Breaking Glass Pictures continues supporting truly independent films by distributing former festival title "Junk" to the Arena Cinema in Los Angeles (most likely including a show starting at 4:20 p.m.) on March 14, 2014 and on DVD two weeks later.
Accolades for this film include winning the Audience Award for best film at the 2012 Austin Film Festival.
A subsequent celebration of this film about the efforts of two stoner buddies to promote their hilariously awful grindhouse horror movies is scheduled for an iTunes release on April 20 (or 420). One can only hope that any theater that joins the Arena in airing the film stocks plenty of Oreos and Twinkies for the screenings.
Reading this current review and checking out Unreal TV coverage of the witty and charming Glass-released documentary "Unhung Hero" and our review of that company's refreshingly different gay-oriented drama "Capital Games" will confirm that viewers of all ages will love watching films from this studio with your friends, would not want to see them with your parents, and likely hide them in your underwear drawer if you still reside in your childhood home.
Kevin Hamedani write, directs, stars in (and perhaps provides costumes and craft services for) "Junk." His other credits include the film "Zombie of Mass Destruction." The title alone suggest that this may be the mother of all grindhouse films.
The following spoiler-laden trailer, courtesy of YouTube, of "Junk" provides an excellent sense of the wonderful combination of humor and gore in this film. The brief look at rockers OK Go, who play a prominent role in the production, is a bonus.
Hamedani's character Kaveh and his estranged buddy/collaborator Raul (played by real-life co-writer Ramon Isao) are reunited (but they are not so excited and it does not feel so good) when the SXSW-style festival Outsider Festival selects their grindhouse film "Islama-Rama 2" for that event. This premise can be thought of as the basis of a Kevin Smith joint (of course, pun intended) of a Harold and Kumar tale.
Kaveh, who is a poster child for Peter Pan syndrome, has been spending most of his time getting high alone in his apartment in the wake of a tough breakup. The more grounded Raul is living a relatively happy life with his Japanese wife and is honing his craft.
The trials and tribulations that our heroes encounter on checking into their dumpy Seattle hotel room at the festival include contending with rival filmmakers who are the Winklevoss twins to our boys' Zuckerberg, trying to get access to a grindhouse producer (played by James Hong of "Blade Runner" and 385 other films and television programs), and meeting femmes who prove to be at least partially fatale.
The fact that a typical grindhouse film is made on a practically non-existent budget, often is based on an incredibly flimsy premise, and thrives on over-the-top gore makes it a perfect mate for the stoner-style comedy of "Junk." Fall on the floor funny scenes from Kaveh's and Raul's visions of sequels to the "Gremlins" and "Child's Play" film franchises make this abundantly clear.
A Seattle (rather than Hollywood) style orgy provides other great fodder for this film; the climax (of course, pun intended) rivals the film spoofs for the funniest scene in "Junk."
Other great moments include a stoner version of a Lucy and Ethel or Laverne and Shirley style plot to ambush the producer to present him a script and another scene in which Kaveh's eyes are so bloodshot that it seems that he ingested an entire marijuana crop.
All of this amounts to this film that mocks both pretentious film festivals and wonderfully horrible low-budget horror films being a perfect choice for pretentious film festivals and offering very savory morsels of what could be wonderfully horrible low-budget horror films.
If this future art house classic is the product of Hamedani and Isao enjoying a particular substance that is still largely illegal in most states, one can only hope that those boys' doctor will continue diagnosing them as having glaucoma.
Anyone who is looking for information regarding a source for a mood-altering substance stronger than Goo-Goo Clusters must look elsewhere, but emails with questions and comments regarding "Junk" are welcome. You can also connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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