Dummy
is the directorial debut of Greg Pritikin. It stars Adrien Brody as a social
misfit whose only means of communication comes through ventriloquism. He’s
submerged in a dysfunctional Jewish family that includes Illeana Douglas as his
wedding planner sister, and Ron Liebman and Jessica Walter as his neurotic
parents. There’s also Vera Farmiga as his love interest, Jarred Harris as a
stalker, and Milla Jovovich in a breakout performance as a sexually repressed
punk rocker.
Regardless of starring an Oscar-winner and an internationally famous model, it
barely got released. Talking to Greg, he told a classic indie tale of the modern
film world. Dummy was actually shot before Adrien Brody worked on The
Pianist, yet for various reasons it was released almost a year after that
picture.
“We finished the film in March. That means the sound mix was done, the print
was put together, we were ready to premiere it in Santa Barbara this last March.
It took us a long time to finish the film. We shot it in about three weeks. We
shot it very quickly. We just had money troubles during
postproduction. We had creative differences. The financiers started breathing
down our necks and they took the project away from us for a while. But then we
wrestled it back and were able to cut the film that we wanted to make.”
Like many filmmakers Greg was shooting movies as a kid with whatever was
available. “I used to make short films with a super-8 camera. So I grew up
thinking I was a director. I would direct my friends around. And I lost a lot of
friends yelling at them. ‘Jump higher! Roll over the bush!’ We’d shoot it
on super-8 and then in high school I learned how to edit the films. We had a
reel-to-reel Moviola and I started editing movies.”
He based Dummy around his tedious suburban youth. Looking back on it all
he explained, “There’s such a narrow mindset in the suburbs. What this movie
is also about is the constraints growing up in the suburbs puts on you. You’re
not allowed to follow your dreams when you’re in the suburbs. It’s not
realistic.”
He continued this train of thought by describing his parents’ attitude towards
his filmic aspirations. “They didn’t really take it seriously,” he began.
“I think that all kids have their little interests, little hobbies – and I
was a musician also as a kid. So my parents weren’t really focusing on what I
was going to do for a living. Their main concern was that I finish high school
and go to college. I think that’s all they cared about. They weren’t really
thinking about what career path I was going to take.”
It’s a typical story you’ll hear from many filmmakers. Not only have they
had to battle to get their films made, dealing with producers and distributors,
but also their own families who couldn’t care less.
Once he was past his family’s apathy and Dummy was complete, the
greatest battle awaited. He started getting more emotional as this topic came up
and summoned, “It’s not easy to sell a film. This is the real problem in
this business, in indie film. It’s so fucking hard! And it shouldn’t be. We
had major indie film actor names – Illeana Douglas, Milla, Adrien Brody,
Jarred Harris – this great cast. Our main actor just won an Oscar! Audiences
laughed at the movie and we still couldn’t sell it! I seriously thought I had
been a terrible person in my last life! I thought, what else do you need?”
“The people who put the movies out only care about the money. This is not a
criticism. This is a business. They look at the bottom line. Dummy’s
success, how many theaters Dummy will open in after it opens in LA and
New York, will be determined by one thing: and that is how it does the opening
week. If Dummy does okay the opening week, then they’ll think to put it
in the rest of the country. They’re gonna go strictly by the numbers. That’s
what all the studios do. If they see that small films that don’t have robots
and explosions are doing really well, they’re gonna start making movies that
follow that trend.”
At the same time, however, he was quick to point out: “Indie doesn’t always
mean good – it just means indie. There’s so many thousands of movies made
that are indies that it’s really tough. There’s no shortage of indie movies
right now. You go to a film festival, you can see a hundred indie movies that
you’ve never heard of that were all made in the last year or two. And maybe
one of them will get released.”
Now that his film has finally been released he can relax a little. Thinking back
on the exhaustive process he offered, “It wasn’t easy. It was a pain in the
ass. But luckily Artisan came along and they were kind of like our heroes. They
scooped us up and saved the day.”
Greg drying concluded, “The happy ending will come when I see my first
paycheck. That’ll be the happy ending.”
-Copyright
2003 by Jamie
Stuart