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Imagine Me and You movie

Romantic comedies don’t get more generic than this one. Imagine Me & You (beware movies that borrow their titles from pop songs…) follows the established formula with only one Sapphic deviation - the romantic leads are both female. But, for all the that script explores the societal and cultural repercussions of this, they might as well be a man and a woman. The lesbian nature of the relationship seems designed for no purpose other than to spice things up, but it doesn’t work. Imagine Me & You isn’t unpleasant, but it is unremarkable. If nothing else, it proves that gay romances can be just as uninspired as their heterosexual counterparts.

The two future lovers meet at a wedding. Luce (Lena Headey) is the florist, and Rachel (Piper Perabo, appearing in her second lesbian romance) is the bride. Their fates are sealed with a look. For a while, they play at being “just friends,” but Luce’s admission that she’s a lesbian raises the ante, and Rachel’s growing emotional distance from her husband, Heck (Mattthew Goode, who can currently be seen as Tom in Match Point), is symptomatic of a mismatch. The women grapple with the forces that seek to pull them apart and the attraction that pushes them together until the expectedly happy ending resolves everything. (Warning: some viewers may experience sugar shock during Imagine Me & You’s climactic scene, which appears to have been borrowed to some degree from Crocodile Dundee.)

I was hoping for a little more Kissing Jessica Stein and a little less Romantic Comedy 101 from writer/director Ol Parker’s debut feature, but Imagine Me & You shies away from doing anything daring, offensive, or interesting. The PG sex scenes (in an R-rated movie that earns its citation because of one too many uses of the f-word) are so tame that it’s hard to imagine anyone being disturbed (or turned on). And, while Perabo and Headey (an underrated actress who deserves better roles) do a good job of inhabiting their characters, there’s no heat in their interaction. It’s easy enough to accept these two as best friends, but the “lover” label is incongruous given the nature of their on-screen chemistry.

The screenplay boasts a few biting one liners, most of which are delivered by Heck. This is Matthew Goode’s consolation prize for playing the guy who comes out on the short end of the stick. To the film’s credit, he isn’t presented as a cretin or an annoyance. He’s a sympathetic guy, and the movie’s best scene is a quiet one in which he engages in a rooftop discussion with Rachel’s younger sister, Beth (Sharon Horgan). There are also the obligatory wacko parents (Celia Imrie, Anthony Head), who start out as impediments but end up providing support and valuable advice.

There’s can be a benefit to the familiarity in most romantic comedies, but that assumes all of the elements are done well. The problem with Imagine Me & You is that the romance lacks the intensity that adherents of the genre appreciate. We have to fall in love with the characters as they fall in love with each other, and become invested in the success of their relationship. That doesn’t happen as well as it might in Imagine Me & You, and it makes the happy ending feel forced. There’s nothing terribly wrong with the movie, but there’s also nothing that would make this a stand-out for either straight or gay audiences.

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Igby Goes Down movie

  • Author: admin
  • Filed under: Comedy, Drama
  • Date: Sep 23,2008

Based on second-hand experience, it seems to me that the coming-of-age film is among the easiest kind of movie to do badly, but one of the hardest to do well. Too many pictures in this genre have a bland, overcooked feel, as if the memories that comprise the story have been filtered through a series of fine strainers to remove all the impurities. With Igby Goes Down, writer/director Burr Steers has fashioned a solid (although not classic) coming-of-age tale by following one simply rule: reject nostalgia in favor of irreverence. Thus, we are presented with a gallery of off-centered characters with a skewed view of the world. The screenplay is edgy and witty, and offers its share of laugh-aloud moments. Steers’ intention isn’t to reflect reality (that can be left to Truffaut’s The 400 Blows), but to give us some “real” moments amidst the absurdities of the characters’ lives. It’s like a less extreme version of Ghost World or Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (which, like Igby Goes Down, stars Kieran Culkin).

Igby (Culkin) hasn’t had the greatest childhood. His father, Jason (Bill Pullman), is in a mental institution after suffering a breakdown while Igby was in grade school. His pill-popping mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon) is cold, unfeeling, and more concerned about how Igby’s frequent failures will reflect upon her reputation. His young Republican brother, Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), appears embarrassed to be related to his undisciplined sibling. The only one Igby can rely upon is his open-minded, wealthy godfather, D.H. Baines (Jeff Goldblum), who views Igby’s upbringing as his personal charity.

