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The folks at the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles folks are throwing some coin support towards 27 fiction feature films. We find several top Belgian filmmakers setting up projects for 2024 shoots and for probable 2025 playdates. At the top of the list we find sophomore features from the likes of Harpo and Lenny Guit (Sundance preemed Mother Schmuckers (2021) and Laura Wandel (Cannes Un Certain Regard breakout Playground) joining established vets such as Jessica Woodworth (who is now working on L’Incubatrice), Joachim Lafosse (who is setting up Les Petits Voleurs for a Spring 2024 shoot) and Baloji (an Un Certain Regard winner this year) who is already moving into his sophomore feature.…...

Lenny Guit and Harpo Guit are the masterminds behind Mother Shmuckers (Fils de Plouc), one of the most unhinged comedies to grace Sundance’s Midnight section in years. The film follows two brothers, Isaachar (Maxi Delmelle) and Zabulon (Harpo Guit), a demented Merry and Pippin duo hunting for food and their lost dog, January Jack.

The Guit brothers grew up in Paris and were educated in Belgium—where they used a first-feature film grant, handheld cameras and three weeks of hilarity to create Mother Shmuckers: a work of fiction with doc-style immediacy, an unpredictable mash-up between Dumb and Dumber, Three Stooges, The Office and Tim & Eric (but even more low-fi and self-reverential).…...

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival got an early 25th birthday present in the form of James Gunn’s “Suicide Squad,” which will receive a special screening on Aug. 4, the day before Fantasia officially kicks off with the world premiere of Julien Knafo’s zombie thriller “Brain Freeze.” Gunn is a long-time friend of the fest, having first attended in 1997 before later returning for the Canadian premiere of his Marvel blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Fantasia also unveiled its second wave of features participating at this year’s festival, joining a raft of titles announced in May, and will announce the rest of its slate in late July along with details on several virtual events and this year’s juries.

New world premieres, joining the a six-pack announced last month, include Ruth Platt’s “Martyrs Lane,” Anna Zaytseva’s feature debut “#Blue_Whale,” Jonathan Rhys Meyers-starrer “Yakuza Princes” from filmmaker Vicente Amorim,...

If you thought the Dardenne brothers were the only game in town when it comes to fraternal auteur duos making unvarnished studies of life on the skids in working-class Belgium, newcomers Harpo and Lenny Guit have at least one surprise in store for you. If you’re thinking of the Dardenne brothers at all, however, the Guits’ blithely grotesque debut feature “Mother Schmuckers” will likely deliver several more.

Attempting to bring a stinky shot of John Waters recklessness to a national cinema that has rarely behaved this badly since “Man Bites Dog,” this mayonnaise-dipped gross-out exercise references “Pink Flamingos” straight off the bat with its opening scene of two adult brothers cooking up a fecal feast in the kitchen. Yet as it hobbles along from one knowingly stupid setpiece to the next, “Mother Schmuckers” mellows out into something more akin to “Dude, Where’s My Car?” — if “mellow” is the word...

The absurd/dark comedy Mother Schmuckers, the first feature film by Belgian brothers Harpo and Lenny Guit, opens with some idiots cooking in a frying pan what appears to be a piece of shit. Although these young brothers, Issachar (Maxi Delmelle) and Zebulon (Harpo Guit himself), assure that it’s merguez. The stink in the kitchen causes their mother (Claire Bodson) to puke directly into the camera, from the vomit comes the greenish title of the movie. With a beginning like this one, it’s easy to know what kind of humor this effort deals with, however, Mother Schmuckers reaches completely unexpected places... and, on more than one occasion, fucked up ones. This is largely due to the Guits' narrative style. From the moment the mother asks the...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Mother Schmuckers marks the first time a Belgian film is playing in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival. Normally, this section is a great place to find unsettling horror and/or twisted dark comedy, and while the debut film from directing duo Harpo & Lenny Guit delivers both, the problem is that the comedy is, […]

The post ‘Mother Schmuckers’ Review: This Deranged, Belgian Beavis and Butt-Head Flounders in Frenetic Filth [Sundance 2021] appeared first on /Film.

