Product Description

With 427 films like Twelve Angry Men and A Baby, The Man With Two Things, and The Heart is A Strong Muscle, Morty Fineman (JERRY STILLER) has made audiences laugh, cry, think, and feel. But now he s broke, and must turn to his estranged daughter Paloma (JANEANE GAROFALO) to help find a way to save his company.
The Independent is the story of one man's struggle for a little bit of recognition. It's filled with interviews from Morty's celebrity friends, clips from his thirty years of films, and a cinema verite camera which follows Morty and Paloma as they try to find the money to help him complete his latest work, the socially conscious semi-erotic thriller, Ms. Kevorkian. The Independent is filled with great performances, and finds its way into your hands as the result of the settling of a lawsuit with a now-defunct, terrible little independent film distributor, the ugly details of which we are contractually unable to revisit here. Enjoy!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86223 in DVD
• Brand: ALLUMINATION FILM WORKS LLC
• Released on: 2008-02-12
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 85 minutes

Review
Hilarious! Two thumbs up! --Ebert & Roeper

Review
Expertly done! Must be seen to be believed! --The New York Times

Review
Garofalo is funny and sweet...Stiller chews up the screen! One of the biggest laughs I got all year! --Ebert & Roeper

Customer Reviews

Jerry Stiller makes this movie work
Let me begin by saying you have to love Jerry Stiller to love this movie, because he's in just about every scene. And he's the Jerry you loved in Seinfeld, as well as many other incarnations. He's loud, he's rude, and he's hilarious. This movie would not have worked with anyone else in the lead role.

The idea of the film is that Stiller is the ultimate independent film producer, Morty Fineman. His movies may not be great art, but there sure are a lot of them. One of the best gags in this film is to just sit back and enjoy the titles for all the films. A lot of work went into conjuring up literally hundreds of titles--some of which will make you laugh out loud. To catch them all, you should check out the very well-done companion web site...

You'll probably enjoy this movie best if you're in the 35-45 age range, because it will take you back to all those drive-in movie classics you loved as a teenager.

full disclosure -- I'm in it
But that shouldn't stop you from laughing and pointing at the baldheaded monkeyboy in the audience shots during the filmfest at the end. Yes, I'm an extra, so what? Plus that's my hometown of Colfax, CA standing in for the fictitious, hooker-founded Chapparral, NV... and yes, I got to meet Ginger Lynn, who plays The Mayor. She had some trouble saying the few lines that were scripted for her (and you'll see that some of her lines have music playing over them instead of voice) but that's okay. I'm pretty sure dialogue is not one of her strong points. Oh yeah, and I met Mr. Stiller, who is as sweet and funny and cool as you would guess he'd be. Same of director Steven Kessler. Same of me. Just kidding; I'm a dick.

So Much Better than I Thought at First Look
Ten minutes into the movie and I was beginning to think it wasn't going anywhere. I'd just about decided to get up and pop the disc out of the player. But, what the heck, I didn't want to go back to the video store, so I decided to give it a few more minutes. Besides, I'd just poured my second glass of wine. So I settled back and prepared for more of the same.

So why did I wind up laughing so hard and so long? It looks like Ron Howard and Peter Bogdanovich new a little something I didn't. This movie took me back over the years and made me laugh, made think about the last four decades, made me sympathize and understand a man like Morty Fineman who just wants his day in the sun, just wants a little recognition. Don't we all.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene, Number One fan of Ken Douglas, writer of Tangerine Dream and Desperation Moon. One of the advantages of being married to a writer is that there are always plenty of good books around the house. It's turned me into quite a reader and allowed me to discover many new books.