The Comedy
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The Way It Is Now
For the past half-year or so, I have been in constant dialogue with the distribution and foreign sales companies who are releasing four of my recent productions. While engaging these companies, in conjunction with the four directors, I noticed some patterns emerging that are revealing of the current distribution landscape — patterns that differ dramatically from the old ways of theatrical and home video release. Rest assured, it’s not all bad news. It used to be that foreign pre-sales would help us get our dramas financed. Now we can barely find foreign sales agents for our American independent films, even […]
by Mike S. Ryan on Jul 18, 2013 -
Tim Heidecker on The Comedy
It’s unlikely that anyone had a more schizophrenic Sundance this past January than Tim Heidecker. The 36-year old actor and filmmaker attended the festival with two projects – Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, the feature-length culmination of his and longtime collaborator Eric Wareheim’s cult absurdist comedy TV series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and the ironically named The Comedy, a dark drama from filmmaker Rick Alverson (New Jerusalem). And as both films have rolled out over the past year, Heidecker has had to juggle dueling personae – zany comedic curmudgeon and dramatic leading man. In The Comedy, […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Nov 15, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: RICK ALVERSON’S “THE COMEDY”
I’m not usually a fan of films using negative quotes in their promotional materials, but in the case of this teaser for Rick Alverson’s The Comedy, it feels totally appropriate and is in tune with the general vibe of the film. This spot is so minimal but, I think, highly effective. It goes against the grain by selling the film as actually what it is, rather than making it seem more palatable and crowdpleasing. The film is coming out in November through Tribeca Film, and you’ll be seeing more Filmmaker coverage of the film in the buildup to its release.
by Nick Dawson on Aug 30, 2012 -
PAUL SIMON, JAMES MURPHY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MODERN ARTIST
Does the culture make the artist, or does the artist make the culture? Two Sundance documentaries — Shut Up And Play the Hits, which follows James Murphy through the last concert of his band LCD Soundsystem in 2010, and Under African Skies, Joe Berlinger’s history of Paul Simon’s seminal Graceland – might seem to be unlikely bedfellows. Both films are brilliantly executed portraits of musicians walking the tightrope of cultural relevance and personal expression. The differences between the two stories illustrate fundamental changes in our popular culture over the last 30 years. Both films seek to explore “a moment in […]
by Alicia Van Couvering on Jan 27, 2012 -
SUNDANCE CLIP ROUND-UP: “INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE,” “ARBITRAGE,” “THE COMEDY”
Those of us not in Park City this weeked will have to make due with the slow-trickle of “Exclusive Clips” that have begun floating around the internet. First up, Wired shares a sequence from Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky’s Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary about video-game programmers. In the above clip, Tommy Refenes, one of the film’s main subjects, nervously shares an unfinished version of his new game at a convention in Boston. Next, Deadline.com shares this tense clip from writer-director Nicholas Jarecki’s hedge-fund psychological thriller, Arbitrage. Featuring Richard Gere and Nate Parker, the clip hints at the film’s […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 22, 2012 -
“THE COMEDY” | co-writer-director, Rick Alverson
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 8:30 pm –Library Center Theater] I’ve always been suspicious of movies and visual media and my interest in film developed out of that suspicion. In the world that I knew as a child, in an era preceding the Internet, many of us were reared in part, at least in terms of our social behavior, by television. Much of what we understood of the adult world we learned through osmosis, through the colors and exoticism of television, through the play of bodies and the exchange of words and gestures in that very artificial space. We were […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Comedy Director Rick Alverson
Director Rick Alverson is nothing if not prolific. After putting out six albums over eight years with his band Spokane, Alverson turned his attention to film, directing The Builder in 2010 and New Jerusalem last year. Continuing this productive streak is The Comedy, a dark exploration into the insular, self-destructive lifestyle of the affluent white male. Set against the backdrop of Brooklyn’s ultra-hip Williamsburg, The Comedy stands in contrast to Alverson’s previous two films, films that focused mainly on the stories of working class immigrants. Starring comedian Tim Heidecker (in his first dramatic role) and a supporting cast that includes […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 21, 2012
