Just over two years ago, b_b told me that his good friend was putting together a movie, and that he would be investing in it. That sounded like great fun, and a short time after, I sat down with b_b and his friend Oliver.
I was quickly won over by Oliver's passion, and by the fact that we has not a talker, but a doer. I joined b_b as a small time investor.
Here we are three years later, and Oliver Thompson's Welcome to Happiness hits theaters today. Here are the theaters it is playing at:
Los Angeles, CA – Laemmle NoHo 7 New York, NY – Cinema Village
Denver, CO – Kress Cinema and Lounge
Atlanta, GA – Plaza Theater
Seattle-Tacoma, WA – Dragonfly Cinema
San Francisco, CA – Roxie
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX – The Texas Theater
Milwaukee, WI – The Times Cinema
Philadelphia, PA – Roxy
Columbus, OH – Gateway Film Center
The film is also being released on most VoD services.
I saw the film at the Oklahoma City deadCENTER Film festival last year, where it won Best Narrative Feature.
I've read some of the early reviews, and they are mixed in a way that I suspected they would be. TBH I am biased, but IMO thus far, the negative reviewers are missing something. The film is not cynical, although one might expect that is where it would be going. I won't give anything away, but what I like about WTH is that it doesn't exercise the tired self-conscious irony of caricature-like characters that has been the dramedy de jour for so long. They are real people in a quirky world (Well, at least those characters that are real people).
It is a movie that is unguardedly sincere, but not stupidly rose-colored. There is a Prayer for Owen Meany type thing going on in WTH, and personally, I found it both effective and disturbing. IMO this is the point.
I saw some of the audience member's responses to the film, and it was clear to me that if you think there is intrinsic meaning in the universe, WTH is going to rub your coat in the right direction. Some people were clearly moved by this message. However, if you don't think the universe comes with meaning, WTH is going to rub against your grain, and if this leaves you unwilling to examine the work outside of that message, it will diminish your overall opinion of the film.
For this reason, I expect that WTH will do better with audiences than with critics. Critics have a hard time when confronted with sincerity that is not cut with irony, or sadness of a humanitarian scope. If I were the distributor, I would have hit the Midwest as hard as possible.
Oliver is a talented, thoughtful, and hard-working guy, and I expect he is going to create an interesting body of work.
If you see the movie, let me know your thoughts.
Also, look for Kyle Gallner picking up Oliva Thirlby while sporting a Hubski t-shirt. Apparently, it helps.
I just finished it. It's good, I really enjoyed it. I agree with your assessment regarding cynicism. For some reason films must be cynical in order to be taken seriously by critics. I would have no problem recommending this film to people. It's good. Very good when you consider its his first film. -that's just nuts. I will say that at times, visually, its derivative of Wes Anderson but i dig Anderson so that's fine by me. Wes wasn't the first to use slow motion walking scenes I'm sure, or the cut to close up. But it was most obvious to me in the scenes with the record player. -Very Margot Tenenbaum. I enjoyed the story line, I loved the whimsy and I thought that several of the performances were extremely good. The lead performance by Kyle Gallner was great and I thought that Keegan Peal stole the show. It's a creative script. I give it 4.5/5 -damn good for his freshman effort. The music was cool too. That first scene with the button. -Damn. So well acted and visually so great. I rented it on Amazon. Go watch it people. That Hubski t-shirt has a sizeable presence.
Man, I have to learn to not read reviews. They really hate this movie. Indiewire basically called it the worst movie ever made, while NYT and LA times were kinder but still negative. I didn't have anything to do with the making of the film, but it's still hurtful to read that shit. It shouldn't matter, but I can't help it.
I have not read any reviews, but I will now just to check them out. I definitely have some issues with the film but most of them are stylistic and not super negative. For me the positives outweighed the negatives substantially. Literally, I found t to be a positive movie. I loved the message. I thought the performances were great with the exception of one, which I'll gladly discuss w you in person. Overall, I'd give it a B+. I'm no critic but I love art and film and I love and know music. It's good.
One of Oliver's and my mutually favorite movies is The Shining. I'm heartened a little bit to read that Kubrick and duval both got razzie nominations that year for worst director and actress, respectively. So far the movie has a 25% rotten tomato critic score and an 83% audience score. Hopefully audiences win out in the end. I think especially in this day and age word of mouth counts a lot more than some dickhead at NYT who critiques because he can't actually do anything creative.
I watched it for the second time last night. It reinforced my feeling that the lack of cynicism is going to cost with critics. Audiences are usually open to a different experience however, and the film delivers one. I do think there will be space between the two.