Director's Spotlight:
Greg Mottola
by Joshua Pasch
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The Daytrippers (1996)
Mottola, a Columbia film school grad, got what every film student since the dawn of film school hopes for – he got noticed. After creating an 11-minute short that made the film festival circuit, Mottola received an offer from the Granddaddy of independent cinema himself, Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh’s grant money would go towards producing one of Mottola’s screenplays. While the funding for that project never came together, Soderbergh offered to produce another project for Mottola, permitting it came in under the micro-budget of $40,000. With that, Mottola went to work, and the following month he completed the script for The Daytrippers.
The Daytrippers was rejected from Sundance, but ultimately won the top prize at Park City’s cross-town, underground festival Slamdance. The production history for Daytrippers is ripe with great stories (e.g., losing your $35,000 camera on the first day of shooting!), as are many first time sets. In the end, The Daytrippers found a domestic distributor, 71% positive reviews on Rottentomatoes, and a $2.1 million gross – not bad for a $40,000 investment (and don’t worry, the camera was insured).
Mottola’s feature debut follows a married woman, Hope Davis, when she finds what appears to be a love letter in her husband’s pocket from someone named Sandy. She shows the letter to her family, including her bickering and overbearing mother, her stoic father, and her immature sister and her sister’s pompous boyfriend. Together, the entire lot hops into a station wagon and makes the titular daytrip from the suburbs into Manhattan. Along the way they squabble, wax philosophical, meet some pleasant and some strange New Yorkers, and eventually find out that Sandy is a dude, and that Davis’ husband (played by Stanley Tucci) has been questioning his sexuality on a pretty regular basis for upwards of six months.
In the same vein as other dialogue heavy, somewhat meandering films like Slackers or Clerks before it (though not nearly as vulgar/funny as the latter), Daytrippers is an uneven, but at times amusing ride into the city. The plot is really more of a framework for putting these five characters in a confined space together for 80 minutes, and whether or not you enjoy the film really will live or die by how much you enjoy spending time with them. Being a New Jersey-born suburbanite myself, and having labored through many a long family car ride into the Big Apple, there was more than one time I wanted to get out of the car and simply wish Hope Davis and her family well on their long drive. Still, Mottola’s rookie effort isn’t without promise – it features some strong performances, very natural dialogue, and a tidy little twist ending. Some of the faults (poor aesthetics and camera work and uneven pacing) can be blamed, likely, on a lack of experience, micro-budget, and impressive 16-day shoot. Given the promise he showed in his first foray into feature filmmaking, it’s surprising that Mottola’s name didn’t resurface again until 2007. But boy, did it resurface in a big way…
Superbad (2007)
Since 2005, almost every summer has featured at least one R-rated breakout comedy. 2005 really kick-started the trend when it had two such hits in Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year Old Virgin. Studios apparently needed one year off before perfecting the trend with 2007’s entries into the potty-mouth-with-a-heart sub-genre - the one-two punch of Knocked Up and then Superbad. Not letting up, 2008 brought two more in Pineapple Express and Step Brothers, and 2009 featured the uber-successful The Hangover.
In all of these films, men talk about sex, use vulgarities, and generally behave like children – but they all have the unique distinction of featuring characters who are vulnerable and, in the end, maybe just in need of a little bromance. Superbad is the only one of these films to feature high school students, and in many ways it feels like another raunchy entry into the American Pie film catalogue. Superbad follows two high schoolers hoping to lose their virginity before they graduate – because let's face it, for protagonists Seth and Evan, half a dozen handjobs and three-quarters of a blowjob just doesn’t cut it. But to leave the description of Superbad at that would be to do it a great disservice.
Despite its lowbrow humor (e.g., there is a six-year-old with an uncontrollable desire to draw male genitalia), Superbad is, at times, surprisingly mature. Evan and Seth, the two high schoolers with virginity in question, are dealing with separation anxiety issues, the weight of their 17-year long friendship, and the high school social hierarchy. And to the film’s credit, even their female counterparts have some level of depth as well – a rarity in this male-dominated genre.
Just as was the case with Daytrippers finding backing from Soderbergh, Mottola once again had the good fortune of being backed by some big-time talent in his second feature. Superbad’s script was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who later penned Pineapple Express as well), and is largely considered to be a sort of reimagining of their combined high school experiences. The producer, (as is apparently the case with every R-rated comedy) is Judd Apatow, an obvious benefit for a director trying to find his comedic voice. Perhaps standing as a testament to how fine of a job Mottola did with the film, so many advertisements today still say “from the creators of Superbad.”
Perhaps Apatow felt Mottola was well suited for the job given their experiences working together on several episodes of Undeclared (an Apatow produced television show). Superbad also marks Mottola’s second straight film to feature events told over the course of less than 24 hours.
