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25 years ago “Strangers with Candy,” currently streaming on Paramount+, premiered on Comedy Central from the brains of Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Mitch Rouse, and Amy Sedaris. Sedaris also starred as Jerri Blank, the 46-year-old bisexual junkie returning to high school as a freshman. The sitcom was structured like an after-school special with Jerri rarely learning from her past mistakes as she navigates the lessons of being a teenager all over again. I began watching the show in college, after recognizing it from flipping through the TV channels because Sedaris’ Jerri in passing freaked me out.

Its psychotic humor coupled with my own favorite genre — the high school comedy — was a perfect cyanide comedy cocktail. Aggressively offensive with an earnest heart of gold, “Strangers with Candy” was unlike anything I’d ever seen before and Amy Sedaris became my comedy hero.

It’s, frankly, a miracle that “Strangers with Candy” was made,...

Actress Ariel Kavoussi has slowly moved from acting to directing shorts and earlier this year she put together her feature film debut with a funky long title of: The Next Big One: A Comedy with Three Potential Problems. Shot in Brooklyn, Molly Bernard, David H. Holmes, Deborah Rush and Kevin Corrigan take top billing with tons of supporting players including Maria Dizzia, Josh Pais and Kavoussi also makes an appearance. This could SXSW entry as well.

Gist: In this dystopian sci-fi black comedy, a high-ranking employee at an omnipotent tech firm must help her depressed, activist brother move into their aunt’s house while a hurricane threatens New York city.…...

Ariel Kavoussi, whose acting credits include Netflix’s “Maniac,” Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and film “Catfight,” has wrapped her feature directorial debut “The Next Big One: A Comedy with Three Potential Problems.”

In this dystopian sci-fi black comedy, a high-ranking employee at an omnipotent tech firm must help her depressed, activist brother move into their aunt’s house while a hurricane threatens New York city. Principal photography wrapped in Brooklyn, New York. Kavoussi previously directed shorts and some TV.

The lead cast includes Molly Bernard (“Younger”), David H. Holmes (“The Penguin”), Deborah Rush (“Strangers with Candy”) and Kevin Corrigan (“The Get Down”).

The ensemble supporting cast includes Maria Dizzia (“Orange is the New Black”), Josh Pais (“The Dropout”), Paul Lazar (“Silence of the Lambs”), Max Casella (“Tulsa King”), Craig Bierko (“UnREAL”), Catherine Curtin (“Stranger Things”), Matt Walton (“No Hard Feelings”) and emerging stars Victoria Villier (2021 Fantasia Film...

"I whipped up a kick ass divorce mix playlist for ya." Gravitas Ventures has debuted an official trailer for Before/During/After, an indie drama written by and starring Finnerty Steeves. The film earned good festival buzz taking home Dances With Films' "Industry Choice Award", Greenpoint Film Festival's "Best of the Fest" award, San Diego's "Best Ensemble Cast" honor, Naples' "Programmers Choice Award", and an exclusive drive-in showing at the RiverRun Film Festival. This sharp-witted dramedy studies a middle-aged NYC theatre actress suddenly forced to figure out the kind of person she wants to portray in real life when her marriage comes to an end after she catches her husband cheating. In addition to Steeves, this also stars Jeremy Davidson, John Pankow, Kristine Sutherland, Richard Masur, Michael Emerson, and Deborah Rush. This looks rather amusing and witty, a cathartic film all about figuring out what to do now. Here's the trailer (+ poster...

Married with children and living in downtown Manhattan, a woman decides to quit accommodating everyone around her and goes on a creative journey to bring meaning to her life. Accommmodations is available to stream on VOD on May 5, 2020.

Written and directed by Amy Miller Gross (The Pleasure of Your Presence), Accommodations stars Kat Foster, Patrick Heusinger, Deborah Rush, and Larisa Oleynik.

Accommmodations is being distributd by Distribution Solutions / Alliance Entertainment and Gvn Releasing. 

Accommodations will be available to stream on Amazon, Fandango Now, GooglePlay, iTunes and MovieSpree, plus cable platforms Charter, Cox, Comcast, Spectrum, and Shaw (Canada). 

The post Accommmodations is Now Available to Stream on VOD appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

Morgan (Ingrid Jungermann) talks about female serial killers on her podcast, but she may become too close to her subject matter when her new girlfriend gradually reveals killer tendencies in Women Who Kill, a new mystery comedy coming to Brooklyn's Nitehawk Cinema following its theatrical run at New York City's IFC and Los Angeles' Arena Cinema.

