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A paradigmatic New York indie of the kind that cannot be accused of star-slumming or dependie bloat, Azazel Jacobs' "Momma's Man" tells an incremental tale of modern regression, and as such it is patient and stinging. Mikey (Matt Boren), a flabby thirtysomething man of undefined profession, gets laid over in New York and bunks in his aging parents' loft instead of waiting at the airport. At least we're told so -- the next day Mikey invents a few more excuses to linger in the house in which he grew up instead of going home to his wife and child in California. The days pass, his enabling mother (Flo Jacobs, the director's mother) caters to him sympathetically (her priceless first note left at the breakfast table tells him there's cereal, there's fruit, "put fruit in the cereal"), his distant father (Ken Jacobs, Azazel's father) wonders silently what the hell's going on,...

by indieWIRE (December 13, 2008) Editor's Note: This is part of a daily December series that will feature new or previously published interviews and profiles of some of the year's best filmmakers, writers, actors and actresses.

Azazel Jacobs' "Momma's Man" took a rare approach to filmmaking. Jacobs cast his real parents, Ken and Flo Jacobs, as the parents of Mikey (Matt Boren), a thirtysomething husband and father who takes an extended vacation in his parent's apartment. Shot in actual the New York City loft of his parents, Jacobs' "Momma's Man" was well-received when it premiered earlier this year at Sundance.

It's time to stop calling Azazel Jacobs a "promising" filmmaker. With "Momma's Man," Jacobs achieves the promise.

The deeply affecting "Momma's Man" goes far inside John Cassavetes territory. Mikey (Matt Boren) visits his doting parents during a business trip to New York, leaving his wife and child back in California.

Comes time to go home, he encounters two problems. His airline, All American Sky, bumps him (nothing surprising there). Worse, some strange mental paralysis keeps him from leaving his parents' home, a cluttered Chambers Street loft.

For his third feature, Momma's Man, micro-budget filmmaker Azazel Jacobs shoots in his boyhood home, and has his parents Flo and Ken—the latter a legend of avant-garde cinema—playing, essentially, themselves. Then he casts Matt Boren as their grown son, an L.A.-based husband and father who flies into New York City on business, stays with his parents, and has a hard time leaving. Initially, Boren claims he's having trouble with his flight out. Then he starts cooking up vague, defensive excuses for his wife, like "Do you know what it's like to watch your parents get old?" Eventually, he stops trying to explain himself at all, and just settles into long days of playing with toys, picking at his guitar, and calling up old friends to see if they remember the person he used to be. Momma's Man is a comedy of sorts, though to Jacobs' credit,...

By Aaron Hillis

Last December, I met filmmaker Azazel Jacobs at a coffee shop just down the street from the Tribeca loft he grew up in, and where his parents . avant-garde cinema icon Ken Jacobs and longtime collaborator Flo . still rent. Though he now lives in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, Aza was back in NYC for final tweaking on his third feature, "Momma's Man," before its unveiling at Sundance '08. The reason for our meeting was mostly professional, as Benten Films (a DVD label I run with film blogger Andrew Grant) had fallen in love with Jacobs' previous film, "The GoodTimesKid," starring his real-life girlfriend Sara Diaz, "I'm Going to Explode" writer/director Gerardo Naranjo, and himself. (Benten will release "The GoodTimesKid" in early 2009, so let the shilling stop here).

Several months later, after a distribution deal with ThinkFilm fell through and Kino picked up the slack, "Momma's Man...

By Neil Pedley

This week finds Shakespeare meeting Sexy Jesus, a crash course in Czech history alongside a totalitarian demolition derby, apocalyptic sea monsters and Fred Durst trying to get in touch with his fuzzy side.

"Cthulhu"

Director Dan Gildark certainly isn't lacking for confidence. Whereas most first-time filmmakers would turn to the well-worn territory of twentysomethings and their quirky quarterlife crises for subject matter, Gildark has opted to tackle H.P Lovecraft's sprawling, heady, quasi-religious mythos from the short story "Shadow over Innsmouth" instead. Jason Cottle stars as Russ, a history professor who returns home to Oregon to execute his late mother's will and discovers his father is the leader of the coastal town's apocalyptic cult that centers on the fabled Cthulhu, an extraterrestrial deity that exists in a state of torpor at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. When Russ learns a mass sacrifice may be in the offing,...

NEW YORK -- The latest film to be rescued from financially troubled ThinkFilm's slate is the 2008 Sundance premiere "Momma's Man".

Kino International has acquired U.S. rights to Azazel Jacobs' darkly comic drama about a man (Matt Boren) who visits his parents on a New York business trip and decides to stay, leaving his wife and child behind. The director's parents, underground filmmaker Ken Jacobs and Flo Jacobs, play the parents in the film.

Kino was an early bidder on the film up until ThinkFilm announced it acquired North American rights in March. The indie distributor returned to the negotiating table around three weeks ago after a call from the filmmakers, says Kino president Donald Krim. The fate of several other ThinkFilm acquisitions this year remains unclear.

Despite the March acquisition announcement, Hunter Gray (who produced the project with Alex Orlovsky and exec producer Paul Mezey) says negotiations were ongoing with ThinkFilm but never materialized into a deal.

NEW YORK -- ThinkFilm has acquired North American rights to one of the more offbeat films from January's Sundance Film Festival, the darkly comic drama Momma's Man.

Writer-director Azazel Jacobs' feature centers on a Los Angeles father (Matt Boren) who visits his parents on a New York business trip and decides to stay, leaving his wife and child behind. He quickly reverts to his childhood ways.

The director cast his real-life parents, noted avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and Flo Jacobs, as the fictional parents.

The acquisition reunites ThinkFilm with Half Nelson and "Man" producers Alex Orlovsky and Hunter Gray and exec producer Paul Mezey.

The Sundance Spectrum section premiere will be featured in the Film Society of Lincoln Center/Museum of Modern Art's New Directors/New Films series on March 28, with a theatrical release to follow.

ThinkFilm's Mark Urman, Randy Manis and Ben Stambler negotiated the deal, with Cinetic Media repping the filmmakers.

• Less than a week ago when I mentioned we should see a flurry of post-Sundance deals (indie distributors snapping up titles from U.S. Drama and Spectrum sections) I wasn't necessarily thinking of the smaller projects - THR reports that the Alex Orlovsky and Hunter Gray-produced and Paul Mezey exec produced micro-budgeted writer-director Azazel Jacobs' Momma's Man is now a Th!NKFilm property. Jacob's (pictured above) cast his real-life parents, noted avant-garde filmmakers Ken Jacobs and Flo Jacobs, as the fictional parents. Sounding like a softer version of the French film (Tanguy) where an adult child does not want to leave the nest - this sees a holiday visit with parents extend itself when Mikey (Matt Boren) is headed to the airport to return to his wife and newborn baby. Except he doesn’t board the plane. Instead he returns to his parents’ loft in lower Manhattan,

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