Igby fails at school because of his indifference. He has been expelled from one private institution after another until he finally ends up in military school. He doesn’t last there, and ends up in rehab. Soon, he’s hanging out in New York, acting like a bohemian. He lives in the same flat as D.H.’s artist mistress, Rachel (Amanda Peet), with whom his relationship quickly evolves from a platonic liaison to a sexual one. He gains an older girlfriend, the improbably-named Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), who stays with Igby until someone better comes along - namely his brother, Oliver. Meanwhile, Igby is hiding out from his detested mother and trying to figure out what to do with his existence. Despite his glib tongue and bravado, he is deeply insecure about the future. His major in life may be attitude, but on more than one occasion, he admits to being scared.

Igby Goes Down is one of those films where the whole is more than a sum of the pieces. There isn’t much of a plot - this is basically just a series of episodes that, when strung together, present a patchwork tapestry of whom the main character is and how he got to be that person. With a less deft script, this could have been a thuddingly dull motion picture, but Steers finds the right balance between irony and pathos. Despite some heavy drama, things never become overly somber. As a first-time director, Steers is adequate - where he really shines is as a writer.

By this time, there is little doubt that Kieran Culkin has surpassed his big brother Macaulay in the acting department. (After all, what is Mac known for other than the first two Home Alone movies?) Culkin has refined his craft over the past few years and become an effective thespian. Susan Sarandon is delightfully ditzy as Mimi, while Jeff Goldblum exhibits a sleazy charm as D.H. As for Igby’s on-again/off-again partners, Amanda Peet exudes a mixture of desperation and raw sexuality as Rachel, and Claire Danes offers a nice turn as the confused girl who pretends to know more about life than she does. Meanwhile, Ryan Phillippe makes it two films in a row in which he shows ability (the previous one being Gosford Park). Kieran’s younger brother, Rory (recently seen in Signs), has a supporting role playing Igby as a pre-teen.

Igby Goes Down ends pretty much where it begins, with the majority of the story being told in flashback. It’s an unnecessary device, but since suspense isn’t a component of this film-going experience, the structure isn’t a significant drawback. For the most part, Igby Goes Down is lightweight, although it exhibits enough heft for us to develop an emotional connection with the main character. I have always appreciated a smartly written motion picture, and, whatever flaws Igby Goes Down may possess, it is undeniably that.

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Idiocracy movie

The theatrical release of Mike Judge’s new comedy “Idiocracy” is one of the most egregious travesties of modern cinema. Not because the film is awful, which it most definitely is not. Seeing this film dumped during one of the slowest movie attending weekends of the year, in only a handful of screens, with no theatrical trailer or television commercials and only a single opening-day newspaper, is a crying shame. Or, at least, that is the most polite thing I can write without breaking into a profanity-laced tirade.
We can go on and on about how badly Fox botched the release of Mike Judge’s last feature film, “Office Space,” but the truth of the matter is Fox gave the film a decent release in 1999, putting it out into almost 1,750 theatres. The film simply wasn’t embraced by audiences until its premiere on cable and DVD. Since then, “Office Space” has rightfully found a cult audience, with its dead-on characterizations and wish-fulfillment fantasies of practically everyone who has ever worked in that type of environment. So the question is, why didn’t “Idiocracy” get any kind of chance to sink or swim on its own merits? Why was this hidden away from the press, and kept away from most of the major East Coast metropolitan cities? Elementary, my dear Watson… the film is just too savage in its brutal skewering of modern society for mass consumption. While a movie like “Talladega Nights” might tap the audience it targets with a velvet glove, “Idiocracy” hacks away at both the smart and the dumb with a comedic machete.