Women Who Kill will play at the Nitehawk Cinema on September 16th and 17th. To learn more, visit Nitehawk Cinema's official website and check out the trailer and poster below.

"Written and directed by Jungermann, who also stars in the film alongside Annette O’Toole, Ann Carr, Sheila Vand, Shannon O’Neill and Deborah Rush, Women Who Kill won the award for Best Screenplay, U.S. Narrative Feature Film at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

Women Who Kill is the first feature from writer/director/actor Ingrid Jungermann. Ingrid's previous work includes two critically acclaimed...

"Hottest female serial killer ever? That's a tough call." FilmRise has debuted an official trailer for an indie comedy titled Women Who Kill, which first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year. The film is inspired by podcasts like "Serial" and tells the story of two women who run a podcast about serial killers called "Women Who Kill". Writer/director Ingrid Jungermann stars as Morgan, and Ann Carr plays her co-host Jean. They used to be in a relationship but not anymore. When Morgan meets a new girl at the local Food Coop, she falls for her but it turns out she may actually be a serial killer. The cast includes Sheila Vand, Annette O'Toole, Deborah Rush, Tami Sagher, Grace Rex, and Shannon Patricia O'Neill. This looks quirky and entertaining in a very Brooklyn way, with some deep Brooklyn humor, but that's cool. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster...

One of our festival favorites of the past year-plus is finally getting a release. “Morbid curiosities make for unusual romantic comedy fodder in Ingrid Jungermann’s perceptive and often very funny Women Who Kill,” we said in our review from last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Now set for a debut later this month, the first trailer has arrived for the film which follows ex-girlfriends who host a serial killer-obsessive podcast and when a mysterious woman joins the mix, mystery begins.

“The overarching joke of the film is that it’s in the suspense or horror genre — because it’s actually just a queer romantic comedy,” the director tells EW. “I grew up in Florida as a Jehovah’s Witness, so my introduction into romantic relationships included anxiety and guilt and dread and fear. The foundation of the movie is comedy with layers of suspense and horror. And we took the suspense very seriously,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Mubi has acquired the U.S., U.K. and Ireland rights to Philippe Garrel’s “Lover for a Day” (“L’Amant d’un jour”), which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Sacd prize from the French Writers and Directors Guild, shared with Claire Denis’ “Let the Sunshine In.”...

For those of you genre fans out there always on the lookout for interesting horror and sci-fi films to enjoy from the comfort of your own home, March’s VOD selections feature several great indie movies that should make for some entertaining viewings this month.

Ava’s Possessions, a film I really dug out of last year’s SXSW Film Festival, is finally making its way onto VOD this Friday and Emelie, the babysitter thriller from Dark Sky Films, is also getting a digital release that day. Other titles arriving on VOD in early March include The Wave, Road Games and Camino.

The month’s VOD titles are being capped off by a film that I’ve been excited to see for some time, Baskin, which is being released by IFC Midnight on March 25th. Other notable VOD titles for March include Dudes & Dragons, You’re Killing Me, A Haunting...

"My demon was exorcised on Tuesday." Ahead of its March 4th theatrical and VOD release, the horror comedy Ava's Possessions is teased in a new trailer.

"Momentum Pictures brings the SXSW hit Ava's Possessions to select U.S. theaters and VOD on March 4, 2016.

Ava Dobkins (Louisa Krause, Martha Marcy May Marlene) is recovering from demonic possession. With no memory of the past month, she is forced to attend a Spirit Possession Anonymous support group. As Ava struggles to reconnect with her friends, get her job back, and figure out where the huge bloodstain in her apartment came from, she's plagued by nightmarish visions - the demon is trying to come back.

Ava's Possessions is written and directed by Jordan Galland and features an original score by Sean Lennon. The film stars Krause, Jemima Kirke (HBO's Girls), Carol Kane (Netflix's The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), and Alysia Reiner and Deborah Rush (both...

Much like the new poster suggests, Ava Dobkins can handle her spirits. Written and directed by Jordan Galland, Ava's Possessions will have a run in theaters as well as a VOD release on March 4th.

Ava Dobkins (Louisa Krause, Martha Marcy May Marlene) is recovering from demonic possession. With no memory of the past month, she is forced to attend a Spirit Possession Anonymous support group. As Ava struggles to reconnect with her friends, get her job back, and figure out where the huge bloodstain in her apartment came from, she's plagued by nightmarish visions - the demon is trying to come back.

