NO. 1
cult CINEMA
PINK FLAMINGOS GENRE Comedy
TAGLINE ‘An exercise in poor taste.’
DIRECTOR John Waters
RUN TIME 93 min
WRITER John Waters
QUOTE ‘Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth is my politics! Filth is my life!’
PLOT Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as “The Filthiest Person Alive”.
TRIVIA During filming, Divine was arrested for stealing, and in his defense said that he was a method actor playing a criminal.
ISSUE NO. 1 cult classics of Cinema Eque si sa perumquibus. Gendiore velibus ped mos reperspel min re et lignimi, core, et eaquam, te nobit ium eum eossit animaio ssimi, te velis alicitati doluptatate consequi derum quo blam, qui delescid et latusda con pelentet eum et quia eum faccae perum faces ressit, qui nimaio. Xim et quam et verum conseces as rataspi endist aritam facius aliqui aut iunt ipsa id quis quo ium quiducium harum ent ipitibus rehendis ut re elibus, oditiae ceateceaquis simaiore latemquodis aliquiant essum eatecte evel maion nobit et es ab ipissunt ad est, non re non ernatur? Mo dolutet eum ipsa nisquatecti aciet reheni conse aci blabori asperum fugit estoris quiant.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
A HISTORY:
CAREER PERSPECTIVE, RICHARD LINKLATER:
18 OF THE BEST:
Everything you could ever need to know about the ‘Cult’ film genre.
In depth analysis of the director famed for cult hits such as Slacker, Dazed & Confused and A Scanner Darkly. Includes a filmography, interview excerpts, illustrative interpretations & more.
A compilation of the most renowned cult films. Includes plot summaries, cast notes, year of release, trivia tidbits, quotes & more.
CHAPTER ONE A HISTORY: Everything you could ever need to know about the ‘Cult’ film genre.
CHAPTER TWO CAREER PERSPECTIVE, RICHARD LINKLATER: In depth analysis of the director famed for cult hits such as Slacker, Dazed & Confused and A Scanner Darkly. Includes a filmography, interview excerpts, illustrative interpretations & more.
10
‘Most of us are losers most of the time if you think about it.’
Richard Linklater, Personal Quote
RICHARD LINKLATER Born July 30, 1960 Houston, TX
EARLY LIFE Linklater was born in Texas in 1960 and studied at Sam Houston State University but left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through repeated visits to a repertory theater in Houston. It was at this point that Linklater realized he wanted to be a filmmaker. After his job on the oil rig, Linklater used the money he had saved to buy a Super-8 camera, a projector, and some editing equipment, and moved to Austin. It was there that the aspiring cineaste founded the Austin Film Society and grew to appreciate such auteurs as Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Josef Von Sternberg, and Carl Theodor Dreyer. He enrolled in Austin Community College in the fall of 1984 to study film. CAREER Linklater founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel, and is lauded for launching and solidifying the city of Austin as a hub for independent filmmaking. Inspiration for Linklater’s work was largely based on his experience with the film Raging Bull, Linklater told Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life. ‘It made me see movies as a potential outlet for what I was thinking about and hoping to express. At that point I was an unformed artist. At that moment, something was simmering in me, but Raging Bull brought it to a boil.’ For several years, Linklater made many short films that were, more than anything, exercises and experiments in film techniques. He finally completed his first feature, the rarely seen It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (which is now available in the Criterion Collection edition of Slacker), a Super-8 feature that took a year to shoot and another year to edit. The film is significant in the sense that it establishes most of Linklater’s preoccupations. The film has his trademark style of minimal camera movements and lack of narrative, while it examines the theme of traveling with no real particular direction in mind. These idiosyncrasies would be explored in greater detail in future projects. To this end Linklater created Detour Filmproduction (an homage to the 1945 low budget film noir by Edgar G. Ulmer), and subsequently made Slacker for only $23,000. The film is an aimless day in the life of the city of Austin, Texas showcasing its more eccentric characters.
Award In 1995, Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director for the film Before Sunrise at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.
Trivia Despite the popularity of his films, and having directed two high-paying Hollywood productions, Linklater remains in Texas and refuses to live or work in Hollywood for any extended period of time.