Some movies are slow to reveal themselves, shedding their mysterious tulip petals until nothing is left but the perfect bulb of truth from which the story sprouts. “Mother Schmuckers” — which opens with two bone-stupid adults trying to force-feed their mom a fried pan of human shit until she vomits the film’s title directly onto the camera — is not one of those movies. At just 70 minutes long, it doesn’t have the time.

Then again, you have no idea how long 70 minutes can be. Not until you’ve sat through Harpo and Lenny Guit’s feature debut, Ultimately, it betrays those influences in favor of something that feels more like a Dardenne brothers remake directed by Jake and Logan Paul (and would even if “Young Ahmed” star Claire Bodson wasn’t cast as the titular schmuckered mother).

The world is still wide enough to make room for cinema that celebrates...

In their debut feature film, directing duo Harpo and Lenny Guit craft a narrative unlike any other. Mother Schmuckers (Fils de Plouc in their native French) opens by flinging the audience helplessly into an obscene sequence involving a frying pan full of feces, and what follows manages to become far more vile. The film chronicles the exploits of dim siblings Issachar (Maxi Delmelle) and Zabulon (Harpo Guit), a pair of man-children that would give every single Adam Sandler incarnation a run for his money. The wretched pair spends their time cavorting around Brussels making one scenario of mischief to the next, without giving themselves, or the audience, much time to breathe in between. And while Mother Schmuckers may hit a sweet spot for fans of the delightfully vulgar and distasteful, it reads mostly as a film aiming only to provoke.

The plot is as follows: while out searching haplessly for something to eat,...

Starting today, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival gives us a first glimpse at the year in cinema, and this year it’s available to a wider audience than ever before in virtual form. With many tickets still available, we’re now providing our yearly trailer round-up for those interested in a preview of the lineup.

Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually-updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Taming the Garden, A Glitch in the Matrix, Land, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, Life in a Day 2020, and more.

Check out the trailers (and clips) below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be published reviews soon, so follow along here.

Coming Home in the Dark (James Ashcroft)

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (Ana Katz)

Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

A Glitch in the Matrix (Rodney Ascher)

In the Same Breath (Nanfu Wang...

"Did you lose him?" Clubb Guitos has revealed the first official trailer for Mother Schmuckers, a wacky new Belgian comedy premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival this month. The film screens in the Midnight category, and marks the feature directorial debut of two Belgian brothers - Harpo Guit & Lenny Guit. In the film, Issachar and Zabulon, two brothers in their 20s, are supremely stupid and never bored, as madness is part of their daily lives. When they lose their mother's beloved dog, they have 24 hours to find it - or she will kick them out. "Defying traditional labels, Mother Schmuckers doesn't take itself too seriously. Instead, the hilarious observations the brothers make about life and family relationships elevate everyday occurrences. A refreshing piece of filmmaking, their fun, funny and unapologetic style, is a rare and much needed gift in these uncertain times." The film stars Harpo Guit, Maxi Delmelle, Claire Bodson,...

While the Sundance Film Festival won’t take place in person in Park City this year, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of reasons to be excited for the virtual edition kicking off January 28. One such acquisition title heating up the fest is “Mother Schmuckers,” the first Belgian film ever to play in the Sundance Midnight section. This jittery buddy comedy about two incorrigible brothers still living with their mother in Brussels has, according to sales agent Best Friend Forever, echoes of “Jackass” and John Waters. Check out the trailer, exclusive to IndieWire, below.

“Mother Schmuckers” is the feature debut of brothers Harpo and Lenny Guit, who wrote and directed the film. Here’s the synopsis from the Sundance Film Festival:

Two low-down, rotten brothers named Issachar and Zabulon are starving and can’t seem to scrounge up a meal anywhere. Things only get worse when they lose...