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On last night’s Important Things With Demetri Martin, Demetri used his show’s platform to introduce the summer Ang Lee movie (and to explain who Ang Lee is, wince), Taking Woodstock, in which he stars as real-life-person and memoirist Eliot Tiber, an interior designer who helped run a small hotel in upstate New York and was bewildered to find himself in the middle of history when he helped get Woodstock off the ground. You can’t tell much about a movie from a trailer, but this is definitely not what I was expecting:
Hmm. It just doesn’t seem very different or special, does it? I think when most of us heard about this movie last year we were like “Really, Demetri Martin is going to star as the gay main character in an Ang Lee film? Weird, risky, and maybe awesome!” But this doesn’t seem like an Ang Lee film, and Demetri doesn’t seem to be playing any sort of Hollywood gay stereotype (thank god, though he has the “square dork” stereotype down). At first I thought this trailer seemed Almost Famous-y, what with the “naive young man finds himself caught up in a crazy counterculture and becomes a part of history” exact-same plot, not to mention “I love this hill!” equaling “I am a golden god!”, but then I watched the Almost Famous trailer again and simply as trailers go, it’s about ten million times more substantive. I want to give this movie the benefit of the doubt, so maybe the trailer was rushed out in order to appear on Demetri’s show before its run ends? Or maybe, as the trailer-cliche opening piano music suggests, this movie is exactly what it looks like: a light, airy, precious, twee little summer diversion. And there’s nothing wrong with that. At the very least, it’ll be fun to see Liev Schreiber in drag.
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I’m sure I’ll get lots of
for this, but I find Demitri Martin’s whole “humorous drawings” shtick just a touch less gimicky than the sledge-o-matic.
And that movie looks weak.
I would absolutely take the sledge-o-matic over more of those dumb drawings.
wang is up! wang is down!
That was not what I was expecting either, but it still piqued my interest. I say queue it for the VG Movie Club. I know some people that worked as extras on it and while they may be biased(and total hippies), they say it’s going to be a great movie. We’ll see, but I’m sure you’re right about them wanting to get some kind of exposure through DM’s show before it ends.
Seeing as Mixed Nuts is my all-time favorite Christmas movie, I’m going to see it just for Liev Schriber in drag.
Let’s be honest, I’m going to see it anyways. Is it “based on a true” story, because that could make me not want to go.
Eh, I’ll go anyways. I’m guessing I’ll have nothing better to do than blaze and listen to stand-up, might as well do it in a theater.
emile hirsch is sweet, demetri is sweet… trailer is different but im excited for this now. if i could go back in time i think woodstock would be a top choice (next to jesus haha)
oh, boy. square parents eating ’special’ brownies and letting their ids go wild. ang lee has lots of free passes in my book, though. i’m really hoping he’ll helm that pride and prejudice and zombies movie. it would be the perfect venue for his genre-hopping talents.
Demetri Martin can act?
Do I hear some Mark Mothersbaugh Royal Tenenbaums theme music in the first minute of this trailer? If it’s not, it is oh so dangerously close.
most trailers are made waaaaaay before a film is scored so most likely it is “borrowed” music. happens all the time…
Working in a dying business myself (a small newspaper), this feels very timely.
it actually looks great,
i think it looks great! if paul rudd isn’t involved and arcade fire aren’t featured music its not special/different?
I would see anything with Demetri Martin in it, to be honest.
The trailer looks pretty good, but I don’t think it’s the best they could have done. I’d like to see a more developed trailer.
Still, it looks like something I’d want to watch.
gay beatle?
i like the idea.
but i like a lot of ideas.
wait… so. It’s a real movie? Not a parody of Films About the Past? Because I definitely thought it was a parody of Films About the Past. whoops, hollywood.
Is Martin playing a gay man to counteract the subtle but noticeable strain of homophobia in his show’s humor? I mean, I’m straight and it bugs me. (Note how often he uses “gay” as a pejorative.)
I guess this could be an interesting career move.
Man, good call, Karen. I’d really been enjoying what I’d seen of his show, but one of the recent episodes had a tinge of homophobia that I found a little troublesome. I guess I’m complaining about stereotyping by stereotyping but I always assumed his “nerdy” demeanor, obvious intelligence and Daily Show connection belied a more progressive attitude. I don’t think he’s homophobic, and I still find much of his show hilarious, but I wish he would dial that aspect of his humor down a bit. Also, I was really surprised to find out he’s 35. Not that that’s old at all, but I had always assumed he was in his mid-twenties.