New Suit

I just saw this film screened in Aspen, CO last week. Had no expectations (I walked into the wrong screening room!) and loved this movie. I wish I knew when/if it will be released so I can tell my movie-loving friends to see it.

I have seen plenty of trite comedies (you too?) so when something unique comes along it really grabs me. Interesting visual effects, great comic acting, groovy music, colorful sets, snappy dialogue, swift pacing, a plot that was complex enough to keep surprising me without totally confusing me. All the actors are "characters" -- except maybe the lead actor. Initially, I was afraid the the "back-stabbing ex-girlfriend" would be just like every other nasty bitch you've ever seen in the movies -- but despite her selfishness and lack of ethics, I found myself liking this perky blonde schemer. I also worried that the hero would be to perfect, too squeaky clean. Not quite.

Unlike some other "behind the scenes in Hollywood" films, New Suit doesn't suggest that Hollywood is evil. These B.S. artists are really driven by a fear of failure or of looking like failures. So you feel a little sympathetic even as you laugh at these clowns trying to cover their hind ends and puff themselves up. And that's not just a Tinseltown syndrome.

For techies: I heard this movie was 'filmed' in high definition digital video using the same "24p" (24 frames per second) technology that George Lucas used for the new Star Wars movie.

As self-confessed movie addict, I'd thought I'd seen it all -- but the new indie feature NEW SUIT still managed to impress me. Gorgeously filmed in the new digital 24P (the same technique used by George Lucas for the new Star Wars), NEW SUIT is reminiscent of other hip, fun movie satires like Swimming With Sharks, Living In Oblivion or even LA Story. This one, directed by Frenchman Francois Velle, is deliciously sharp and wickedly dark. Perhaps it takes an outsider to truly see through the gauze of the Hollywood dream factory. Smartly written, beautifully edited, finely acted and backed by a snazzy, peppy soundtrack, NEW SUIT is almost flawless as this French director's crossover English-language debut. As Hollywood hopeful Kevin Taylor, Jordan Bridges is both down-to-earth and likeable. Like his father Beau, he seems set for a very solid movie career. This kid has decency written all over him and is gorgeous to boot. The rest of the cast are equally charismatic, from Marisa Coughlin as beautiful aspiring agent Marianne Roxbury to Dan Hedaya as fearsome CEO Muster Hansau (even the names are hilariously on the nose). Mark Setlock and Heather Donohue (of Blair Witch fame) provide a wonderful comic due as Muster's put upon development executives, driven entirely by fear. Donohue, in particular, reminds one of a young Catherine O'Hara and one hopes she gets the chance to show off her comic talents in other movies. Screenwriter Craig Sherman even takes a cameo as the icecream man Kevin names his fictitious writer after (Jordan Strawberry).

Without giving the plot away, the bones of the story are deliciously simple. Disgusted by the game-playing and back-biting of the studio industry, Kevin takes the concept of the Emperor's New Clothes and makes up an entirely fictitious 'hot script' - just for the joy of seeing his peers squirm as they pretend to have read it. Too late, his 'joke' snowballs out of control - and even Marianne gets in on the scheme. Before she and Kevin know it, she's incited a bidding war between two rival producers, mediated by a icy, bald-domed studio head Braggy Shoot (with his own personal Feng Shui advisor) in a very funny performance by ER's Paul McCrane.

There's far too much to compliment about NEW SUIT -- it's richly layered with many, many insider jokes - and it's the kind of movie you'll want to watch a few times over to really savor all the funny details and smart/snide punchlines. NEW SUIT has the potential to be a hip cult favorite.

I came to a screening of NEW SUIT with a friend, and I was just blown away. I knew nothing at all about it beforehand, and afterwards I was just happy. It's kind of a feel-good satire. It's kind of like "The Player" and "Swimming With Sharks" but with more jokes, and snappier dialogue than "Swimming With Sharks" and no dead bodies. It's more fun and not as dark as those movies. I recommend seeing this one strongly. You won't regret it. The story itself sounds deceptively simple. Guy comes to Hollywood. He wants to be a writer and he ends up with a lame job as an assistant. He's really not happy. He plays a trick on his friends and tells them that there's a new script they have to read called "The New Suit" by a guy called Jackson Strawberry. The joke is that there is no script and no author. Very quickly, those friends tell their friends, and it runs out of control very quickly.

Soon everybody's talking about "The New Suit" and this mystery writer. It gets to a point where people are trying to buy this fake script. I won't spoil the ending, but it's really unexpected.

I said that it's deceptively simple, because there's a lot going on here. First of all the movie is fast. It moves very quickly. The dialogue and characters are sharp, and nasty and absolutely dead-on hilarious. the movie never stoops to cater to the lowest common denominator. you've got to pay attention because things start to happen so quickly and the movie doesn't explain everything. You've got to figure it out. New Suit has a great look. I saw it projected in a wide-screen format and it was really rich. I recognized some of the actors (Dan Hedaye), but all of them were fantastic - across the board. The two leads (Marisa Coughlan and Jordan Bridges) were very charismatic. They were familiar to me but this movie really shows their capabilities. There's also Paul MCrane from ER. And you'll be surprised by his performance. And Heather Donahue from The Blair Witch Project has a supporting role, and she proves herself here. Dan Hedaye is raw and sleazy and scary here - an excellent performance as good as anything I've seen him do. But really, the acting is solid here. The music was very cool. Editing is quick. Its well-directed, but I did get dizzy at one point (you'll see what I mean). But mostly you're just going to laugh. Some of the jokes are set up way in advance and I had to laugh out loud, and I never do that. The dialogue was just sharp and youve met all of these characters before. I did get a little confused at one point and I will say that the movie starts out like a typical Hollywood story, and you feel like you've seen this before, and then it kicks in and surprises you. Overall you leave the theater feeling good. It's a fully-realized satire and I strongly recommend it. If you like your comedy with a brain, you'll like it a lot.

Watching HBO on a Tuesday afternoon is rarely a very rewarding activity. Wanna be films pour for more than eighty minutes on screen, making me wonder whether sleep doesn't truly have an intellectual purpose. However, from time to time, like once or twice every six months, it just so happens that there's film on, Tuesday in the afternoon, which has a title that appeals in even the faintest regard. Now, that's a day to keep in mind. When there's even a concept behind the thing, a tiny eye-hole vision, then you might just have yourself a funky time on your head.

"New Suit" is by far not an impressive film, but, given the circumstances above mentioned, it gathers some attention for itself, considering the allegorical context: Hollywood living in it's flawless suit of "despickability". Maybe there's not much to laugh at during the movie, but it's a pleasant feeling to sense someone small and innocent portraying Hollywood's fakeness and forgetting that everyone is a "victim" in the system. Of course, it doesn't go too deep and about half of the movie feels just like a dumped story of its kind, but being candid is that which makes it worth its while.

The actors are so well picked - total anonymity dispersed among some familiar faces - that they conjure this fantasy like atmosphere, cleverly backed up by some very lively, nearly surreal colors, obviously denoting that it doesn't take itself too serious. I have to appreciate "New Suit" for being smart, even though it remains somewhat hollow at times.

New Suit is hands down the worst film I've seen this year. It looks like it was shot using an ugly cam. How does a film look like this get released. Barely, when I saw it, there two people in the theater, and they were theater employees, so I guess they had to be there. The picture doesn't look good, but with the acting, who cares. No performances stand out, they're just mostly mugging actors who have little ability to convey even the simplest of emotions.

If you're not a fan of poor technical qualities, stay away. If you like to laugh, stay away.

In fact, just stay away.