In a nutshell, On an army base in Virginia, we are introduced to Private Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), an average man who wants nothing more out of life than to finish the last six years of his time in the military so he can collect a nice pension. Against his protests, Joe is volunteered for a top-secret project, the Human Hibernation Project. For years, the armed forces have been training a number of excellent pilots, soldiers and officers, only to see their entire careers wasted during extended times of peace. So before the military sends their best and brightest into deep sleep, they want to test these hibernation chambers on ordinary test subjects. Thus, the most average person in the Army will be the first test subject: Joe, who is unmarried, childless and an only child with no living relatives to ask nosy questions if something goes wrong. Unable to find a suitable female soldier, the brass are forced out into the private sector, bringing in a young woman named Rita (Maya Rudolph), who only agrees to join up in exchange for the dropping of some criminal charges and a fee paid to her pimp, Upgrayedd (with two D’s for “a double dose of the pimpin’”). As is wont to happen, the project doesn’t quite go the way it was planned, and Joe and Rita are kept in hibernation for five hundred years, until a tidal wave of trash their pods have become a part of sends them crashing into an unfamiliar future, which has become overrun with simpleton mongoloids, caused by hundreds of years of overbreeding by the cesspool of society and a lack of breeding by the best and brightest.

In my January 2004 review of the screenplay, I said “So savage and scabrous does this screenplay get at times, this reviewer cannot imagine the powers of be allowing everything in the script to make it to the final cut. Which would be a shame, because what makes the screenplay so uproarious is its brutal honesty about what is happening with the world today.” There are a number of minor scenes that ended up being scaled down or outright truncated between the writing of the screenplay and the release of the final film, but that could also be because Judge was never given a proper chance to finish the film as he saw fit. (Rumor has it that Robert Rodriguez donated a number of special effects shots to help Judge, a fellow Austin filmmaker, get the film completed, one that could have a basis in fact, judging from the special thank you Troublemaker Studios gets in the film’s end credits.) What is surprising, though, is how much of the screenplay actually did make it to the screen. (Rumor also has it that the film was the target of a civil suit by several large corporations who were unhappy with the way they were being satirized in the film, and the lawsuit helped the studio lose confidence in the film, even though this all happened after the film was greenlit.) The favorite channels of the future being The Masturbation Channel and Fox News. The favorite television show being “Ow! My Balls!” and the favorite film being “Ass” (a single shot of a bare ass, which farts every few seconds). The size of a Costco being bigger than a large city. Starbucks being a place where you can get a lot more than a coffee (if you know what I mean, huh huh).

Like many of the greatest cinematic comedies, “Idiocracy” is a lean machine, clocking in at a mere 83 minutes. It sets up its premise succinctly and gets right into the story, flooring the acceleration right from the get-go and never looking back until the very end. Not a moment is wasted. Everything that happens on the screen is there for a reason, every joke set up to payoff two or three more down the road. And like all great comedies, having a talented cast with the smarts to trust in their filmmaker makes all the difference in the world. Luke Wilson gamely spirits Jimmy Stewart as the story’s everyman, constantly befuddled at what the world has become, while Maya Rudolph shines in her too few scenes at the prostitute who quickly comes to understand she has a lot more advantages in the future than she ever would have had in the present. Dax Shepard and “Everybody Hates Chris’s” Terry Crews are always hilarious as Joe’s future lawyer and the WWE-esque President of the United States, respectively, and there are great cameos from “Office Space” vets David Herman, Greg Pitts and Stephen Root.

Mike Judge is like a modern Lenny Bruce, recognized as a genius in his time but destined to become an immortal, the impact of his jabs not truly felt until years and decades after. “Idiocracy” will find its audience in the very near future, and that audience will chuckle, chortle, snicker, cackle and guffaw at how right Judge got it. But then they will stop laughing and remember one of the opening lines in the narration, “Evolution does not necessarily reward that which is good or beautiful, it simply rewards those who reproduce the most,” and will begin to cry, as the scenario depicted in “Idiocracy” is truly becoming more and more a probability with every passing day.

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An Ideal Husband movie

An Ideal Husband is a delightful parfait - an irresistible concoction of brilliant dialogue, sumptuous set design, top-notch acting, and a plot littered with Machiavellian twists. Possessing a light tone tinged with an acerbic accent, An Ideal Husband represents about the best that the motion picture industry can offer. It’s an exquisitely crafted movie that can be appreciated from start to finish. Writer/director Oliver Parker (who last reached the screen with his 1996 adaptation of Othello) has taken Oscar Wilde’s play and tweaked it in such a way that the playwright’s best lines remain intact while the setting has been opened up to offer a fresh perspective.

