Review for ScumbagZ by Jim Holding
1/11/00
Printed in the Warren Times Observer on 1/13/00
SCUMBAGZ WORLD PREMIERE A TRIUMPH FOR LOCAL FILMMAKERS
The first big belly laugh came early in the movie. Well over two hundred of us shared the laugh in the dark, and you could feel the crowded room relax. It was going to be good; not just OK…good. Lots more laughs followed.
The mixed bunch that packed the Players Club auditorium last Friday night ranged from grizzled ex-hippie boomers like me to flat-out, Gen X, slacker punks; there were more of them than us, but it was a friendly crowd with lots of waves, hugs, high fives and even a peace sign or two.
As a full house, we were wholly partisan. We had gathered there to watch the movie ScumbagZ and to hoot and holler and yell our support for the movie's three principals Devin Cogswell, Jeff Eggleston and Paul Giannini, who made the movie last summer and hosted us Friday at the world premiere. It was my first world premiere and probably my last. Just being there made me feel hip.
Like most of the audience, I've known Devin, Jeff, and Paul for a long time. All three get credit for writing the movie and all three acted in it. ScumbagZ is the first full-length movie for all three and none had any real prior film work or training. Paul Giannini also served as the director, producer and editor. If the auteur theory of film criticism (which I'm sure you know says that the director is the primary creative force in a motion picture) is true, then Paul is more talented, smarter, funnier and far more of a perfectionist than I ever gave him credit for.
Just before curtain time, Devin, Paul and Jeff took the stage to thunderous applause and raucous cheers. Devin spoke first and set the tone for the evening, with a mix of tongue-in-cheek humor and heartfelt thanks to family, friends and supporters. Devin introduced Paul as "our visionary guru" and Paul thanked the crowd. Then Jeff thanked just about everybody on earth. It felt like the Oscars and the film hadn't even started rolling. The speeches ended when Eggleston roared, "If you don't like this movie, you have no taste."
And we were off. The flick started. The big belly hit us. We all knew we had taste. After that, it just got better.
I hadn't known what to expect. I knew that ScumbagZ got the capital Z in its title as an hommage to a Japanese anime cartoon, DragonballZ, about funny-looking aliens with superpowers. (Dane, my twelve-year-old cultural advisor watches DragonballZ daily on the Cartoon Network, late afternoons. It's OK. You might want to check it out.) Anyhow, I was concerned about watching a film full of youth- culture-based in-jokes that my kids would catch and howl about but that would go right over my aged and balding head.
I didn't have to worry. ScumbagZ is a movie that anyone can watch and enjoy. Well, maybe not. My grandmothers would not have cared for it. Mom would like it, though, and Dane, my cultural advisor loved it.
Knowing I'd be writing a review for the paper, I checked the web site. (Since Blair Witch, no independent movie or movie maker-called indies by those of us in the know-goes without a proprietary web site. Check it out at www.geocities. com/scumbagz_the_movie.)
On the web (and in the news story you printed in the Times Observer the week before the premiere), the writers summarize the movie saying: "ScumbagZ is a simple tale of good versus evil. It tells the story of one Chip Derek and his monkeyboy of a friend, Pete. Chip is a struggling writer trying to write his first movie. Some might say this is a coming of age story. We say it is a coming of age story coming from the wrong way. Once we throw in a diabolical killer and a relentless manhunter the misadventures of Chip and Pete really begin." (I understood all that except for the adjective "monkeyboy" and I wasn't sure I wanted to.)
On the web, I also read: "We the producers of ScumbagZ feel that a new generation of film genre has been started with the birth of ScumbagZ. We call this new genre "Silly Cinema" because it is too damn silly and idiotic to be called anything else." So that's what I knew when the lights at the Players Club went out and the pictures started moving. It wasn't enough to prepare me for what followed. ScumbagZ is a high, fine mix of MTV and Hitchcock, Hal Roach and Ingmar Bergman, Monty Python and Kurosawa, Mel Brooks and Eisenstein plus some Three Stooges, Hong Kong chopsockey flicks, and the Monkees all thrown into a blender and pureed. (If you don't recognize some of those names, check them out at the library or your local video store.) What I'm saying here, is that the movie was good. Really good. And funny.