Ava's Possessions is written and directed by Jordan Galland and features an original score by Sean Lennon. The film stars Krause, Jemima Kirke (HBO's Girls), Carol Kane (Netflix's The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), and Alysia Reiner and Deborah Rush (both of Netflix's Orange is the New Black), alongside...

Momentum Pictures is bringing the supernatural SXSW hit Ava's Possessions to select U.S. theaters and VOD on March 4, 2016 and have released a boozy new poster to celebrate the event.

Ava's Possessions is written and directed by Jordan Galland and features an original score by Sean Lennon. The film stars Krause, Jemima Kirke (Girls), Carol Kane (The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), and Alysia Reiner and Deborah Rush (Orange is the New Black), alongside horror favorites Whitney Able (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), William Sadler, Lou Taylor Pucci (The Evil Dead), and Dan Fogler (Hannibal).

Synopsis:

Ava Dobkins (Louisa Krause, Martha Marcy May Marlene) is recovering from demonic possession. With no memory of the past mon [Continued ...]...

Bates Motel reopens for business on Monday, March 7th, and ahead of the season 4 premiere, A&E Network revealed key artwork for the series. Also in this round-up: a teaser video for Ava's Possessions and a look at several photos from Hotel Inferno.

Bates Motel: From the previous press release: "A&E Network presents the season four return of the critically acclaimed drama, “Bates Motel,” starring Vera Farmiga in her Emmy-nominated role as “Norma Bates” alongside the brilliant Freddie Highmore as “Norman.” From writers and executive producers Kerry Ehrin (“Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood”) and Carlton Cuse (“Lost, “The Strain”), this season will showcase Norman’s deranged descent into madness. Directly following “Bates Motel” will be the series premiere of the original scripted drama, “Damien,” a continuation of the classic horror film, The Omen from executive producer Glen Mazzara (“The Walking Dead,” “The Shield”). Both series will premiere on Monday,...

Low Spirits: Galland’s Energetic Supernatural Comedy Doesn’t Retain Dominion

The increasingly tenuous distinction between what constitutes either horror or comedy is further exemplified in Ava’s Possessions, the third feature from multifaceted Jordan Galland. A modified spin on the popular subgenre of demonic possession and exorcism titles that we’ve long been familiar with, Galland’s latest is a comedy marinated generously with supernatural elements. Amusing yet never as clever as one would hope it to be, this plays rather like the simple structure of mainstream fodder like The Hangover parading around in a Halloween costume. Those hoping for something eerie, creepy, or atmospheric will be disappointed, but fans of its attractive cast and some impressive production elements makes this more appealing than dubious detractors may predict.

Ava’s (Louisa Krause) been possessed by a demon for the past month, but with the support of her parents (Deborah Rush,...

"The Drac pack is back" in the new teaser trailer for Hotel Transylvania 2, in which Frank (Frankenstein's monster, voiced by Kevin James) faces his old nemesis: fire. We also have a look at a new trailer for The CW's iZombie and two clips from the pilot, one of which includes George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead playing on a TV in the background. A teaser for Ava's Possessions, a horror film making its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival tomorrow night, is also featured in our latest trailer round-up.

Hotel Transylvania 2: "The Drac pack is back for an all-new monster comedy adventure in Sony Pictures Animation's Hotel Transylvania 2! Everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania... Dracula’s rigid monster-only hotel policy has finally relaxed, opening up its doors to human guests. But behind closed coffins, Drac is worried that his adorable half-human,...

Read More: 10 Cool and Crazy Must-See Films at SXSW 2015 Writer-director Jordan Galland, who had success with his last film "Alter Egos," is back with an offbeat horror film about a young woman recovering from demonic possession. The synopsis reads: "With no memory of the past month, Ava (Louisa Krause, “Martha Macry May Marlene”) is forced to attend a Spirit Possessions Anonymous support group. As she navigates this new world, she must reconnect with her friends, get her job back, and figure out whose blood created a huge stain in her apartment. Ava's life was hijacked by a demon, now it's time to get it back." The film will premiere at SXSW Friday, March 13 in the Visions section and also features Jemima Kirke ("Girls"), Carol Kane and Deborah Rush. Here's an exclusive image:read More: Temptation Overpowers in Exclusive Debut Poster for 'The Automatic Hate'...