Those who are comfortable with Wilde’s peerless composition of the English language will be thrilled by the way Parker has chosen to use the original text. Those unfamiliar with Wilde will marvel at the screenplay’s ability to keep the dialogue at such a high level for 90 minutes. When it comes to characters trading quips, pregnant phrases, and double entendres, there hasn’t been a better movie all year. Of course, it’s not all in the written word. An Ideal Husband has an ideal cast. They’re able to take the lines and make them their own. There isn’t a weak performance - even the supporting players are perfectly suited for their roles. The worst thing I can say about any of the actors is that Julianne Moore’s British accent seems a trifle forced and inconsistent.

The film begins by taking us to England at the end of the 19th century. There, we are introduced to Lord Arthur Goring, played with panache by the underrated Rupert Everett, who deserved (but did not get) an Oscar nomination for My Best Friend’s Wedding, and is equally worthy of Academy recognition here. (He can also be seen in 1999’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.) Goring is described by friends as “the idlest man in London”; his favorite pastimes are engaging in slothful activities, flirting with Mabel Chiltern (Minnie Driver), the only woman who can match him word-for-word in a duel of wits, and avoiding being pushed into marriage by his stodgy father, the Earl of Caversham (John Wood). He rigorously avoids discussing serious subjects, asserting that “I love talking about nothing. It’s the only thing I know anything about.”

Lord Goring’s closest friends are Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam) and his wife, Lady Gertrude (Cate Blanchett). Robert is an upright man of impeccable reputation and his wife, an independent-minded woman, is devoted to him. Several days before Robert is to speak before Parliament to denounce potential British support for an act to cut a canal through Argentina, he is approached by the devious Mrs. Laura Cheveley (Julianne Moore), who has just returned to London from Vienna. She offers him money to support the canal, and when he refuses, she comments that every man has his price. Her next action is to blackmail him - unless he capitulates, she will ruin his career and wreck his marriage by revealing the secret of how he acquired his wealth.

The plot has all the twists and turns of a David Mamet effort, yet remains surprisingly easy to follow. And it’s a good thing, because unnecessary concentration on the mechanics of the story would take away from our ability to savor Wilde’s dialogue, which never flags. Although the film’s tone is primarily playful, there are serious moments, and it’s during these that we gain genuine insight into the characters. Actually, some of the best interaction has less to do with words than with actions. On more than one occasion, the eye contact between Minnie Driver’s Mabel and Rupert Everett’s Lord Goring speaks volumes. Driver’s expressive face is used to its best advantage by Parker, who capitalizes on each of his actors’ strengths. Cate Blanchett, who, like Kate Winslet, is quickly becoming known for period pieces, is perfectly at home as Gertrude, a woman whose morals are beyond reproach.

There are numerous delectable small moments in An Ideal Husband, chief of which are the brief exchanges between Lord Goring and his manservant, Phipps (Peter Vaughan). Some of the most astute and penetrating snippets of dialogue come during these conversations (which generally consist of Goring speaking and Phipps nodding his head). Then there’s a scene with Driver in a red dress standing at the top of a staircase, resembling none other than Audrey Hepburn. The likeness, although brief, is so uncanny that it can’t be accidental.

Story-wise, the movie covers a great deal of ground, crossing a treacherous minefield of politics, blackmail, betrayal, mistaken identities, and romance. Like nearly everything written by Wilde, An Ideal Husband contains a fair share of barbed social commentary. Some of the movie’s better lines: “In the old days, we had the rack. Now we have the press.” “Scandals used to lend charm or interest to a man. Nowadays, they crush him.” And “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

These days, with flashy action/adventure films and big budget science fiction flicks claiming the lion’s share of the box office, it’s easy to forget the simple, undeniable pleasure of watching a movie like An Ideal Husband, where dialogue, performances, and story construction combine to perfect the experience. The public consumes blockbusters like snack foods - gobbling them down with little concern for quality. An Ideal Husband, on the other hand, is meant to be savored and perhaps sampled a second time simply to absorb all the ingenious quirks that are missed during the first opportunity. This is one of 1999’s least-publicized cinematic treasures.

