. It tied for the 1999 Audience Award for best feature film.
The film, directed by Steven Maler, features Tyne Daly as a Boston-area working class woman who suffers a heart attack. Lying sick in her hospital bed, she implores her three daughters to go find their brother, who they have not seen since the family was torn apart 16 years earlier. It turns out that Daniel (Willson) is a student at Harvard, and his father, Lee (Jack Davidson), has made himself into a millionaire.
This is quite a contrast for the three women, who encompass a broad range of personalities. Deb (Ally Sheedy) is embittered, hardened and hostile to the father who she sees as having abandoned his family. Donna (Marceline Hugot) is an earth-mother type struggling with four children, and Diane (Marla Sucharetza) is a sexy vamp with a propensity for dirty talk and tight animal skin outfits. Needless to say, their arrival comes as a shock to Daniel, who faints dead away when they show up unannounced at his class at Harvard.
The resulting emotional reconciliation that occurs among Daniel, the parents and the sisters forms the heart of the film, which also seeks to explore the cultural and class divisions that threaten to derail the healing process. Willson's script is never exactly subtle, and for every effective and moving scene there is another one that we've seen a thousand times before, such as when a bevy of male strippers hired by Diane invade the bridal shower of Daniel's upper class fiancee, resulting in predictable comic hysteria. The culture clash is played up for maximum comic effect, and though the results are frequently amusing, they tend to derail the overall verisimilitude and emotional impact.
The performers tend to accentuate the script's flaws by overacting, with even the normally reliable Sheedy overdoing her character's negativity, going through the film looking more deranged than resentful. Daly, who has chewed up the scenery on more than one previous occasion, is, on the other hand, quite restrained and moving as the dying mother, and Davidson, as the father, brings depth and sensitivity to his role.
THE AUTUMN HEART
A Film Cellar presentation
Credits: Director: Steven Maler; Screenwriter: Davidlee Willson; Producers: Kelley McMahon, Jerri Sher; Executive producers: Marc Chabot, Lisa Schiller; Director of photography: John Leuba; Editor: Joel Hirsch; Music: Sheldon Mirowitz. Cast: Ann: Tyne Daly; Deb: Ally Sheedy; Daniel: Davidlee Willson; Lee: Jack Davidson; Diane: Marla Sucharetza; Donna: Marceline Hugot. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 105 minutes.
- 6/29/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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