Cole Abaius of Film School Rejects chatted us up at the ‘AFF Presents’ screening in Austin, and then drove us home afterward. He also wrote a review of our movie…
“Good solid acting, some amazingly professional camera work, and a quirky story set it apart as an indie that will hopefully gain some ground and pick up distribution along the way.”
What do you think of the review?
Leave a comment, letting us know.
Whitney Matheson, the very funny pop culture blogger of Pop Candy, wrote about Harry Maldoon’s Magnificent Mustache Movie.
Reporter Karen Lovett came to Merrimack High School to interview and hang out with Juan, Eric, and Mark during their day of “Happy Birthday Harris Malden” screenings and conversations with students.
In the cafeteria, Levy joked about how high school memories came flooding back, ironically tying in to the main theme of “Harris Malden.”
“It almost brings back the insecurities,” he said, laughing and adding that his former teachers showed him a film he made in his Tomahawk days. “I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.”
We ate school lunch. It was actually pretty good. Big ups to the crispy chicken sandwich. To read the full article, travel to the Telegraph’s website. [ Nashua Telegraph Front Page Story ]
(Nashua Telegraph staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom.)
Front page of the Citypaper, December 4th, 2008.
[ Philadelphia Citypaper Article ]
Molly Eichel of the Philadelphia Citypaper wrote an article about Sweaty Robot and “Happy Birthday Harris Malden.”
“The real trouble with the climate of [film] distribution is the model is broken,” says Sweaty Robot’s Matthew Sanchez. “We’re forward thinking enough to take advantage of this new media and [are] finding new outlets for our films and future projects.”
Erica Bauwens from Rowan University’s newspaper, The Whit, did an article about Ben Davidow, Sweaty Robot, and Harris Malden.
Alum Returns With Film Premiere
“I was out in L.A. and we decided to make this movie so I came back and we made it in Philadelphia,” Davidow said. “The movie is based on the character [from the documentary], but it’s very different from the original documentary.”
You can read the whole thing here. [ Full Article Link ]
The following article is on indieWIRE Buzz / Rumors today.
Dave McLaughlin’s “On Broadway” and Rob Epstein’s “The Times of Harvey Milk” are two of the titles debuting this month on Amazon Video on Demand in the wake of a new partnership with Cinetic Rights Management (CRM) that will bring independent films to audiences via Amazon and CreateSpace DVD on Demand. The deal between CRM and Amazon will place about twenty films on Amazon each month, one debuting exclusively each month. Others on tap for Amazon this month include Sweaty Robot’s “Happy Birthday, Harris Malden,” Curt Johnson’s “Your Mommy Kills Animals,” and Vern Oakley’s “A Modern Affair.” Additional November films have not yet been announced. “Audiences are no longer required to live in a specific city to see new and classic independent film,” CRM’s Matt Dentler said today, in a statement. “All they need now is an Internet connection.” “On Broadway,” profiled yesterday by indieWIRE, is November’s CRM exclusive on Amazon. [Eugene Hernandez]
Internet, here we come. [ Link to IndieWIRE Article ]
Ben emailed me this morning about a review on IMDb. It’s by user oneloveamc, and it goes like this:
Absolutely amazing! see it!, 20 October 2008
I just saw this tonight and I’ve gotta say that it could not have possibly been better as far as I’m concerned. It could be compared to something like Super Troopers, only this movie didn’t need to use weed and compromising situations in order to be funny, don’t get me wrong I love Super Troopers, I even liked Beerfest, but this movie was so much better!!!!
The camera work was very straight forward with a great awareness of composition, none of that Guy Ritche type over stylized shifty camera work (and don’t get me wrong, I love that style, it just has no place being in this kinda film) the characters were flawless and incredibly entertaining, but what really made this one was the acting and just the overall delivery of the lines. All of the players had such great chemistry with each other, it was defiantly apparent that they had been acting together for a while by who comfortable they are with one and other when they say there lines…
See it the first chance you get, I believe that they said that it was available or was going to be available on some internet site, search it….
Two thumbs up! Amazing! And did I say it was quite possibly the best thing that I saw this whole film festival? because I think that it just might be!
Thanks, oneloveamc. That’s very nice of you.
While most YouTube comments are stupid, pointless, innane, embarrassing, or all of the above, we received a good one from YouTuber ls1armgedn yesterday:
I’m so enamored, I’m trying to help spread your work with the ferociousness of smallpox…Keep up the excellent work, guys.
That’s the kind of get up and go that Harris Malden needs. Good for you, ls1armgedn, we think it’s a terrific cause. Earlier today, I tried to spread my butter with the ferociousness of smallpox, and I ripped my toast.
