 |
‘Slackers’
promises laughs, not ethics There are places where more time is spent in bars than in libraries, more time in bedrooms than taking midterms. Places where dreamy guys spend their time cheating on tests and scamming their way through four years of classes, and then at the end of the day get to hookup with the local supermodel. Places like college.
Or at least, that’s how everyone would like it to be, right? That is the idea behind the upcoming Screen Gems film “Slackers,” anyway. The movie belongs to the recent tradition of racy comedies featuring young buddies getting themselves involved in crazy antics. “Slackers” sees the world of three outstanding Holden University seniors come to a sudden standstill when their cheating ways are discovered by the super-nerd of the school. The three strike a deal with the loser, the self-dubbed “Cool Ethan,” and he promises not to use his incriminating evidence as long as they help him attain the object of his affection. Unfortunately, fate steps in along the way, and the head of the three falls in love with the super-nerd’s secret crush. The farcical comedy’s cast includes a promising list of young upstarts. The three friends include Jason Segel (“Freaks and Geeks”) as “Sam, Michael C. “Pete” Maronna as Jeff, and Devon Sawa (“Final Destination,” “Casper”) as the trio’s leader Dave. The female lead honors are taken by model James King (“Pearl Harbor”) as Angela. Laura Prepon plays her horny and sexy roommate, and then there is a special appearance by Mamie Van Doren. Last but not least, Jason Schwartzman of “Rushmore” and drummer for Phantom Planet, tackles the socially unstable role of Cool Ethan. The film was directed by first-timer Dewey Nicks, whose previous credits include award-winning commercials. Nicks and the gang really went for the comedic throat with this film, holding no prisoners in the war of laughs. For at least one of the cast members it was the willingness to go for the gusto that separated this movie from regular teenage fare. “It’s what attracted me to the movie,” Sawa said. “We are pushing the envelope and we are going to get some reactions to it. But at the same time I didn’t want to do any fluffy comedies, where they’re trying to hold back and be PG-13.” Though situations in “Slackers” are, to say the least, extreme, the cast and filmmakers felt a connection to how they portrayed the college lifestyle. Nicks wanted the pace of the comedy to be as fast as a freight train, because that’s how he remembers college. And in the grand tradition of college, the young cast of the film treated their time together like a party. “We were up in Redlands at a hotel, and there was a grand piano in the lobby of the hotel, which I don’t think was allowed to be played” Sawa said. “But, Schwartzman of course being Schwartzman played it, and he was quite good. So we’d sit there and all hang out and play the piano. And we really all clicked, which came out on screen I think. We did a lot of hanging out with the girls too.” Not only was the movie a positive bonding experience for the cast but, as with college, for some it proved an expansive learning experience too. Prepon’s character inspired her to do a sexy cover photo shoot for Maxim. Segel now feels he has entered his “almost-man stage.” But is there anything Cool Ethan could teach the notoriously smooth Schwartzman? Has it inspired him to make a doll out of his crush’s hair, as Cool Ethan does? “To get a girl, I haven’t really done anything too crazy, they usually just come to me,” Schwartzman said. “Slackers” is an extreme comedic experience that the filmmakers feel glad to have been a part of, but the moral of the story may be questionable at best. “I hope that kids aren’t going to go out and start cheating,” Sawa said. He’d rather they come to see the movie and leave laughing. |
|||
|
TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
||||
