Pitch

Credited by Variety to be one of the greatest documentaries to ever come out of Canada. Al Pacino, Roger Ebert, Neil Simon, Matt Dillon as well as a constant slew of celebs make this film a Canadian classic. The film is really best described as "Roger & Me" meets "The Player". Watch as Kenny Hotz and Spenny PITCH their script to the big boys of Hollywood. Called the only American film to ever come out of Canada, This film opened the Toronto Film Festival in 1997, Winner of the 'Best Indie Film Award Toronto'. Europe premier was at the prestigious HOF film fest in Germany. U.S.A. premier U.S. Comedy Festival Aspen 1999. More information available at www.kennyhotz.com

I really wanted to like this movie. I absolutely love kenny hotz, and spenny rice has a charming side to him. Not that I like spenny at all. Spenny ruins this movie. He should of let kenny and his hot girlfriend pitch the movie.

Anyways, it's pretty boring aside from a scene with Roger Ebert in it. There really isn't too many celebrities in this movie, and most don't seem to say more than one line. Overall this movie was disappointing. I would only suggest watching it if you got it with the season 1 DVD of kenny vs spenny (it comes for free on the 3rd disc). Regardless of this production, I am still very excited to check out The Papel Chase.

Hotz and Rice obviously have enough friends who are willing to come to IMDb to regale the quality of their earlier work. But if you are just an average film viewer like me, chances are you decided to view this film after stumbling upon it, because you thought it might be promising after having seen at least a few episodes of "Kenny and Spenny"--and you would likely be disappointed by this film.

Hotz and Rice have written a script and are attempting to "pitch" the script to a string of Hollywood producers, agents, actors, and scouts to help make it into a movie. The first part of this documentary demonstrates the difficulty they encounter in even finding an audience to pitch the script. The second part shows the difficulty they encounter in convincing the aforementioned "industry types" at film festivals to accept their script (and thus enable them to "break" into the industry). Based on their descriptions of the script, it promises to be a really bad film, so a series of rejections coupled by increasingly desperate pitching methods make up the bulk of the documentary. At this point, you might say: "well, these people are not giving you an opportunity because, quite frankly, your script sucks." If you say this, you would right, except for the fact that countless bad scripts are turned into screenplays for over-budgeted Hollywood trash every year, so a bad script is hardly the reason why someone cannot get their "big break" as a screen-writer or producer.

A superficial viewing would suggest that the point of the film is to educate and highlight an aspect of the film industry with respect to its treatment of new writing talents. But a few of the notables who appear in this film, like Roger Ebert, are more attentive to the subtle purpose of the film, which is that the actual "pitch" is not the script, but the documentary itself. Here we see some of the elements in the Hotz and Rice collaboration that made "Kenny and Spenny" such a hit: the contrast between their personalities, the constant jabs between them, and the drama/antics that unfold as a result. Except here, they have not yet realized how entertaining it would be if they were to take these elements to their extremes.

This film is thus, in many ways, a failure. The antagonistic friendship between Hotz and Rice is subtle and contained, and none of their antics are particularly creative or funny. Moreover, it is the subject matter, not their relationship, that is the focus of the film. It attempts to highlight something so obvious, with a straight-forward documentary style that is far too serious to be taken seriously. On the other hand, Hotz and Rice have clearly learned from it and polished some of the elements of this film into the cornerstone of their successful television series.

So unless you care about the "evolution" of the ideas that made "Kenny and Spenny", it is unlikely you will find this film particularly entertaining.

An hilariously accurate caricature of trying to sell a script. Documentary hits all the beats, plot points, character arcs, seductions, moments of elation and disappointments and the allure but insane prospect of selling a script or getting an agent in Hollywood;and all the fleeting, fantasy-realizing but ultimately empty rites of passage attendant to being socialized into "the system." Hotz and Rice capture the moment of thinking you're finally a player, only to find that what goes up comes down fast and in a blind-siding fashion;that for inexplicable reasons, Hollywood has moved on and left you checking your heart, your dreams, and your pockets. Pitch is a must-see for students in film school to taste the mind and ego-bashing gantlet that is, for most, the road that must be traveled to sell oneself and one's projects in Hollywood. If your teacher or guru has never been there, they can't tell you what you need to prepare for this gantlet. To enter the"biz," talent is necessary but far from sufficient

This film is exactly what its title describes--an attempt to get you to buy into what the writers have to offer.

First, it's kinda fun to see the 1996-style Toronto I remember with all its silly haircuts, sunglasses, clothes, and attitude. It really hasn't changed any; just a nice, safe, cheap, provincial little urban backwater that makes a great meeting place for international film types! It's also amusing to see Kenny and Spenny head to L.A. and find out that it's Toronto all over again, only with a strange assortment of beach bums, musicians, fortune tellers, and yet more uppity film types.

I don't see Pitch as a film to be enjoyed; it's not entertainment unless the viewer enjoys watching someone's aspirations being trampled. I take Pitch as a warning that power and money is really held by studio execs and production houses. Would-be (and "successful") writers, musicians, and actors are still mere transients even when they reach the Big Time.

So, Kenny and Spenny are trying to sell you a warning. Buy it or don't, but the message is still there.