Diary of an Aspiring Filmmaker

Sneak peek of Art Car: The Movie — The first taste of success changes the game

Photo via Art Car/Facebook
The sneak peak of "Art Car: The Movie" at Discovery Green drew a good response.Now the hard work begins.
Filmmakers Ford Gunter, left, and Carlton Ahrens

Editor's note: Ford Gunter quit his full-time journalism job in Houston to make a movie with his childhood buddy/co-director/business partner Carlton Ahrens. This is the latest installment of his account of chasing the dream with Art Car: The Movie.

The sneak peek of Art Car: The Movie at Discovery Green during Art Car weekend was the first taste of footage for almost everyone in our little movie. This experience taught us two things:

1. Expectations were low.

2. They aren't anymore.

A lot of these people have been immersed in the art car world for the better part of 30 years. They've had lots of camera crews come and go, and they've seen themselves in movies and television shows before, good and bad. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that we would appear no different. We know this because every artist that we talked to after the screening said something along the lines of "Wow, that was really good. We didn't expect that at all."

A few were even more blunt: "I kind of thought it was going to be crappy, but now that I've seen it ..."

During the 12 minutes of footage, we heard some laughs and we were even told there were some tears. Afterward it was our time to laugh and cry (only Carlton; I don't cry).

I can't really put my finger on a good comparison, but my best guess is that any artist or musician (or certainly filmmaker, writer, playwright, et al) that finally reveals his or her work to his or her support group has felt something similar. In that situation you're almost always surrounded and supported by loved ones who have never done something similar and can't understand what that's like.

Just like I can't imagine the sense of fulfillment my friend has gotten from doling out aid in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past five years when all he hears from home is "Are you nuts?" and "When are you coming home?"

It's actually quite a lot like building an art car. Over the course of filming, many artists told us that their friends and families told them they were crazy, that there's no money in this, that you're not meant to do that to cars, that it's a waste of their time, that they need to focus on real things in life. (Full disclaimer: Our friends and family were overwhelmingly cool, but some raised eyebrows from the peanut gallery tended to convey the same message.)

So getting the big thumbs up from the stars of our film was a huge lift. (This whole self-indulgent meandering reminds me of Sally Field's infamous Oscar acceptance speech: "You like me! You really like me!"). But it kind of holds true. These are people we spent the last two years studying, researching, filming, getting to know, getting to like.

We consider many to be our good friends now. And the disappointment of disappointing them would have been pretty deflating.

More hindsight: It's probably a blessing that we didn't really know how low the expectations were. We were flying pretty far under the radar without having our egos get in the way. Now? Not so much. Expectations went from the basement to the penthouse.

Come Nov.13 at Miller Outdoor Theatre, when the film will premiere as part of the Cinema Arts Festival Houston with what is mounting up to be a pretty big production that could include on-site art cars and live music, people will be expecting big things.

And now that we've finished patting ourselves on the back, it's time to get back to work. We need a rough cut in five weeks, and we want it to be under two hours, and arranged in a way that will be pretty damn close to the finished project. That means there's 248 hours we have to toss, and that will be the easy part.

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Holidays Are Here

Ben Stiller delivers lighthearted fun in new Hulu movie Nutcrackers

Photo courtesy of Nutcracker Productions LLC/Hulu

Ben Stiller, Atlas Janson, Homer Janson, and Ulysses Janson in Nutcrackers.

A holiday-themed comedy seems like just what the doctor ordered right now, and the new Hulu film Nutcrackers steps up with a little mayhem, heartfelt sentiment, and a nod to traditions. But it doesn't add up to a memorable experience.

The film stars Ben Stiller as Mike, a high-powered Chicago architect with little time for anybody but himself whose sister and brother-in-law are recently deceased. He is supposedly there to place his four nephews — Justice (Homer Janson), Simon (Arlo Janson), Steve (Ulysses Janson), and Samuel (Atlas Janson) — into foster care. But social worker Gretchen (Linda Cardellini) informs Mike that the foster family has fallen through, and he needs to act as guardian until she can find someone else.

Whether they’re still reeling from their parents’ deaths or are just wild in general, the kids prove to be more than a handful for Mike, who always has one eye on the door, hoping to get back to his own life as soon as possible. But the longer he’s forced to stay, the more the kids grow on him, especially when he learns that at least two of them were students at their mom’s dance studio, giving him an idea to stage a version of a certain holiday classic.

Directed by David Gordon Green and written by Leland Douglas, the film would seem to have all the elements that make a holiday film memorable, but the vibe is off right from the start. First of all, the audience is thrown right into the mix along with Mike, with barely any introduction to the main characters. As their backstories are mostly missing, it’s difficult to feel anything — good or bad — about Mike or the kids, and so they just kind of co-exist for the first act of the film.

Green and Douglas can also never decide what kind of people they want the kids to be. The film starts with a scene of them sneaking into an amusement park and causing havoc, and subsequent scenes make it seem like they’re supposed to be hellions. But when the filmmakers start going back-and-forth between them wrecking things and being responsible, down-to-earth kids, the plot thread gets confusing and less interesting.

It’s also perplexing why they would cast Stiller, who’s been known to play straight-laced characters who go off the rails on many occasions, and then not let him do what he does best. Even when confronted with some of the kids’ worst behavior, Mike keeps his reactions in check, which may be good for a real-life uncle, but makes for a less-than-entertaining holiday family film.

Stiller still lives up to his star-billing at times, but the arc of his character is not that inspiring, even when a slight romance starts to bloom between Mike and Gretchen. The Janson brothers, who are making their collective film debut, are fun at times, but their lack of experience shows in their unpolished performances. Cardellini is a nice presence, but she’s not given enough to do to make a big impact.

Nutcrackers is an inoffensive movie in that it’s not so terrible that there’s no way to actually finish it. But there’s little in its story, characters, or attempt to be a holiday movie that can be recommended as a fun family watch, so it’s likely to fade away into streamer oblivion.

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Nutcrackers is now streaming on Hulu.

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