Each and every year, the South by Southwest Film Festival comes together in Austin, Texas to shine the spotlight on some of the most provocative and ingenious indie horror films from across the globe. The 2015 SXSW line-up is no exception, featuring a multitude of thought-provoking titles and genre-bending awesomeness that we could not be more excited to check out during the festival this month.

Here’s a look at several of the films from SXSW 2015 that have us excited for this year’s line-up and should stay on your radar once they’re officially released at a later date:

The Final Girls

Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson, Screenwriters: M. A. Fortin, Joshua John Miller

Max and her friends are mysteriously transported into a famous 1980s horror movie that starred Max's mother, a celebrated scream queen. Reunited, they team up to fight the film's maniacal killer and find their way back home. Cast: Taissa Farmiga,...

The 2015 SXSW Film Festival will be running from March 13th through March 21st in Austin, Texas and the first wave of selections were announced today to get attendees excited for all the amazing films coming our way next month. And while horror fans have to wait until next week for the announcement of the Midnighters slate, here’s a look at some of the genre-related titles already revealed amidst SXSW’s other film categories for this year.

Narrative Feature Competition

Manson Family Vacation

Director/Screenwriter: J. Davis

The story of two brothers: one who’s devoted to his family, the other who’s obsessed with the Manson Family. Cast: Jay Duplass, Linas Phillips, Leonora Pitts, Tobin Bell, Adam Chernick, Davie-Blue. (World Premiere)

Headliners

Ex Machina

Director/Screenwriter: Alex Garland

Alex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut with the stylish and cerebral thriller Ex Machina, starring Domhnall Gleeson,...

South by Southwest, the multi-faceted film, music and technology festival held annually in Austin, TX will feature such upcoming films as Paul Feig’s Spy, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, and Ondi Timoner’s Russell Brand profile Brand: A Second Coming as headliners in this year’s film festival lineup.

SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.

Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.

On the small screen,...

Welcome to Before They Were Emmy Nominees. Each Tuesday and Wednesday between now and the Emmy Awards on Sept. 22, we're going to look back at some early and obscure roles of a few of this year's acting nominees. (See Zap2it's Before They Were Nominees photo gallery.)

Today we're highlighting the career of "The Good Wife" nominee Christine Baranski. This statuesque actress has enjoyed critical and commercial success as high-powered attorney Diane Lockhart on the popular CBS drama, but did you know she actually received her first four Emmy nominations (and only win) for "Cybill"?

Baranski played Cybill Shepherd's hard-drinking, brash-talking friend Maryann on "Cybill" for four seasons, earning four Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Watch her below:

But before that, Baranski was popping champagne in "The Birdcage" and making us laugh in the underrated Christmas comedy "The Ref." (Bonus points for another 2013 Emmy nominee,...

Tonight’s ep marks the second week of what I consider Girls' significant leveling up from last season. Take for example Hannah sitting on Elijah's chair sans underwear as a means for revenge. "You know what? I'm going to sit on this chair as much as I like, all day, vagina back and forth, forever, just my whole crotchal area spreading out over it," she rages as Elijah angrily packs up to move out. Okay, look. Clearly I am the Girls target demographic, so it only makes sense I would find that funny.

We haven’t seen much of Jessa or Shoshanna so far in the second season of “Girls,” making their highlighted storylines in this week’s episode refreshing. “It’s a Shame About Ray” deals with the difficulty of relationships, and how being in love and feeling used can overlap. Wackily mismatched newlyweds Jessa and Thomas-John (Chris O’Dowd) go to dinner with his parents. It’s Jessa’s first time meeting them, and once we meet them, we understand why Thomas-John has held off on introductions. The middle-aged couple is coiffed and early to the restaurant, clashing with Jessa’s bohemian devil-may-care outfit ensemble and general disregard for punctuality. Kudos on the parents’ casting: Thomas-John’s mom (Deborah Rush) is brittle, blonde and uptight, while his dad (Griffin Dunne) is hilariously bizarre, making moony eyes at Jessa throughout dinner and interjecting with strange non-sequiturs. (Example: “I...

If a reviewer decided to adhere to the old maxim about comparisons being odious in the case of the City Center Encores! series Gentlemen Prefer Blondes concert reading, he'd be obliged to say that Megan Hilty does a solid job as Lorelei Lee.

