Man of the Year

The concept is simple: 20 or so people, 20 or so cameras, the whole thing shot live and the throughline being the downfall of a big kahuna whose great success every celebrates at a dinner party. A little ALTMAN, a little TIME-CODE, for sure, but this piece has its own identity because it's so tight. Every single character seems to be the star of his/her own story. Nearly everyone is interesting in some way. But, because you know that the John Ritter's character is about to crash and burn, he's the one you look out for the most.

There's something about unscripted humor that's borne of a situation. It hardly ever happens in movies, but this one has loads of it. Some comes from editing, the balance comes from the actors, whose roles seem almost improv.

There are a few soft moments. The tension lags and some storylines get in the way of the better ones. But, perhaps the most interesting part is that this could be a prototype of a new genre, a post-modern New Wave in this "reality-driven" age (of TV, at least).

All in all, an incisive, hip effort. It'll be great to see if it get some proper theatrical play.

I recently attended a screening of MAN OF THE YEAR, starring John Ritter. Here is a movie which was shot on something like 22 cameras at once. On a multi-split screen, we view the action of several stories simultaneously. Naturally, all of the stories eventually dovetail into one story. I found it to be totally engaging.

It's the kind of concept that could either really work, or really fail. This movie works. I enjoyed the sort of voyeuristic thrill of watching these characters interact in a way that felt totally candid. As it turns out, their stories were scripted, but the performances were all improv.

It was incredibly well done. I hope to see more from this filmmaker in the future, and from John Ritter, who was actually amazing as a totally sleazy oil executive.

Hopefully, this picture will play at the multiplexes one day. It's a refreshing break from so much of the unoriginal, formulaic stuff Hollywood asks us to digest.

Go and see it.

I saw this film recently at the Santa Monica Film Festival because I knew one of the producers. I had no idea what to expect going in and found myself truly enthralled and blown away by the accomplishments of this film. Fast, funny, brilliant, twisted, bizarre, touching, intelligent--everything you hope to find in today's indie scene but rarely do. And when you add in the technical facts--improvised dialogue, 20 cameras, one night shoot--it stands as a great representation of what can be accomplished when creative people refuse to hear the word "impossible."

Just saw this movie at Sundance -- what a cool idea! I can't believe they made this movie in just one night with 20 cameras & no script -- it's awesome! Great cast, great performances -- lots of laughs -- really fun to watch --

This is one unique movie. The use of split screens throughout makes for non stop action that keeps the viewer's eyes glued to the screen. An interesting premise that's fully realized. It's truly unbelievable that the entire dialogue was improvised...it sounds as if it was shot from a script. The actors are uniformly excellent. Hats off to John Ritter for a sensitive, groundbreaking performance. And Lin Shaye is laugh-out-loud funny, too.