PopMatters review

Director: Stephen Kessler

Cast: Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Max Perlich, Ted Demme

(2000) Rated: R

US DVD release date: 12 February 2008 (Arrow Home Entertainment)

by Jessica Suarez 

Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller), is a B-movie director, with 427 features to his credit, and the subject of a documentary on his life’s work.  Fineman’s career is on the decline, his bank loan payments are past due, and he is working out of a run-down hotel.  His only chance for a comeback comes in the form of a serial killer on death row who wants Fineman to make a musical about his life. 

Initially, turned off by the project, Fineman’s desperation gets the best of him and he agrees to shoot the movie.  Aided by his daughter, Paloma (Janeane Garofalo), and his assistant Ivan (Max Perlich), Fineman attempts to get out of debt and continue making the films he wants to make.  Along the way, we see him interact with his actors and ex-wife (played by real life wife, Anne Meara), as well as see snippets of various Fineman Films productions.

Much of what makes The Independent work are the clips from his classic B-movies interspersed throughout the ‘mockumentary’.  Predating Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse by seven years, this small film makes excellent use of poor production values, bad acting, and outlandish plots to create authentic-looking schlock films.  Highly ridiculous and frequently hilarious, these clips offer a glimpse into a world of outsiders, liberal politics, and overt sexuality in a way that seems completely over-the-top, but also illustrate the environment in which Fineman has thrived for decades. 

Some of the titles, such as Cheerleader Camp Massacre (a movie made after his daughter failed to make the cheerleading squad), Bald Justice (an action story where bald men are the heroes), and One Whale of a Cop (Ben Stiller as a police officer – who only communicates through whale sounds – being set free by a small boy) perfectly encapsulate just how much of this “documentary” is actually a wink to the viewer. 

In particular, The Whole Story of America, with Fineman as director, writer, producer, and lead, is an especially funny and apt example of just how misguided even his best intentions (fairly representing Native Americans in history, for example) can be.  Talking heads by more mainstream movie-making voices such as Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, and Ted Demme, serve to emphasize Fineman’s role as a legitimate filmmaker.  Bogdanovich even says that many of Fineman’s ideas were later stolen by other directors to produce Oscar-winning films.  Even Roger Corman, on whom Fineman is obviously somewhat based, has a small cameo in the documentary.  However, in one particularly revealing scene with his ex-wife, he admits that he made the movies he did because he liked all the blood and sex, and not really for any deeper reason.

Adding further proof of Fineman’s real status in the film industry, he is courted by a small town in Nevada, whose main attraction is legalized prostitution, to be a part of their first film festival.  While Fineman is initially against the idea of taking part in the town’s first film festival, his ego gets the best of him when he realizes that he will be the focus of the entire event.  Not only is he the focus, but he finds that his work really is loved and admired by many.  John Lydon turns in an amusing performance as Baruce, the sole town official against Fineman, as what he does is not art. 

The Independent ably takes all the low-budget production, poor taste, and camp and uses it to highlight the life of Morty Fineman in a way that not only spoofs the material, but also acknowledges his contributions to film, leaving the audience with a feeling that he deserves his final success.  A large amount of credit should go to the casting, as Stiller brings a mix of the ridiculous, warmth, and charm to his role as Fineman, similar to his antics as Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, while Garofalo and Perlich are also very good in their roles, playing their long suffering characters with a great deal of affection for Fineman.  In the end, while The Independent seems to be a direct parody of B-movies, the movie holds an obvious fondness for its subject and characters.

The DVD release includes commentary by director Stephen Kessler, writer Mike Wilkins, and Stiller.  There are also quite a few deleted scenes, many of which include extended clips and trailers from Fineman’s movies, as well as other movies that did not make it into the film.  The release is rounded out nicely by an unexpected behind-the-scenes featurette of Nancy Sinatra recording an original song, “The Love Theme from the Independent”, for the movie.

Everyone has their favorite Morty Fineman film. When you write and direct 427 features, there's a lot to choose from.

Who can forget "Twelve Angry Men and a Baby," not to mention "Chicks With Hicks," "Cage Full of Waitresses," "King Kong Christmas" and the one-of-a-kind "Christ for the Defense," in which Jesus returns to Earth and short-circuits personal injury lawsuits by healing victims right in the courtroom? Now that's entertainment.

If Fineman didn't exist, someone would have to invent him, and that's just what co-writers Mike Wilkins & Stephen Kessler have done in "The Independent," a wacky movie-business mockumentary directed by Kessler that spoofs everything in sight. Unashamedly silly, inevitably erratic, it has so much fun sending up the world of exploitation filmmaking that even the most serious film student won't be able to suppress a laugh or two. Maybe even more. Jerry Stiller stars as the redoubtable Mr. Fineman, deservedly a legend in his own time according to the many real movie people like Roger Corman (clearly a model) and Ron Howard the film interviews. Who knew, for instance, that it was Fineman who pioneered the concept of using Roman numerals in sequels in his classic "World War III II"? "Morty would try something," Peter Bogdanovich says, "and two years later someone would win an Oscar for it."