While gaining a cult following for his independent films, such as Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, and A Scanner Darkly, his mainstream comedies, School of Rock and the remake of Bad News Bears, have gained him wider recognition. In 2003, he wrote and directed a pilot for HBO with Rodney Rothman called $5.15/hr, about several minimum wage restaurant workers. The pilot deals with themes later examined in Fast Food Nation. In 2004, the British television network Channel 4 produced a major documentary about Linklater, in which the filmmaker frankly discussed the personal and philosophical ideas behind his films. ‘St Richard of Austin’ was presented by Ben Lewis and directed by Irshad Ashraf and broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2004 in the UK. In 2005, Linklater was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film Before Sunset. Many of Linklater’s films take place in one day, a narrative approach that has gained popularity in recent years. Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Tape, Before Sunrise, and Before Sunset are examples of this method. Two of his recent films, A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life, used rotoscoping animation techniques. Working with Bob Sabiston and Sabiston’s program Rotoshop to create this effect, Linklater shot and edited both movies completely as live action features, then employed a team of artists to ‘trace over’ individual frames. The result is a distinctive ‘semi-real’ quality, praised by such critics as Roger Ebert as being original and well-suited to the aims of the film.
12
Fast Food Nation (2006) is an adaptation of the best selling book that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry. The film was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival before being released in North America on 17 November 2006 and in Europe on 23 March 2007. CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Film scholars and commentators consider Richard Linklater’s films to be significant in a number of ways. In the early 1990s, Slacker was hailed as something of a manifesto for Generation X because the film’s young adult characters are more interested in quasi-intellectual pastimes and socialising than career advancement. However, Linklater has long since eschewed the role of generational spokesperson and is ironically a “Baby Boomer” himself. Moreover, the movie actually includes various generations, and many of its themes are universal rather than generation-specific. Those of Linklater’s films that have non-formulaic narratives about seemingly random occurrences, often spanning about twenty-four hours, have been hailed as alternatives to contemporary Hollywood market-driven blockbusters. In conjunction with these unorthodox narratives, the emphasis on philosophical talk over physical action in Slacker and Waking Life aligns Linklater’s work with art cinema traditions, particularly those of Europe, from which much recent American cinema is estranged.
FILMOGRAPHY Woodshock, 1985 It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, 1989 Slacker, 1991 Dazed and Confused, 1993 Before Sunrise, 1995 subUrbia, 1996 The Newton Boys, 1998 Waking Life, 2001 Tape, 2001 Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor, 2003 School of Rock, 2003 $5.15/hour, 2004 Before Sunset, 2004 Bad News Bears, 2005 Trivia On 7th October 2004 three former friends of Linklater (Bobby Wooderson, Andy Slater, and Richard ‘Pink’ Floyd) sued him for the unauthorized use of their names and images in the film Dazed and Confused and for their representation as stoners, which they say has damaged their reputation. Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 9, 2007 in Austin, Texas. Kevin Smith said that it was Linklater’s Slacker that made him want to be a director.
A Scanner Darkly, 2006 Fast Food Nation, 2006 Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach, 2008 Me and Orson Welles, 2009
selected filmography Eque si sa perumquibus. Gendiore velibus ped mos reperspel min re et lignimi, core, et eaquam, te nobit ium eum eossit animaio ssimi, te velis alicitati doluptatate consequi derum quo blam, qui delescid et latusda con pelentet eum et quia eum faccae perum faces ressit, qui nimaio. Xim et quam et verum conseces as rataspi endist aritam facius aliqui aut iunt ipsa id quis quo ium quiducium harum ent ipitibus rehendis ut re elibus, oditiae ceateceaquis simaiore latemquodis aliquiant essum eatecte evel maion nobit et es ab ipissunt ad est, non re non ernatur? Mo dolutet eum ipsa nisquatecti aciet reheni conse aci blabori asperum fugit estoris quiant.
14
GENRE Comedy Drama QUOTE ‘Every action is a positive action, even if it has a negative result.’ RUN TIME 97 min TRIVIA The bar scene was shot with a Fisher-Price Pixel Vision camcorder.