The acting was tremendous. Devin and Jeff carried most of the weight here. Devin plays Chip Derek, the protagonist with a light and very human touch and goes over the top as a southern cop. He plays other rolls, too. Jeff does a fine job as Monkeyboy Pete, (Monkeyboy, by the way, seems to be synonymous with wastrel/party animal/dork.) friend, agent and advisor to Chip and roars flat out throughout. (His advice scenes are tremendous.) Jeff also covers a demented southern lawman and the hero of the kung-fu action sequence, complete with badly-synched voiceover dubbing. (The still you printed last week showed Jeff in the kung-fu scene.) Paul served as the Manhunter and as the maniac scumbag killer. (The scumbag killer, of course, gives us the title.) As actors, all three love their work and they're good at it. Lines come out easily, timing is tight and they perform well together although a brief clip shown after the credits shows there was some minor discussion between the principals during filming. (Check it out.) Perhaps the best scene in the movie shows how the killer escapes from his guards at The Cogswell Penal System. It's a hilarious sendup of southern lawmen that involves all three actors and ketchup.
The writing showed flair and, despite some scatological humor (which you've got to admit is always good for a laugh), more wit than you might expect from young twenty-something writers. Would you expect Martin Scorcese to mooch a quarter to make a phone call? When the hero chides his friend Pete for living the monkeyboy (See above.) lifestyle, he asks, "Do you think someone should pay you for laying around and drinking beer at 11:30 in the morning?" Pete answers, "Well they should because I'm soooo good at it." It just blew me away and the movie is packed full of this kind of repartee. The dream sequences, where Chip Derek mentally sees his still-to-be-written movies include a truly hilarious sex scene (It's best left undescribed. Remember there are only three actors and they're all male and no, it's not what you're thinking and shame on you.), the takeoff on Bruce Lee style chopsockey flicks that had the audience rolling. The script was fresh and, from my perspective, an unexpected pleasure.
The texture, look and feel of the film gave another, very pleasant surprise. For someone with little experience and no training in film, Paul Giannini, gives us black and white cinematography and editing that any veteran filmmaker would be proud of. Camera angles from odd places set the mood. They come from the ground, from above, from the side, generally when least expected. The film never shows the face of the serial killer and, by denying a face for the evil that hunts the heroes, keeps him from being human and builds him into more of a monster. The talent is never overdone, but it's always there.
The tyro auter does a fine job with composition as well. He uses shadow constantly and expertly. (This is called chiaroscuro by us cognoscenti, but we won't get fancy.) He balances his shots well and evenly and makes the transitions from scene to scene (although often of the MTV, fast-cut variety) tight enough that they carry the watcher seamlessly through the film. I assume that shooting the movie digitally and editing on a personal computer helped, but editing makes or breaks a movie and the work done on ScumbagZ is a major accomplishment.
I wondered how seeing familiar scenes would affect me as I watched. (Scorcese was in the phone booth on Pennsylvania Avenue by Northwest Savings. Most of the action took place in the Giannini home on Creekwood Drive.) The cumulative effect was zero. I recognized the scenery, but paid attention to the movie.
Finally, I've got to talk about the music. It comes from local groups The Peabodys, SOS, the Jeff Eggleston Project, and Iggy, all playing original tunes. It was good stuff, but I've got to admit I'm no expert on today's punk/thrash/alternative/ whatever vibes. By the end of the show, I wanted some blues, but my offspring gave the music six thumbs up. The only exception to youth rock comes from Michelle Belleau who contributed The Piano Concerto No. 69 (no composer credited-maybe Rachmaninoff?) which accompanied a wickedly comic takeoff on Bergman's experimental cinema from decades ago. (I expected a black-robed Death to appear and start babbling in Swedish.)
Is ScumbagZ perfect? Of course not, nothing is perfect (except maybe Knights in White Satin by the Moody Blues and Donna's venison chili.) Is ScumbagZ a good movie and a good comedy? Definitely yes. I think so and so did the vast bulk of the audience. (I did hear one gripe about the show dragging in spots. Obviously, he'd never seen Sleepless in Seattle.) It is rough in places, but, as a first film, it's a triumph and I have to take exception to the fellows calling their work "silly cinema." Yes, the subject and content may be silly, but the movie itself is a serious and dedicated effort in comedy and filmmaking.
Direct from Players Club in Warren, ScumbagZ is heading out for submission to the New York Underground, Lake Tahoe and Atlanta International Film Festivals. I hope it gets accepted. Out of towners deserve a chance to have as much fun seeing this movie as I did. If you ever get a chance to see it, go. In the immortal words of Joe Bob Briggs, "Check it out."