She gets her laughs on the lines Anita Loos and Joseph Fields supplied the deceptively savvy, supposedly dumb blonde Loos first immortalized in her 1920s Harper's Bazaar sketches and eventually published in novel form. Wearing a dazzling gown on which costumer David C. Woolard consulted, Hilty delivers an applause-reaping "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." Indeed, throughout the show, she acquits herself as well as might be hoped and expected.

If, on the other hand, a reviewer admits it's impossible to sit through any Gentlemen Prefer Blondes iteration without flashing on the previous two attention-demanding Lorelei Lees -- Carol Channing on Broadway in 1949 (following her scintillating Great...

Woody Allen's newest feature You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger opens today in movie theaters. It's currently confusing me with its Curse of The Jade Scorpion or The Purple Rose of Cairo -like silhouette poster. With this move the marketing department has made me recall both the worst and the best from Woody Allen's filmography simultaneously. It's very schizo... maybe this means the new feature will be right smack dab in the middle, neither essential nor embarrassing?

American Poster (left), a European treatment (right)

Why couldn't they have gone with the European poster treatment? European posters are always better. It's a law of Hollywood's nature.

To celebrate its release -- I haven't had time to see it yet -- I wanted to revamp an old list I started years ago. When Vicky Cristina Barcelona was cast in 2007, numerous media outlets were making ridiculously inaccurate claims about Scarlett Johansson...

We just heard that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are developing a new comedy series for HBO with Lizzy Caplan, but on August 17th yet another comedy series from the Anchorman collaborators will debut on Comedy Central with back-to-back episodes. Big Lake is a new half-hour sitcom about a big city banker, played by Chris Gethard (The Other Guys). He loses his job, his father’s nest egg, and retirement fund, then moves home to his parents’ couch in Big Lake, Pennsylvania, where Saturday Night Live alums Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz are already waiting for him. Hit the jump for more details on the new series including an extended trailer for your viewing pleasure.

Once Josh (Gethard) falls back into Big Lake, he reunites with his childhood best friend Glenn Cordoba (Sanz) who has just been released from a minimum security prison and Mr. Chris Henkel (Parnell), Josh’s...

Bloody-Disgusting’s got your look at five groovy clips from Richard Kelly’s “The Box”. The film doesn’t look like it has the makings of a blockbuster, given that it’s not a slam-bang actioner, or indeed a scarefest. It’s somewhere in the middle, like one of those slow-boil thrillers. And given the plot, which has Cameron Diaz and her hubby James Marsden getting a box that will net them a million bucks if they press a button on it and kill some stranger in the world, how could you not be slightly intrigued? So the question is, would you press the button? Well, would you? Starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn, Holmes Osborne, Sam Oz Stone, Gillian Jacobs, Celia Weston, Deborah Rush, and directed by Ricahrd Kelly. Get a piece of the box November 6, 2009. Clip 1: What are you Going to Do Norma? Clip...

Empire has gotten their hands on the new UK teaser poster for Richard Kelly's The Box. The script for The Box was written by Kelly (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales), who adapted it from the Richard Matheson short story “Button, Button“, which was published in the 1970 June issue of Playboy Magazine. “Button, Button” was also adapted into the twentieth episode of The New Twilight Zone television series which aired in the 1985-1986 first season. The Box stars Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Gillian Jacobs, James Rebhorn, Deborah Rush, Michael Zegen and Holmes Osborne. Set in Richmond, Virginia 1976, Norma and Arthur Lewis are a suburban couple with a young child who receive an anonymous gift bearing fatal and irrevocable consequences. A simple wooden box, it promises to deliver its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world…...

Here is the first poster and trailer for Richard Kelly's next film, The Box. Kelly is best known for writing and directing the cult classic Donnie Darko as well as the Southland Tales. The script for The Box was written by Kelly, who adapted it from the Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button", which was published in the 1970 June issue of Playboy Magazine. "Button, Button" was also adapted into the twentieth episode of The New Twilight Zone television series which aired in the 1985-1986 first season. The Box stars Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Gillian Jacobs, James Rebhorn, Deborah Rush, Michael Zegen and Holmes Osborne. Set in Richmond, Virginia 1976, Norma and Arthur Lewis are a suburban couple with a young child who receive an anonymous gift bearing fatal and irrevocable consequences. A simple wooden box, it promises to deliver its owner $1 million with the press of a button.