GENRE Crime Drama QUOTE ‘What does a scanner see? Into the head?’ RUN TIME 100 min TRIVIA Terry Gilliam originally wanted to make the film in the early 1990s.
GENRE Drama QUOTE ‘I won’t need luck. I don’t believe in luck.’ RUN TIME 114 min TRIVIA ‘Julius Caesar’ ran for 157 performances during its run at the Mercury Theatre.
SLACKER 1991 Presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas among its social outcasts and misfits, using a series of linear vignettes. These characters, who in some manner just don’t fit into the establishment norms, move seamlessly from one scene to the next, randomly coming and going into one another’s lives. Highlights include a UFO buff who adamantly insists that the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s, and an old anarchist who sympathetically shares his philosophy of life with a robber.
A SCANNER DARKLY 2006 In a totalitarian society in a near future, the undercover detective Bob Arctor is working with a small time group of drug users trying to reach the big distributors of a brain-damaging drug called Substance D. His assignment is promoted by the recovery center New Path Corporation, and when Bob begins to lose his own identity and have schizophrenic behavior, he is submitted to tests to check his mental conditions.
ME AND ORSON WELLES 2008 High school student and aspiring thespian Richard Samuels takes a day trip into New York City where he meets and begins a casual friendship with Gretta Adler. Also on the trip Richard stumbles across the Mercury Theatre and meets Orson Welles, who, based on an impromptu audition, offers Richard an acting job as Lucius in his modern retelling of Julius Caesar. Welles does not believe in conventions and will do whatever he wants.
CHAPTER THREE 18 OF THE BEST: A compilation of the most renowned cult films. Includes plot summaries, cast notes, year of release, trivia tidbits, quotes & more.
18
‘A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming’
Barbarella, Jane Fonda
BARBARELLA 1968 GENRE ACTION COMEDY DIRECTOR ROGER VADIM WRITER JEAN CLAUDE FOREST After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease, Barbarella, a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Exessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who, in her dream chamber, can make her fantasies take form, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which, via a poor victim struggling in its glass globe, dispenses Essance of Man.
CAST
Tagline ‘See Barbarella do her thing!’ Run Time 98 min Trivia The original author JeanClaude Forest based the character of Barbarella on Brigitte Bardot - who ironically was director Roger Vadim’s previous wife.
Jane Fonda as Barbarella
Marcel Marceau as Professor Ping
John Phillip Law as Pygar
David Hemmings as Dildano
Anita Pallenberg as The Great Tyrant, Black Queen of Sogo
Claude Dauphin as President Dianthus of Earth
Milo O’Shea as Durand Durand
Ugo Tognazzi as Mark Hand
20
‘I SHOULD LIKE TO CHANGE INTO A SUNFLOWER MOST OF ALL’
Maude Chardin, Ruth Gordon
HAROLD AND MAUDE 1971 GENRE BLACK COMEDY DIRECTOR HAL ASHBY WRITER COLIN HIGGINS The self-destructive and needy wealthy teenager Harold is obsessed by death and spends his leisure time attending funerals, watching the demolishing of buildings, visiting junkyards, simulating suicides trying to get attention from his indifferent, snobbish and egocentric mother, and having sessions with his psychologist. When Harold meets the anarchist seventy-nine-year-old Maude at a funeral, they become friends and the old lady discloses other perspectives of the cycle of life for him. Meanwhile, his mother enlists him in a dating service and tries to force Harold to join the army. On the day of Maude’s eightieth birthday, Harold proposes to her but he finds the truth about life at the end of hers.
CAST
Tagline ‘They were meant to be. But exactly what they were meant to be is not quite clear.’ Run Time 91 min Trivia In all shots of Ruth Gordon driving, the hearse it is being towed because she never learned how to drive a car.