Superbad was an instant success, covering its budget on opening weekend, and ending its domestic run at $121 million and taking in another $48 million from overseas for good measure. While none of the leads have reached quite the same level of success since, all of them have gone on to make other star turns, and there is an ongoing debate about which will be met with the most long-term success; it feels a bit like the entire lot of them (Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, and even Christopher-Mintz Plasse) might have expiration dates as far as mainstream acceptance is concerned. Superbad, however, seems to have left an indelible mark on modern cinema, and it will be requisite viewing for years to come for high school and college students alike. Teenagers: get your checklists out, your pre-college bucket list must now include lose your V-Card and watch Superbad.
Adventureland
Superbad was special because it was incredibly funny, and still managed to have some level of emotional resonance. Mottola, clearly in tune with the young adult psyche, showed notable growth with his Superbad follow-up, Adventureland. Taking on screenwriting duties in addition to his directorial efforts, Adventureland is very much Mottola’s brainchild.
Where Superbad followed two best friends as they prepare themselves for the separation that comes with moving away to college, Adventureland chooses to track a recent college grad who finds out that instead of taking a parents-subsidized trip to Europe with his college buddy, he’ll have to instead stay put in Pittsburgh and start earning money to put towards graduate school. With no prospects of a decent job and, as a true liberal-arts college graduate with little to zero discernable skills outside of an uncanny ability to reference obscure literature, James Brennan (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is forced to work at the local, low-class theme park.
Adventureland (the theme park, not the film) is a wonderful place populated with underachieving 20-somethings who operate rides that don’t work, manage games that are rigged, and serve food that is past due. There are also patrons who pick fights, a handyman with a habit of cheating on his wife (Ryan Reynolds in an understated role), and two park managers who make it all happen (Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig in their usual scene-stealing mode). In a place where everyone is a little bit childish, James learns what it means to be grown up – he learns a lesson or two about responsibility, about real friendship, and about love. In a place where no one is going anywhere fast, James gets his first post-college slap in the face from the firm backhand of life.
Adventureland was especially relatable to me (I started my post-college career just a few days ago), but the film’s themes are universal no matter how old you are. And another thing - Adventureland is quite funny. It isn’t funny in the Superbad, in your face kind of way; rather, the film’s humor has more subtlety and restraint, and while there are still lowbrow moments, they never overshadow the story.
Adventureland’s main pre-release buzz surrounded the female lead opposite Jesse Eisenberg, played by Kristen Stewart. Adventureland was notable for being Stewarts follow up to the first Twilight film, and analysts were wondering if Bella Swan fans would turn up to make Adventureland a hit. With nearly universally positive reviews, a modest theater count of 1,862, and a pre-Proposal Ryan Reynolds as the only other draw, Stewart bore an undeserved amount of blame when the film failed to open. Collecting a small $5.7 million on opening weekend, and ending its ride with just $16 million domestically and a worldwide total of $17 million, Adventureland was vastly overlooked.
The film is almost assured a long shelf life on DVD, and its many contributors are all bound for bright futures. Stewart, while still unable to prove her starpower, continues to be a force with the Twilight series, Eisenberg hit it big with Zombieland, and has a series of high profile upcoming projects (David Fincher’s Social Network stands out), Reynolds is a certified Superhero three times over, and even Wiig is picking up steam as a potential leading lady.
Most significantly, though, despite Adventureland’s low gross, Mottola continued to show growth as a director, as this stands as his most complete work to date. It looks like we wont have to wait long for his fourth feature – a project that, while certainly not guaranteed mainstream success, is at least going to be hotly anticipated by BOP writers, readers, and many other cinephiles.
Paul
Paul reunites the duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the comedic twosome behind the brilliant British parodies Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. Where those films were both directed by Edgar Wright and written by both Pegg and Wright, Paul is written by Pegg and Frost, stars Pegg and Frost, and is directed by Mottola (sorry if that got a bit confusing).
Paul follows two British sci-fi geeks who travel to America’s Area 51, only to happen upon a real alien named Paul. As the two work to return the titular extraterrestrial to his mother ship, there will be both healthy doses of action and comedy (a Frost/Pegg specialty). The alien, a combination of CG and motion capture, will be voiced by Seth Rogen, and the ensemble cast will include other notables such as sci-fi regular Sigourney Weaver, and comedians Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, and Jane Lynch.
As a film that is both high-concept and high-tech, Paul marks a substantial change of pace for Mottola, who, up until this point has specialized in the low-concept and low-cost. Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz manage to strike a strong balance between physical comedy and witty dialogue. Hopefully Mottola can seamlessly integrate some of those more physical qualities into this feature – if he can pull it off, it would be yet another development for a director who has shown substantial growth with each of his directorial efforts. While neither Shaun nor Fuzz grossed as much as they deserved, they’ve both built up huge cult followings, and with this larger and American-friendly cast, Paul might just be a breakout success for Pegg, Frost, and Mottola.