The first trailer for Richard Kelly’s The Box is now online. The film, which the Donnie Darko and Southland Tales director adapted from a Richard Matheson short story, centers on a couple who discover a small wooden box, which when they open will make them instantly wealthy. However, opening the box will also kill someone they do not know. The horror-thriller stars James Marsden, Cameron Diaz, Gillian Jacobs, James Rebhorn, Deborah Rush, Michael Zegen and Frank Langella. It arrives in theaters October 30, 2009. Watch the trailer below or in high definition here.

Casting Directors: Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Crowley, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee, and Stéphane Foenkinos Writer-Director: Tom McCarthy Starring: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira, Hiam Abbass The Pitch: Widower Walter Vale (Jenkins) finds his life changed when two illegal immigrants (Sleiman and Gurira) are found squatting in his New York City apartment.As casting director Kerry Barden describes it, The Visitor was a unique challenge. The easy part, according to Barden — whose credits include the television show Sex and the City and the films Boys Don't Cry, Monster's Ball, and World Trade Center — was attracting Richard Jenkins, who had never carried a feature film before, to play the lead role of Walter Vale, a Connecticut college professor sent to Manhattan to attend a conference and surprised to find that a young foreign couple, victims of a real estate scam, have taken up residence in his New York apartment. Jenkins was best...

When Amy Sedaris turned her face into a gargoyle as Jerri Blank for the Comedy Central series "Strangers With Candy", something bracingly absurd hit the small screen. The menopause-meets-puberty concept put a 47-year-old ex-con back in high school; the comic results often as smart as they were outrageous. Reuniting Sedaris with series co-creators and co-stars Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello, this film prequel to the sitcom -- the first big-screen production of David Letterman's Worldwide Pants -- offers more laughs than most comedies of recent vintage. But what was subversive on the tube feels muted at feature length.

At the helm, Dinello finds the right note of cheesy bathos for a takeoff on after-school specials that dares to ask, "Can we change?" But even given the essential goofiness of the premise -- and the 10-minute cut since "Strangers" premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival -- the story line is thin, the execution uneven and some of the gags repetitive. Fans of the 1999-2000 series will flock to this low-budget limited release, but many will be disappointed, as will the avid audience of "The Colbert Report", accustomed to that show's nightly dose of satirical brilliance.

In garish makeup and professional golfer's hairdo, Jerri returns home after 32 years of hard knocks, in and out of prison, to pick up where she left off -- as a student at Flatpoint High. But the halls of Flatpoint are at least as cruel as lockup. On the home front, Jerri's stepmother (Deborah Rush) and half-brother (Joseph Cross) greet her with instant enmity, while her father (Dan Hedaya) lies -- and, when propped up for company, sits -- in a coma.

As bad teledrama would have it, a challenge presents itself as an opportunity to solve just about everyone's problems: the fast-approaching science fair. In order to prove that there is some learning going on at Flatpoint, principal Blackman (series regular Gregory Hollimon), who is corrupt and inefficient, desperately needs the school to win the fair in order to save his funding, threatened by two unamused members of the school board (Allison Janney, Philip Seymour Hoffman). Jerri, naturally, sees a trophy as a surefire way to inspire her daddy back into consciousness. Spurned by the popular kids, she teams with smitten Indonesian science geek (Carlo Alban) and a studious redhead (Maria Thayer) who provokes some prison-perfected extracurricular notions on Jerri's part.

Bible-thumping science teacher Chuck Noblet (Colbert) is no help to Jerri on her quest; offering a kinder, gentler but no more effective touch is the art teacher of Noblet's in-denial affections (Dinello). Deadpan turns from Janney, Hoffman and Ian Holm heighten the absurdity by way of contrast with Sedaris' intentionally over-the-top Jerri, while Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker deliver a couple of delicious characterizations -- he as a science-fair impresario who drags around his very own Boswell, she as a grief counselor whose chief tools of the trade are a timer and a tip jar.

As a sendup of teen-centered melodrama, "Strangers With Candy" is often on target, with savvy production design, costumes and music enhancing the effect. But though this film simmers with pitch-perfect observations, particularly about self-absorbed adults, it struggles to sustain the hilarity.