Fineman is introduced on the set of his newest film, "Ms. Kevorkian," a passionate defense of a patient's right to die that features the formidable Julie Strain in the title role as a machine gun-toting angel of mercy wearing a revealing gold lame uniform and matching cap.

Wanting to craft a statement about social issues has always been a Fineman trait. "If the film doesn't speak the truth, don't make it," is one of his (very) many mottos. That was the impulse behind two Fineman classics, the female motorcycle "Eco Angels" ("these five bad mothers look out for Mother Earth") and "Brothers Divided," about feuding Siamese twins, one a peacenik, the other a gung-ho patriot, who learn a thing or two when they're drafted and see joint action in war-torn Vietnam. Talk about pathos. Both of those films are visible in "The Independent" in riotous coming-attractions form, a configuration at which the co-writers, both of whom have National Lampoon in their backgrounds, are especially deft.

Among the other Fineman trailers are his only studio film, "Whale of a Cop," in which meddling executives changed the lead character from a whale to a water-spouting whale-like cop (Ben Stiller does the honors), and the film that understandably broke Fineman financially, "The Whole Story of America."

Even ahead-of-their-time filmmakers, maybe especially ahead-of-their-time filmmakers, have financial troubles, and Fineman is no exception. Despite the loyalty of Ivan (Max Perlich), his longtime No. 2, and the grudging assistance of his ambivalent daughter Paloma (Janeane Garofalo), the only source of funding on the horizon is an offer for the vast Fineman film library from a group that wants to pay for them by the pound.

Though he's bankrupt, Fineman is always thinking of his next film, which in this case is the ripped-from-the-headlines story of William Henry Ellis (Larry Hankin), the convicted serial killer of 73 who wants his story turned into a musical. And Fineman's trying to get a film festival, any film festival, to fete him with a career retrospective. The only town interested is tiny Chapparal, Nev., but the High Desert Film Festival comes with some particular strings attached.

The veteran Stiller is well cast as Fineman, and the film is fortunate in having the innately comic Perlich and Garofalo in supporting roles. Aside from Strain, the most amusing celebrity casting has former adult star Ginger Lynn Allen as the mayor of Chapparal, and John Lydon, a.k.a Johnny Rotten, as Baruce (not Bruce), the high-tone festival artistic director.

"The Independent's" best asset, however, is its love of the low-budget, exploitation world it satirizes. Writers Wilkins and Kessler in fact came up with titles for all 427 of Fineman's pictures.

These share screen space with the film's final credits, titles like "Barnyard of Hate," "Rock 'n' Roll Golem" and "Tattoo II: Pierced by an Angel" scrolling across the screen in a stately procession. They're definitely worth waiting for.

*

MPAA rating: R for language, some violence and sexuality. Times guidelines: profanity and brief nudity.

'The Independent'

Jerry Stiller...Morty Fineman

Janeane Garofalo...Paloma Fineman

Max Perlich...Ivan

Released by Arrow. Director Stephen Kessler. Producer Mike Wilkins. Executive producer Jerry Weintraub. Screenplay Mike Wilkins & Stephen Kessler. Cinematographer Amir Hamed. Editor Chris Franklin. Production design Russell Christian. Art director Dan Rucinski. Set decorator Halina Siwolop. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

In limited release

The Independent: A One Joke Film

by Marcy Dermansky

Stephen Kessler's genial mockumentary "The Independent" tell the story of Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller), an independent filmmaker with 427 pictures (all of them proudly featuring tits, ass, and bombs) whose long career is coming to an inglorious end. When the future of his his company, Fineman Films, is threatened, Morty goes to his daughter Paloma (Janeane Garofalo) for help.

Garofalo, playing the independent director's levelheaded daughter, is strangely tan. She gets angry. She takes care of business, but the film belongs one hundred percent to Stiller. After an illustrious career in comedy, Jerry Stiller is probably best known as real life father of Ben, and television dad to George Costanza on "Seinfeld." In that role, Stiller annoyed me no end with his antics, but in "The Independent," he is just right. Vain, selfish, full of himself, immodest, an artist who makes bad art -- and a bad artist is something you rarely get to see in films these days. Lots of people have vision; that doesn't mean they are any good.

The best thing about "The Independent" are the clips of Fineman's campy films shown throughout. The film is sprinkled with countless snips from Fineman's career. Terrible B films, delicious titles: Teenie Weenie Bikini Beach, Christ For the Defense, Cheerleader Camp Massacre, Bald Justice, Nuclear Nun, Heil Titler. Sit through the credits for the full treatment of 427 titles. I have a thing about Siamese Twins -- perhaps that's why I loved the clip from Brothers Divided: Siamese brothers, one head a hippie and one head patriotic, go to Vietnam.

"The Independent" follows Fineman's illustrious career as he struggles to make his last feature, either a shoot-em-up euthanasia picture (Miss Kevorkian) or a musical about a serial killer. Cameo appearances from directors Ron Howard, Nick Cassavettes and the infamous B-film maker Roger Corman round out this charmer film. To tell the truth, it's a one joke film, but Jerry Stiller as Morty Fineman keeps you laughing all the way through.

-- About.com