Ruth Gordon as Maude Chardin
Eric Christmas as Priest
Bud Cort as Harold Chasen
G. Wood as Psychiatrist
Vivian Pickles as Mrs. Chasen
Judy Engles as Candy Gulf
Cyril Cusack as Glaucus
Shari Summers as Edith Phern
Charles Tyner as General Victor Ball
Ellen Geer as Sunshine Doré
22
‘YOU’RE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EXCITING THING I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. AND I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU’
Curt Henderson, Richard Dreyfuss
AMERICAN GRAFFITI 1973 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR GEORGE LUCAS WRITER GEORGE LUCAS It’s the last night of summer 1962, and the teenagers of Modesto, California, want to have some fun before adult responsibilities close in. Among them are Steve and Curt , college-bound with mixed feelings about leaving home; nerdy Terry ‘The Toad’, who scores a dream date with blonde Debbie; and John, a 22-year-old drag racer who wonders how much longer he can stay champion and how he got stuck with 13-year-old Carol in his deuce coupe. As D. J. Wolfman Jack spins 41 vintage tunes on the radio throughout the night, Steve ponders a future with girlfriend Laurie, Curt chases a mystery blonde and Terry tries to act cool, but nothing can stop the next day from coming.
CAST
Tagline ‘Where were you in ‘62?’ Run Time 110 min Trivia When Charles Martin Smith pulls up on the Vespa in the beginning, his crash into the building wasn’t scripted. He genuinely lost control of the bike, and Lucas kept the cameras rolling.
Richard Dreyfuss as Curt Henderson
Mackenzie Phillips as Carol Morrison
Ron Howard as Steve Bolander
Harrison Ford as Bob Falfa
Paul Le Mat as John Milner
Bo Hopkins as Joe Young
Charles Martin Smith as Terry “The Toad” Fields
Wolfman Jack as himself
Cindy Williams as Laurie Henderson
Kathleen Quinlan as Peg
Candy Clark as Debbie Dunham
Suzanne Somers as Blonde in T-Bird
24
‘can you dig it?’
Cyrus, Roger Hill
THE WARRIORS 1979 GENRE ACTION DIRECTOR WALTER HILL WRITER SOL YURICK Cyrus, the leader of the most powerful gang in New York City, the Gramercy Riffs, calls a midnight summit for all the area gangs, with all asked to send nine unarmed representatives for the conclave. A gang called The Warriors are blamed for causing gang violence at theaters, but now it looks as highly stylized and pulpy as Hill intended. The plot finds a New York gang having to cross the territory of rivals in order to get to their own ‘hood. And so The Warriors begin their long journey from the Bronx back to Coney Island. The second-in-command, Swan, takes charge, though the hot-headed Ajax openly voices his desire to be acting gang warlord. The Warriors slowly cross the dangerous Bronx and Manhattan territories, narrowly escaping police and other gangs every step of the way.
CAST Tagline ‘These are the Armies of The Night’ Run Time 92 min Trivia Loosely based on Xenophon’s “Anabasis”, the account of an army of Greek mercenaries who, after aligning themselves with Cyrus the Younger in the battle of Cunaxa in his attempt to seize the Persian throne, found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines.
James Remar as Ajax
David Patrick Kelly as Luther
Dorsey Wright as Cleon
Marcelino Sanchez as Rembrandt
David Harris as Cochise
Brian Tyler as Snow
Tom McKitterick as Cowboy
Michael Beck as Swan
Thomas G. Waites as Fox
Terry Michos as Vermin
Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Mercy
Roger Hill as Cyrus
26
‘ALL THESE MOMENTS WILL BE LOST IN TIME, LIKE TEARS IN RAIN’
Roy Batty, Rutger Hauer
BLADE RUNNER 1982 GENRE SCI FI, THRILLER DIRECTOR RIDLEY SCOTT WRITER HAMPTON FANCHER In a cyberpunk vision of the future, man has developed the technology to create replicants, human clones used to serve in the colonies outside Earth but with fixed lifespans. In Los Angeles, 2019, Deckard is a Blade Runner, a cop who specialises in terminating replicants. Originally in retirement, he is forced to re-enter the force when six replicants escape from an offworld colony to Earth.
CAST Tagline ‘Man Has Made His Match... Now It’s His Problem.’ Run Time 117 min Trivia Although Philip K. Dick saw only the opening 20 minutes of footage prior to his death on March 2, 1982, he was extremely impressed, and has been quoted by Paul Sammon as saying, “It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly.”
Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard
Joanna Cassidy as Zhora
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty
Joe Turkel as Dr. Eldon Tyrell
Sean Young as Rachael
William Sanderson as J.F. Sebastian
Brion James as Leon Kowalski
James Hong as Hannibal Chew
Daryl Hannah as Pris
M. Emmet Walsh as Bryant
28
‘ALL I NEED IS SOME TASTY WAVES, A COOL BUZZ, AND I’M FINE’
Jeff Spicoli, Sean Penn
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH 1982 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR AMY HECKERLING WRITER CAMERON CROWE The film follows a group of high school students growing up in southern California, based on the real-life adventures chronicled by Cameron Crowe. Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner are looking for a love interest, and are helped along by their older classmates, Linda Barrett and Mike Damone, respectively. The center of the film is held by Jeff Spicoli, a perpetually stoned surfer dude who faces off with the resolute Mr. Hand, who is convinced that everyone is on dope.
CAST
Tagline ‘It’s Awesome! Totally Awesome!’ Run Time 90 min Trivia David Lynch was originally offered the chance to direct before Amy Heckerling was chosen. He turned it down saying it was a funny script, but not really his thing.
Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli
Ray Walston as Mr. Hand
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Stacy Hamilton
Vincent Schiavelli as Mr. Vargas
Judge Reinhold as Brad Hamilton
Lana Clarkson as Mrs. Vargas
Robert Romanus as Mike Damone
Forest Whitaker as Charles Jefferson
Brian Backer as Mark “Rat” Ratner
Eric Stoltz as Stoner Bud
Phoebe Cates as Linda Barrett
Nicolas Cage as Brad’s Bud
30
‘These go to eleven’
Nigel Tufnel, Christopher Guest
THIS IS SPINAL TAP! 1984 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR ROB REINER WRITER CHRISTOPHER GUEST In 1982 legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting documentary, interspersed with powerful performances of Tap’s pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop.
CAST
Tagline ‘Does for rock and roll what ‘The Sound of Music’ did for hills’ Run Time 82 min Trivia After the film opened, several people approached director Rob Reiner telling him that they loved the film, but he should have chosen a more well known band to do a documentary on.
Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins
R.J. Parnell as Mick Shrimpton
Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel
June Chadwick as Jeanine Pettibone
Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls
Ed Begley, Jr. as John “Stumpy” Pepys
Rob Reiner as Marty DiBergi
Danny Kortchmar as Ronnie Pudding
Tony Hendra as Ian Faith
Fran Drescher as Bobbi Flekman
David Kaff as Viv Savage
Billy Crystal as Morty the Mime
32
‘THE NIGHT HAS ITS PRICE’
Mae, Jenny Wright
NEAR DARK 1987 GENRE VAMPIRE, HORROR DIRECTOR KATHRYN BIGELOW WRITER KATHRYN BIGELOW A mid-western farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of southern vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars. Part of his initiation includes a bloody assault on a hick bar.
CAST Tagline ‘Pray for Daylight.’ Run Time 94 min Trivia The writer and director were intent on making a Western but realized that the interest in the Western genre at the time was almost non-existent, so it was recommended that they mix genres. Since the horror genre was in vogue at the time, the two decided to make a Horror Western.
Adrian Pasdar as Caleb Colton
Jenette Goldstein as Diamondback
Jenny Wright as Mae
Joshua John Miller as Homer
Lance Henriksen as Jesse Hooker
Marcie Leeds as Sarah Colton
Bill Paxton as Severen
Tim Thomerson as Loy Colton
34
‘i have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. and i’m all out of bubblegum’
John Nada, Roddy Piper
THEY LIVE 1988 GENRE SCI FI, HORROR DIRECTOR JOHN CARPENTER WRITER RAY NELSON, JOHN CARPENTER Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like ‘Stay Asleep’, ‘No Imagination’ and ‘Submit to Authority’. Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued.
CAST
Tagline ‘Who are they? And what do they want?’ Run Time 93 min Trivia Graffiti artist Shepard Fairey got his OBEY name from this film.