STRANGERS WITH CANDY

ThinkFilm

ThinkFilm in association with Worldwide Pants presents

a Roberts/David production in association with Comedy Central Films

Credits:

Director: Paul Dinello

Screenwriters: Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Amy Sedaris

Producers: Mark Roberts, Lorena David, Valerie Schaer Nathanson

Executive producers: David Letterman, Rob Burnett, Fred Nigro

Director of photography: Oliver Bokelberg

Production designer: Teresa Mastropierro

Music: Marcelo Zarvos

Co-producer: Stephen Colbert

Costume designer: Victoria Farrell

Editor: Michael R. Miller

Cast:

Jerri Blank: Amy Sedaris

Chuck Noblet: Stephen Colbert

Geoffrey Jellineck: Paul Dinello

Sara Blank: Deborah Rush

Megawatti Sacarnaputri: Carlo Alban

Tammi Littlenut: Maria Thayer

Principal Onyx Blackman: Gregory Hollimon

Guy Blank: Dan Hedaya

Derrick Blank: Joseph Cross

Roger Beekman: Matthew Broderick

Dr. Putney: Ian Holm

Peggy Callas: Sarah Jessica Parker

Alice: Allison Janney

Henry: Philip Seymour Hoffman

MPAA rating R

Running time -- 86 minutes...

Zooey Deschanel, Harry Dean Stanton, Bill Paxton, Chris Klein, Bruce McGill, Deborah Rush and Mark Webber are getting ready for The Good Life, an indie coming-of-age drama by first-time director Steve Berra. Lance Sloane and Patrick Markey (A River Runs Through It) are producing, while Paxton is executive producing. Phyliss Laing is co-producing. Berra drew on his experiences to write the screenplay, which is set in a Nebraska town obsessed with football and tells the story of a mostly normal young man (Webber) who makes the best out of fitting in where he obviously doesn't. Deschanel is a girl who encourages the young man to pursue his own path, while Stanton is a movie theater owner who employs him. Klein is a bully ex-football player living off his high school fame, while McGill is the football coach who is a god in the town. Paxton plays a Judy Garland fan.

Not everyone is afraid of Strangers With Candy. Dan Hedaya, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ian Holm, Allison Janney, Kristen Johnston, Chris Pratt, Deborah Rush and Justin Theroux have signed on to star in the feature film version of the cult hit Comedy Central series. The actors join original cast members and creators Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert in the film, which is lensing in New Jersey with Dinello at the helm. As previously reported, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick also have roles in the film.

Opens

Friday, Aug. 1

Having already twice proved that it's possible to make a top-grossing, gross-out picture that even chicks can dig, most of the original "American Pie" gang has returned for a third helping with the tellingly titled "American Wedding".

But while the threatened final installment, or rather "the thrilling climax," of the "Pie" saga serves up the same mix of shock comedy and lovable characters, the familiar formula feels significantly watered-down the third time around.

Too often, screenwriter Adam Herz's plotting seems to exist solely to set up one of those custom naughty sight gags rather than to advance any semblance of story.

Of course, that probably won't bother audiences, who'll still likely feel like they got what they came for, but even with the word "Wedding" ensuring a substantial female turnout, the total take might not reach the pie-in-the-sky heights of the two predecessors.

It seems like it was just yesterday when Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) was getting acquainted with hot baked goods, but band camp feels like a distant memory for Jim and his flute-playing fiancee Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan) as they make plans for their upcoming nuptials.

As if they don't have enough on their plate, despite getting assistance from Jim's unflappable dad (Eugene Levy) and mom (Molly Cheek) and Michelle's folks (Fred Willard and Deborah Rush), the arrival of Michelle's gorgeous sister, Cadence (January Jones) has been duly noticed by Jim's cerebral buddy Finch Eddie Kaye Thomas) and the indefatigable Stifler (Seann William Scott).

Determined to pull out all stops necessary to put the make on the maid of honor, Stifler manages to charm his way into the wedding party, much to the horror of Jim and Michelle, who have a right to be concerned.

While "American Wedding" might once again be focusing on the trials and humiliations of Biggs' nice guy Jim, this is Scott's movie all the way. Whether he's tearing up the dance floor in a gay bar on '80s Night, getting freaky with Jim's grandma or trying to coax a dog to part with an accidentally consumed wedding ring (better not to ask), the gonzo Stifler, with his John Belushi bursts of energy and his trouble-making Jack Nicholson grin, is up to any challenge that comes his way.

But even his contribution, as well as those of Christopher Guest regulars Levy, Willard and Jennifer Coolidge -- who makes a final, all-too-brief appearance as Stifler's mom -- only go so far in adding a little zip to the bland proceedings.