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The Ice Pirates movie

Yeah, that’s Anjelica Huston in a campy sci-fi spoof, but that doesn’t mean it ever takes itself seriously.

Robert Urich stars as a space pirate in the far future, when there’s no more water in the galaxy, and pirates work the shipping lanes of open space to steal what ice there is left. Urich’s Jason winds up in a plot involving a kidnapped princess, an evil empire, and a visit to “the seventh world,” which includes time travel,

It’s sci-fi camp, but the cheeseball special effects, low-budget sets, and iffy dialogue actually enhance the film to the point where it’s kinda sorta fun. When the “space herpe” (a ripoff of the chest-burster from Alien) shows up on the ship, we know we’re in for something, well, a little different.

Stupid, stupid, stupid… but amusing.

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The Ice Harvest movie

There are those, including the distributor, who would like audiences to believe that The Ice Harvest is a comedy. At first glance, that’s not so hard to accept. After all, director Harold Ramis was one of the Ghostbusters co-writers and scored a big hit with Groundhog Day. But Ramis’ funniest work is at least a decade behind him and, while The Ice Harvest has moments of dark, macabre humor, it’s pretty much a straightforward film noir tale. You may laugh, but it won’t be often or with much gusto. This is strictly B-movie fare. It tries to do some of the same things as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and suffers as a result of the comparison.

Our hero is a loser lawyer by the name of Charlie Arglist (John Cusack). Charlie isn’t a very nice person, but since he’s played by an actor everyone likes, we tend to overlook Charlie’s least appealing characteristics (such as the disdain with which he treats his children). Partnered with Vic (Billy Bob Thorton), who has the guts Charlie lacks, the sad-sack attorney figures out how to steal $2 million from his boss, Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid), on Christmas Eve. After the deed is done, all he and Vic have to do is go their separate ways for a few hours, meet up at 1:00 am, split the money, and ride off into the sunset. Charlie would like to take along his idea of the perfect woman, strip joint owner Renata (Connie Nielsen), but that would mean telling her more than is wise. Meanwhile, one of Bill’s enforcers (Mike Starr) has arrived in town and is asking questions about Charlie and Vic. And Charlie’s footsteps are dogged by his drunk best friend, Pete (Oliver Platt), who wants nothing more than to spend Christmas with his buddy (rather than his wife, who happens to be Charlie’s ex).

This being film noir, there are plenty of murders, script contortions, red herrings, and double-crosses. It’s hard to say whether the ending is “happy” or not - it depends on how you define the word, and I won’t go into detail here. There are some laughs to be had, but this is a mismatch for Ramis, whose forte has never been dark material. It’s hard to say whether Joel and Ethan Coen could have had more success with the script, but the result would have been more interesting. The Ice Harvest lacks the comic momentum necessary to make it more memorable than a run-of-the-mill thriller.

I have seen the movie compared to Bad Santa, but it’s an inappropriate comparison. There are three superficial similarities - the Christmas setting, a rogues’ gallery of characters, and the presence of Billy Bob Thornton - but the films are radically different in tone, intent, and storyline. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a closer match, although that film is better and more energetic. For anyone on the lookout for a holiday-themed motion picture, this probably isn’t going to scratch the itch.

Can it still be said that John Cusack possesses “boyish charm,” even though he’s in his 40th year on earth? He makes Charlie identifiable. On the surface, he’s an unappealing guy, but Cusack gives him enough likeability that we find ourselves rooting for him. Billy Bob Thornton does his usual schtick - the amoral thug with flashes of charm and a heart of lead. Connie Nielsen is miscast as the femme fatale (originally, the role was ticketed for Monica Bellucci). She’s not all that interesting or sexy. Randy Quaid, playing against type (he’s not a buffoon), adds a jolt of energy, but he doesn’t show up until late in the movie. Oliver Platt does a good job portraying a drunk, but a little bit of this kind of character goes a long way, and I found myself wishing he would fall face-down in a gutter somewhere and stay there.