Roddy Piper as John Nada
Peter Jason as Gilbert
Keith David as Frank Armitage
Sy Richardson as Black Revolutionary
Meg Foster as Holly Thompson
Susan Blanchard as Ingenue
George ‘Buck’ Flower as The Drifter
Norman Alden as Foreman
36
‘DEAR DIARY, MY TEEN ANGST BULLSHIT HAS A BODY COUNT’
Veronica Sawyer, Winona Ryder
HEATHERS 1989 GENRE BLACK COMEDY DIRECTOR MICHAEL LEHMANN WRITER DANIEL WATERS Veronica mingles with Heather I, II and III to be as popular as them, even though she hates them. She hates them enough to wish they were dead, though she would never want to be their cause of death. When she starts dating Jason Dean, however, she finds herself involved in the murders of most of her enemies, covered up as suicides.
CAST
Tagline ‘Best friends, social trends and occasional murder. ’ Run Time 103 min Trivia Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of J.D., but was rejected because he was considered ‘too nice’ for the part.
Winona Ryder as Veronica Sawyer
Penelope Milford as Pauline Fleming
Christian Slater as Jason “J.D.” Dean
Glenn Shadix as Father Ripper
Shannen Doherty as Heather Duke
Lance Fenton as Kurt Kelly
Lisanne Falk as Heather McNamara
Patrick Labyorteaux as Ram Sweeney
Kim Walker as Heather Chandler
Renée Estevez as Betty Finn
38
‘you’re so cool’
Alabama Whitman, Patricia Arquette
TRUE ROMANCE 1993 GENRE ACTION ROMANCE DIRECTOR TONY SCOTT WRITER QUENTIN TARANTINO Clarence Worley is a well-meaning but socially unskilled comic-shop clerk. He meets a girl named Alabama, and it’s love at first sight for both. Clarence’s enthusiasm isn’t dampened when he discovers Alabama is actually a call girl who was paid to bump into him. She’s only been in the business for a few days, and is more than eager to give it up. Clarence offers to break the news to her pimp Drexl, but while he’s there he grabs a suitcase that holds five million dollars’ worth of cocaine. The couple hits the road for California, planning to sell the dope and enjoy the good life in South America, but soon a group of underworld characters are after them, as well as the police.
CAST
Tagline ‘Not since Bonnie and Clyde have two people been so good at being bad.’ Run Time 120 min Trivia Writer Quentin Tarantino sold the script for roughly $10,000. With the money he purchased the red Chevy convertible that Vincent Vega drives in Pulp Fiction.
Christian Slater as Clarence Worley
James Gandolfini as Virgil
Patricia Arquette as Alabama Whitman
Gary Oldman as Drexl Spivey
Michael Rapaport as Dick Ritchie
Christopher Walken as Vincenzo Coccotti
Bronson Pinchot as Elliot Blitzer
Chris Penn as Nicky Dimes
Saul Rubinek as Lee Donowitz
Brad Pitt as Floyd
Dennis Hopper as Clifford Worley
Val Kilmer as Elvis
40
‘YOU JUST GOTTA KEEP LIVIN’ MAN’
David Wooderson, Matthew McConaughey
DAZED AND CONFUSED 1993 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR RICHARD LINKLATER WRITER RICHARD LINKLATER Like George Lucas’ American Graffiti, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused is an affectionate look at the youth culture of a bygone era. While Lucas took aim at the conservative 1950’s, Linklater jumps ahead a generation to the bicentennial year of 1976 to celebrate the joys of beer blasts, pot smoking and Frampton Comes Alive. Set on the last day of the academic year, the film follows the random activities of a sprawling group of Texas high schoolers as they celebrate the arrival of summer, their paths variously intersecting at a freshmen hazing, a local pool parlor and finally at a keg party.
CAST
Tagline ‘It was the last day of school in 1976, a time they’d never forget... if only they could remember.’ Run Time 102 min Trivia The word ‘man’ is said 203 times total in the movie. The word ‘fuck’ is mentioned 59 times throughout the movie.
