Director Lahti Talks Demographics on DVD
My First Mister is a touching movie about the value of friendship and coming to terms with oneself. Leelee Sobieski plays Jennifer, a.k.a. "J," a death-obsessed Goth kind of teenager with her own warped view of herself and reality. "J" lands a job in a clothing store and makes friends with the manager, Randall, a.k.a. "R" (Albert Brooks), a middle-aged man who is also a loner. Both characters are hiding from the world in their own way, but through their friendship they come to terms with themselves and the world around them.
DVD Notes
Director Christine Lahti's commentary track focuses on the production value. She tells us that the film had a budget of $5.25 million and was shot in 29 days. All of the actors were paid scale. She also discusses how she hired Albert Brooks for the role of "R" and why a number of John Goodman's scenes were cut out of the film. She tells about how they filmed a number of the scenes and where they were shot.
There are few insightful discussions of the development of the plot and characters, such as the delicate nature of the relationship between Sobieski and Brooks' characters—about making their relationship a convincing friendship without being sexual.
Lahti talks quite a bit about the demographic audience for the film, so much so that you really get a sense that she had a hard time selling it to distributors. This is likely to be the case as the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2001 and wasn't released until nearly ten months later, seeing a very limited release and under $1 million at the box office.
DVD Notes
Director Christine Lahti's commentary track focuses on the production value. She tells us that the film had a budget of $5.25 million and was shot in 29 days. All of the actors were paid scale. She also discusses how she hired Albert Brooks for the role of "R" and why a number of John Goodman's scenes were cut out of the film. She tells about how they filmed a number of the scenes and where they were shot.
There are few insightful discussions of the development of the plot and characters, such as the delicate nature of the relationship between Sobieski and Brooks' characters—about making their relationship a convincing friendship without being sexual.
Lahti talks quite a bit about the demographic audience for the film, so much so that you really get a sense that she had a hard time selling it to distributors. This is likely to be the case as the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2001 and wasn't released until nearly ten months later, seeing a very limited release and under $1 million at the box office.
