My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005) is an independent movie spoofing well-known independent films, such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Memento, Swingers, Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, Amelie, Reservoir Dogs, Pi, The Good Girl, Run Lola Run, and El Mariachi. Directed by Philip Zlotorynski, My Big Fat Independent Movie was produced and co-written by film critic Chris Gore who founded the now web-based magazine Film Threat and is the current film expert/DVD reviewer for G4's Attack of the Show. My Big Fat Independent Movie was eventually acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment distribution and the film was released on DVD. Broadcast cable rights were picked up by CBS Corporation for Showtime, The Movie Channel and Sundance Channel.
Synopsis
The film begins with a racially-charged scene where a thuggish stereotypical African-American is anally penetrating a stereotypical pale white mentally disabled man who has trouble remembering events for more than 15 minutes at a time. The film then cuts forward in time to two talkative hitmen, Sam (Neil Barton) and Harvey (Eric Hoffman), who mistakenly believe Johnny Vince (Darren Keefe), a hipper-than-thou swingin' hepcat and band trombone player, to be the third member of their gang, assembled by their evil crime boss to pull a "botched robbery" in Las Vegas. Along the way, they take a beautiful hostage – the lovely, desperate and lonely cashier Julianne (Paget Brewster). Little do they know that she will forever change their pathetic lives. During the journey, the foursome encounter a variety of characters inspired by famous independent films, including a bald genius, a forgetful thug, a jogging red-head, a bound and gagged girl, rabbis on a mission, lots of lesbians, Project Greenlight's Pete Jones, a crazed though well-dressed mechanic (Clint Howard), a horny answering machine (Jason Mewes), a naive mariachi, an obnoxious practical-joking love-struck French girl, and finally Pauly Shore as himself.
Reception
My Big Fat Independent Movie was a box office bomb, experiencing a very limited theatrical run in 10 markets, earning only $4,655 in box office receipts during its Los Angeles run.[1] The film was poorly received by the public and critics, receiving a very low 23% rotten rating over at Rotten Tomatoes. The film was also rejected by the Sundance film festival and the Slamdance film festival yet the film went on to play at Cinequest, South by Southwest, San Diego Film Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Worldfest Houston and the Temecula Valley Film Festival, where it won best feature.[2] A firestorm of internet debate soon erupted over the film's lowbrow treatment of independent film classics and, as a result, the movie suffered a backlash from die-hard independent film fans, many of whom considered the film to be blasphemous toward the genre.[3]
Chris Parry, entertainment journalist and film critic for efilmcritic.com offered the following analysis about why "My Big Fat Independent Movie" failed to catch on with the public, stating:[4]
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If the makers of MBFIM had chosen only awful indie films to ridicule, they might have found it easier to keep the comedy standard high. Alternately, if they decided to go way over the top and jam as many pop culture references in as possible, as a true test of the indie film fan’s knowledge, they might have carried things off on pure geek homage value. But the film as it stands is stranded in a dire middle ground, where the target audience loves the films being ridiculed too much to go along with things, and the wider audience simply won’t get what films are actually being referenced. |
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References
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