Jason London as Randall “Pink” Floyd
Matthew McConaughey as David Wooderson
Wiley Wiggins as Mitch Kramer
Cole Hauser as Benny O’Donnell
Rory Cochrane as Ron Slater
Milla Jovovich as Michelle Burroughs
Michelle Burke as Jodi Kramer
Joey Lauren Adams as Simone Kerr
Adam Goldberg as Mike Newhouse
Ben Affleck as Fred O’Bannion
Anthony Rapp as Tony Olson
Parker Posey as Darla Marks
42
‘LOOK, IT’S BEEN SWELL. BUT THE SWELLING’S GONE DOWN’
Tank Girl, Lori Petty
TANK GIRL 1995 GENRE SCI FI, COMEDY DIRECTOR RACHEL TALALAY WRITER ALAN MARTIN, JAMIE HEWLITT Tank Girl and her friends are the only remaining citizens living in the wasteland that is Earth, where all the remaining water is controlled by Water and Power, the mega corporation/government that runs the territory. While incarcerated at Water and Power, Tank Girl and her new friend Jet Girl break out and steal, surprisingly, a tank and a jet. After meeting some mutant kangaroo/humans, and rescuing her little girl (adopted by her friends), the kangaroos and the girls kick Water and Powers’ butt.
CAST
Tagline ‘In 2033, justice rides a tank and wears lip gloss.’ Run Time 104 min Trivia Emma Bunton, Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell from the Spice Girls all auditioned for the role of Tank Girl.
Lori Petty as Tank Girl
Reg E. Cathey as Deetee
Ice-T as T-Saint
Scott Coffey as Donner
Naomi Watts as Jet Girl
Malcolm McDowell as Kesslee
Don Harvey as Sergeant Small
Stacy Linn Ramsower as Sam
Jeff Kober as Booga
Ann Cusack as Sub Girl
44
‘i saved latin. what did you ever do?’
Max Fischer, Jason Schwartzmann
RUSHMORE 1998 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR WES ANDERSON WRITER WES ANDERSON Max Fischer is a precocious 15-year-old whose reason for living is his attendance at Rushmore, a private school where he’s not doing well in any of his classes, but where he’s the king of extracurricular activities - from being in the beekeeping society to writing and producing plays, there’s very little after school he doesn’t do. His life begins to change, however, when he finds out he’s on academic probation, and when he stumbles into love with Miss Cross, a pretty teacher of the elementary school at Rushmore. Added to the mix is his friendship with Herman Blume, wealthy industrialist and father to boys who attend the school, and who also finds himself attracted to Miss Cross.
CAST
Tagline ‘Love. Expulsion. Revolution.’ Run Time 93 min Trivia When Bill Murray first read the script, he thought it was so fantastic that he said he wanted to do it so badly he would do it for free.
Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer
Mason Gamble as Dirk Calloway
Bill Murray as Herman Blume
Sara Tanaka as Margaret Yang
Olivia Williams as Rosemary Cross
Connie Nielsen as Mrs. Calloway
Seymour Cassel as Bert Fischer
Luke Wilson as Dr. Peter Flynn
Brian Cox as Dr. Nelson Guggenheim
Stephen McCole as Magnus Buchan
46
‘the dude abides’
The Dude, Jeff Bridges
THE BIG LEBOWSKI 1998 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR JOEL COEN WRITER JOEL & ETHAN COEN When “The Dude” Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, two thugs urinate on his rug to coerce him into paying a debt he knows nothing about. While attempting to gain recompense for the ruined rug from his wealthy counterpart, he accepts a one-time job with high pay-off. He enlists the help of his bowling buddy, Walter, a gun-toting Jewish-convert with anger issues. Deception leads to more trouble, and it soon seems that everyone from porn empire tycoons to nihilists want something from The Dude.
CAST Tagline ‘They figured he was a lazy time wasting slacker. They were right.’ Run Time 117 min Trivia The reason Steve Buscemi’s character, Donny, is constantly being told to ‘Shut the fuck up!’ by John Goodman’s ‘Walter’, is because Buscemi’s character in Fargo would not shut up.