With original directors Paul and Chris Weitz having successfully moved on to more mature fare like "About a Boy", the reins have been passed from "American Pie 2" helmer James B. Rogers to Jesse Dylan, who proved he knew his way around a visual gag with his first feature, "How High".

Dylan can push through an effective gross-out scene with the best of them, but when it comes to pulling off that patented "American Pie" blend of the raucous and the sweetly innocuous, he lacks the Weitz brothers' seamlessly shifting light touch.

As is fitting for the genre, production values are bright and zippy, while executive music producer Kathy Nelson has assembled several albums' worth of ideally attuned tunes ranging from newer stuff by the All-American Rejects ("Swing Swing") and Joseph Arthur (the plaintive "Honey and the Moon") and older stuff, including a cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", performed by Jesse's brother Jakob's band, the Wallflowers.

American Wedding

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures presents

A Zide/Perry-LivePlanet production

Credits:

Director: Jesse Dylan

Screenwriter: Adam Herz

Producers: Warren Zide, Craig Perry, Chris Moore, Adam Herz, Chris Bender

Executive producers: Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz, Louis G. Friedman

Director of photography: Lloyd Ahern

Production designer: Clayton Hartley

Editor: Stuart Pappe

Costume designer: Pamela Withers Chilton

Music: Christophe Beck;

CQ Executive music producer: Kathy Nelson

Casting: Lisa Beach, Sarah Katzman

Cast:

Jim: Jason Biggs

Michelle: Alyson Hannigan

Cadence: January Jones

Kevin: Thomas Ian Nicholas

Steve Stifler: Seann William Scott

Finch: Eddie Kaye Thomas

Harold: Fred Willard

Jim's Dad: Eugene Levy

Jim's Mom

Molly Cheek

Mary: Deborah Rush

Running time -- 95 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

"American Playhouse" invariably presents teleplays full of challenge. Sometimes too much. Like "Reckless", a mostly fascinating but twisted tale that Craig Lucas adapted from his own play.

Most of the killings and craziness happen on Christmas Eves during a dozen-plus years. You're never quite sure where the story is; it's as if the plot is chasing its own tail.

It's built around happy, jabbering Rachel (Mia Farrow, playing the innocent forever), a wife and mom of two young boys. On this snowy Christmas Eve, her husband (Tony Goldwyn) bursts into tears and announces that he had hired a hit man to kill her this night. He says she has to get away so the killer can't get at her - and he helps her out the second-story window.

She slides down the snowy roof and into the night and a zany new life. A new life of sorts. She meets an odd couple (Scott Glenn and Mary-Louise Parker) who don't use their real names because they're fleeing bad lives; a deadly bookkeeper (Deborah Rush); a bizarre game-show host (Giancarlo Esposito); and a deranged nun (Eileen Brennan) who formerly drove a school bus.

Was that the same bus and the same bus driver who ran down Rachel's folks in the first place? You had to ask.

"Reckless" tends almost recklessly to defy category. It's mostly a black comedy, not the red and green of the season, and director Norman Rene and a sparkling cast have a romp with it all. That's its saving grace, the funny, falling-down creative comedy, even if it doesn't make sense.

AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE: RECKLESS

PBS

Playhouse International Pictures

Executive producer Lindsay Law

Producer Amy J. Kaufman

Director Norman Rene

Writer Craig Lucas

Director of photography Frederick Elmes

Production designer Andrew Jackness

Casting Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith,

Kerry Barden

Editor Michael Berenbaum

Composer Stephen Endelman

Music supervisor Randy Poster

Cast: Mia Farrow, Scott Glenn, Mary-Louise Parker, Tony Goldwyn, Stephen Dorff, Eileen Brennan, Giancarlo Esposito, Debra Mont, Deborah Rush, Juana Barrios, Mike Heibeck, Vee Brown, Jack Gilpin, William Duell, Anthony Pagano, Joanne Krispin, Lisa Krispin, Mary Beth Peil, Lindsay May Sawyer, William Fichtner, William Preston, John Magill, Zach Grenier, Lisa Louise Langford, Walter Bryant, Doug Barron, Maureen Silliman, Ron Bagden, Nancy Marchand, Ladd Patellis, Pat Distefano, Elijan Nicole Rosello, Nesbill Blasisdell

Airdate: Monday, Dec. 16, 9-11 p.m.