The Ice Harvest has a short running time of 88 minutes. Despite its brevity, it seems padded, with all sorts of irrelevant scenes and dead-end subplots taking up time. It’s hard to figure out who the target audience is, since serviceable-yet-unremarkable B-movies rarely do much business. Next time, Ramis should work to his strengths, and film noir isn’t one of them. The Ice Harvest will have melted away long before the turkey leftovers are polished off.

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Ice Age movie

Hats off to 20th Century Fox. Through a marketing campaign which can be considered nothing less than astonishing, the studio has managed to convert Ice Age from an adequate (but hardly superlative) example of family entertainment into one of 2002’s handful of must-see movies. Put this one alongside Star Wars, Episode II, the 20th James Bond film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and The Two Towers on the list of movies that seemingly everyone is aware of. The reason is simple: a computer-generated squirrel who has a hard time hiding his acorn.

Wisely, the previews for Ice Age only give glimpses of the pedestrian main plot. Instead, they center on the devilishly clever, exceedingly enjoyable interludes featuring the aforementioned rodent in situations and circumstances that recall the great animated work of the recently departed Chuck Jones. In fact, it got to the point where I was becoming irritated by the movie’s main plot - I wanted to see the squirrel again. All told, he makes about five appearances (totaling maybe 10 minutes of screen time). The rest of the movie is concerned with the escapades of a woolly mammoth, a sloth, a sabertooth tiger, and a human baby who tries unsuccessfully to be as cute as Monsters Inc.’s Boo.

Discounting Final Fantasy, which was aimed at a much different audience, Ice Age is the eighth Hollywood-financed computer animated film. It follows in the wake of, and borrows liberally from both of 2001’s blockbusters, Shrek and Monsters Inc. In fact, if Ice Age hadn’t been in development before those movies arrived in multiplexes, one might be tempted to argue that the screenplay for this film took elements from its two immediate predecessors, jumbled them together, then dumped them out in the middle of a frozen tundra. Kids, of course, will love Ice Age. Adults will be entertained, but no more. The film doesn’t quite succeed as well on both levels as last year’s Dreamworks and Disney/Pixar productions do.

The time period is the Dawn of Man. The dinosaurs have long since vanished from the Earth, and an ice age is fast approaching. The animals, at least most of them, are headed south for the long, hard winter. Among the exceptions are the industrious, frustrated squirrel, and three larger mammals: Manfred the Mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (voice of John Leguizamo), and Diego the Sabertooth (voice of Denis Leary). These three have banded together on an unlikely quest: return a lost human baby to his tribe. However, while Manfred and Sid have the best intentions, Diego is pursuing his own agenda, which includes turning Manfred into dinner.

The contentious relationship turned to warm friendship between Manfred and Sid is virtually identical to that of Shrek and Donkey. The bonding that goes on between the animals and the baby recalls the way Boo worms her way into the big, bad monsters’ affections. But, despite the many plot similarities, the humor and sophistication of Ice Age never quite reaches the level of the other computer animated endeavors - except on those occasions when the squirrel is on screen. Also, the quality of the animation is a notch lower. It’s not bad, by any means, but it’s a definite step backwards, often more resembling the look of a computer game than that of a big budget motion picture.

Vocal casting is a critical element of any animated movie, and Ice Age gets it two-thirds right. The mistake is Ray Romano, whose trademark low-key delivery turns Manfred into a walking invitation to doze off. He’s boring; the word “animated” hardly seems to apply. Fortunately, Manfred’s dullness is more than adequately counterbalanced by John Leguizamo’s off-the-wall portrayal of Sid. One could make a case that Leguizamo is more effective here, where we don’t see his face, than he has been in any of the outings where we have seen it. Denis Leary offers an interesting portrayal of Diego - there’s not a hint of sarcasm or irony in the performance. Leary, in an unusual move, plays it straight.

Ice Age’s director is Chris Wedge, whose only previous experience behind the camera was making an animated short called “Bunny”. His first foray into feature filmmaking is successful, althou