Jeff Bridges as The Dude
Tara Reid as Bunny Lebowski
John Goodman as Walter
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt
Steve Buscemi as Donny
Sam Elliott as The Stranger
David Huddleston as Jeffrey Lebowski
Ben Gazzara as Jackie Treehorn
Julianne Moore as Maude Lebowski
John Turturro as Jesus Quintana
48
‘TWO, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT. GOD IS GOOD. GOD IS STRAIGHT’
Megan, Natasha Lyonne
BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER 1999 GENRE ROMANTIC COMEDY DIRECTOR JAMIE BABBIT WRITER BRIAN WAYNE PETERSON Megan is an all-American girl. She’s a cheerleader and she has a boyfriend. But she doesn’t like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she’s pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. And she only has pictures of girls up in her locker. Her parents and friends conclude that she must be gay and send her off to “sexual redirection” school, full of admittedly homosexual misfits, where she can learn to how to be straight. Will Megan be turned around to successful heterosexuality, or will she succumb to her love for the beautiful Graham?
CAST
Tagline ‘A Comedy of Sexual Disorientation.’ Run Time 85 min Trivia Cathy Moriarty asks a character if she wants to be a ‘raging bull-dyke’. Moriarty received an Oscar nomination for her role in Raging Bull.
Natasha Lyonne as Megan
RuPaul as Mike
Michelle Williams as Kimberly
Cathy Moriarty as Mary Brown
Brandt Wille as Jared
Eddie Cibrian as Rock
Bud Cort as Peter
Melanie Lynskey as Hilary
Mink Stole as Nancy
Clea DuVall as Graham
50
‘THIS IS SO BAD, IT’S GONE PAST GOOD AND BACK TO BAD AGAIN’
Enid Coleslaw, Thora Birch
GHOST WORLD 2001 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR TERRY ZWIGOFF WRITER DANIEL CLOWES Enid and Rebecca are two close friends who’ve just graduated from high school, and are trying to decide what to do with their lives. Enid is a dark-haired cynic who is tired of living at home with her ineffectual dad and his annoyingly perky girlfriend Maxine, while Rebecca is prettier and a bit cheerier, but no more certain about her future. While the two girls have vague plans of getting an apartment together, they seem content to while away their summer. Enid discovers that in order to get her diploma, she’ll have to take an additional class over the summer, where she winds up studying art. Enid also meets Seymour, a geeky record collector more than twice her age, and while they would seem to have little in common, Enid discovers a kindred spirit in Seymour, who shares her disgust with the world around them.
CAST
Tagline ‘Accentuate the negative.’ Run Time 111 min Trivia Enid Coleslaw, the main character’s name, is an anagram of the film and comic book’s author, Daniel Clowes.
Thora Birch as Enid Coleslaw
Illeana Douglas as Roberta Allsworth
Scarlett Johansson as Rebecca
Bob Balaban as Enid’s father
Steve Buscemi as Seymour
Stacey Travis as Dana
Brad Renfro as Josh
Teri Garr as Maxine
Pat Healy as John Ellis
Dave Sheridan as Doug
52
‘I HOPE IT’S NOT JUMBO SHRIMP, BECAUSE I’M ALLERGIC TO OXYMORONS’
Beth, Janeane Garofalo
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER 2001 GENRE COMEDY DIRECTOR DAVID WAIN WRITER MICHAEL SHOWALTER The setting is Camp Firewood, the year 1981. It’s the last day before everyone goes back to the real world, but there’s still a summer’s worth of unfinished business to resolve. At the center of the action is camp director Beth, who struggles to keep order while she falls in love with the local astrophysics professor. He is busy trying to save the camp from a deadly piece of NASA’s Skylab which is hurtling toward earth. All that, plus: a dangerous waterfall rescue, love triangles, misfits, cool kids, and talking vegetable cans. The questions will all be resolved, of course, at the big talent show at the end of the day.
CAST
Tagline ‘High Times. Hard Bodies. Soft Rock.’ Run Time 97 min Trivia The owners of Camp Towanda (where the movie was filmed) were told that this was going to be a family comedy. They were mortified when they saw the final cut of the film.
Janeane Garofalo as Beth
Michael Ian Black as McKinley
David Hyde Pierce as Henry Newman
Elizabeth Banks as Lindsay
Molly Shannon as Gail von Kleinenstein
Ken Marino as Victor
Paul Rudd as Andy
Joe Lo Truglio as Neil
Christopher Meloni as Gene
Amy Poehler as Susie
Michael Showalter as Coop
Bradley Cooper as Ben