Good press from Philly websites due to our screening at Drexel:
[ UWishUNu ]
In it, we meet Harris Malden, a regular guy on the eve of his twenty-fifth birthday — well, regular except that he wears a fake mustache that makes Groucho Marx’s pre-Love Happy grease-paint whiskers look convincing. – JOEL FRANKE, UWishUNu
[ Phillyist: Can't Miss This! ]
Chris Sannino wrote an article about “Happy Birthday Harris Malden” in Drexel University’s newspaper, The Triangle. Here’s a bit…
While living together in New Jersey, Gregorio and Levy decided to borrow a camera from their job editing wedding videos. Having written some material already, the two punched out their first short film in a single night.
The film was great guys. There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and quotable lines. I also liked how the more dramatic main story about Harris was balanced with the hilarious side story about Melvin. This felt to me like a Michel Gondry film, who is one of my favorite directors. I hope this and your future films get picked up for wide releases and I wish you guys luck in the future.
[ From a comment on this blog after CineVegas ]
Kelly Williams, programmer of the Austin Film Festival, was interviewed Julie Moody at WKUT, Austin’s NPR station. He brings up “Happy Birthday Harris Malden” as an example of the Comedy Vanguard series.
[ Listen to the Interview Here ]
I have a big smile on my face right now. It’s just fantastic hearing our movie talked about that way. Fresh Air with Terry Gross, here we come. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
This bearded gentlemen took the time to do a video blog about our little motion picture. I feel especially warm and fuzzy about this, because he looks a little bit like College Eric.
He also reviews Kevin Smith’s “Zak and Miri Make a Porno.” I am a fan of Kevin Smith’s oratory as well, and I listen to SModcast whenever it comes out. You can watch Kevin’s acceptance speech for the Maverick Award at the Woodstock Film Festival on the YouTube Machine.
‘Happy Birthday Harris Malden’ played twice at the CineVegas 2008 Film Festival. Read some of the reactions to the film, and interviews done with Sweaty Robot.
Reviews
Don Lewis from FilmThreat.com writes…
“…the film is really funny as long as you realize there’s a kind of straight-faced silliness to the whole affair much like the films of the Zellner Brothers or even Charlie Kaufman. If you enjoy that kind of off-the-wall humor, “Happy Birthday, Harris Malden” can’t miss.” [Read Full FilmThreat review here]
Eric D. Snider from Cinematical…
But most of the jokes do work. As you might expect given the film’s premise, the Sweaty Robot guys are fond of absurd, surreal humor, though they’re careful not to let the movie become too bizarre. [Read the full Cinematical review here]
Cal Kemp at Collider…
Somehow, “Harris Malden” is both down to earth and over the top. It’s sweet, funny and real in a way that only fiction can be. [Read the full Collider review here]
David Cornelius with eFilmCritic…
I admire the way the filmmakers manage to have so much going on at once, with natural, overlapping dialogue filling each scene with an Altman-esque collage of story and character. [Read the full eFilmCritic review here]
Even the bloggers got into the fray…
LOVED this movie!! LOVED IT! this is the 2nd film that really made me happy to be at CineVegas. [Read full review here]
Interviews
[Collider Interview]
[ReelzChannel Interview]
[Fox Las Vegas Video Interview]
[eFilmCritic Interview]
We did an interview for the CineVegas Blog. Here’s a little taste…
What is a real Sweaty Robot? So many pictures come to mind.
Picture the group in our underwear after an All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Bonanza, each sitting on their own tiny, tiny mechanical horse on a hot summer day in the middle of the parking lot of a Pay-None convenience store. Is that what you were imagining?
You know you want to read the rest.
Andrea Bushee, correspondent for the Nashua Telegraph, wrote an article about Sweaty Robot and “Happy Birthday Harris Malden” with a focus on Eric, due to his New Hampshire-osity. Extra, extra, read all about it.
The article showed up as the front page of the Lifestyle section, with a big picture of the guys looming over the words beneath.
World renowned film critic, Michael Lau had this to say:
He saw the film and says he was entertained the whole way through.
“I loved it. I thought it was a great movie,” Lau said…
Lau thinks the movie will go over well in Las Vegas.
“I think they told the story in a unique way,” he said. “It wasn’t the typical storytelling platform.“
Mike Plante of the CineVegas Film Festival had some good things to say about Sweaty Robot in his interview with BACKSTAGE.
A few selections will be of particular interest to actors. Happy Birthday, Harris Malden, which screens in the fest’s Jackpot Premieres section, was made by a five-man group that goes by the name of SweatyRobot. “It’s five guys working together, and they’re all credited as the directors, and they wrote it together, and four of them act in it, and one of them actually did the cinematography,” says Plante. “It feels like a full story, and there are really rounded characters; it’s not just like a five-minute skit that’s stretched out. And since they worked on all aspects of the film, it’s low-budget, but it doesn’t feel like it’s trapped or limited; it feels like there’s a lot of work put into it.”
Thanks Mike, that means a lot to us.
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