Austin expatriot and indiemaker Alex Holdridge's latest film, In Search Of A Midnight Kiss is a semi-autobiographical comic ride though love, sex, and modern romance in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. The feature is getting a lot of very strong attention from viewers and press from around the world, and we're excited to join with Afs in bringing it (and its director) here for a special screening at Alamo South Lamar!
Wilson (Scoot McNairy), a 29 year old guy who has just had the worst year of his life, is new to Los Angeles, has no date, no concrete plans and every intention of locking the doors and forgetting the last year ever happened. That is until his best friend, Jacob (Brian McGuire), browbeats him into posting a personal ad on Craig's List. Vivian (Sara Simmonds) answers the ad...
What follows is a one-night whirlwind romance that is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
Wilson (Scoot McNairy), a 29 year old guy who has just had the worst year of his life, is new to Los Angeles, has no date, no concrete plans and every intention of locking the doors and forgetting the last year ever happened. That is until his best friend, Jacob (Brian McGuire), browbeats him into posting a personal ad on Craig's List. Vivian (Sara Simmonds) answers the ad...
What follows is a one-night whirlwind romance that is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
- 8/22/2008
- by Zack Carlson
- OriginalAlamo.com
By Neil Pedley
This week's offerings find twilight twenty-somethings longing for love in Los Angeles, "The Mummy" franchise heading East and a gruesome subway slasher trying very hard not to scare people clean out of the theater, at least not before the movie actually starts.
"America the Beautiful"
At 12, Gerren Taylor was a bright young model who strolled the catwalk of Fashion Week in Los Angeles. By 13, she was considered a has-been. Director Darryl Roberts traces Taylor's early entrance and exit from the runway to paint a far larger picture of the inner workings of the fashion industry, examining the class system of models and the advertisers and designers who relentlessly manufacture a feeling of negative self-image among consumers and then prey upon it to get us to dip into our wallets. Through interviews with fashion industry experts, the first-time documentarian learns that beauty isn't skin deep . it's retouched, glossed over and as a business,...
This week's offerings find twilight twenty-somethings longing for love in Los Angeles, "The Mummy" franchise heading East and a gruesome subway slasher trying very hard not to scare people clean out of the theater, at least not before the movie actually starts.
"America the Beautiful"
At 12, Gerren Taylor was a bright young model who strolled the catwalk of Fashion Week in Los Angeles. By 13, she was considered a has-been. Director Darryl Roberts traces Taylor's early entrance and exit from the runway to paint a far larger picture of the inner workings of the fashion industry, examining the class system of models and the advertisers and designers who relentlessly manufacture a feeling of negative self-image among consumers and then prey upon it to get us to dip into our wallets. Through interviews with fashion industry experts, the first-time documentarian learns that beauty isn't skin deep . it's retouched, glossed over and as a business,...
- 8/4/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
'So what are you looking for?"
"The love of my life."
"On Craigslist?"
The tactics are new, but the goal is the same as ever in the indie romantic com edy "In Search of a Midnight Kiss," which takes a bit of "Swingers" and a bit of "Manhattan" to create a slacktacular vision of uncertain youth in today's L.A.
Wilson (Scoot McNairy) is troubled, lonely and confused - in other words, a comedy writer. He has $108 in the bank and no job, unless you count working the bong. As the movie opens, he is caught doing unspeakable, pantsless...
"The love of my life."
"On Craigslist?"
The tactics are new, but the goal is the same as ever in the indie romantic com edy "In Search of a Midnight Kiss," which takes a bit of "Swingers" and a bit of "Manhattan" to create a slacktacular vision of uncertain youth in today's L.A.
Wilson (Scoot McNairy) is troubled, lonely and confused - in other words, a comedy writer. He has $108 in the bank and no job, unless you count working the bong. As the movie opens, he is caught doing unspeakable, pantsless...
- 8/1/2008
- by By KYLE SMITH
- NYPost.com
There's an old saying in comedy: "Buy the premise, buy the bit." Alex Holdridge's In Search Of A Midnight Kiss asks the audience to buy a whole stack of premises, starting with the idea that a kiss on New Year's Eve is "all the hope of romance of the year culminating in just one moment." In a last-ditch attempt to get the year started right, mopey screenwriter Scoot McNairy posts a request for a date on Craigslist, and gets a call from sardonic actress Sara Simmonds, who tells him he has until sundown to impress her, or else she's going to find someone else to smooch. Contrived? Absolutely. But Holdridge must feel he needs the contrivance to juice up a routine indie walk-and-talk. In Search Of A Midnight Kiss shows enough flashes of brightness that its more conventional business is all the more dispiriting. When McNairy is caught masturbating.
- 7/31/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
AFI Fest
MILL VALLEY, Calif. -- In Search of a Midnight Kiss, an amusing ensemble piece about the troubles of dislocated twentysomethings attempting to find their way through life and love, is most effective as a vehicle for its attractive young performers and the film's promising writer-director, Alex Holdridge.
Holdridge aspires to a Woody Allen-style romantic comedy in the vein of Manhattan -- a hard act to follow even for a more seasoned filmmaker -- but needs stronger writing and character development to pull it off. Dispensing with crude jokes wouldn't hurt, either. Robert Murphy's crisp, black-and-white cinematography lends class and style to a standard story of a lovable, depressed slacker who blossoms when he finds love in an unlikely place.
If the film gets support from critics and is marketed to a young demographic, it could find an audience, but boxoffice is likely to be modest. The film, which also screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival, has been acquired by IFC First Take.
Kiss opens magically with "As Time Goes By" on the soundtrack and the sight of couples kissing on city streets at night. For Wilson (a winning Scoot McNairy), a writer adrift in Los Angeles, unable to sell his screenplay or get over the breakup with his girlfriend, being kissed at midnight on New Year's Eve is his one tangible goal in life. Noting that Wilson is unable to get action or traction, his best friend, the sweet, gawky Jacob (Brian Matthew McGuire), who's smitten with the lovely but faithless Min (Katy Luong), urges Wilson to put a personal ad on Craigslist.
No sooner does he write, "Misanthrope seeks Misanthrope" than he's contacted by Vivian (Sara Simmonds), an out-of-control, neurotic, pill-popping blonde with an alienating habit of uttering whatever insensitive remark comes into her head. The pair gets off to a rocky start as lovers and antagonists, but as they walk the seedy streets of downtown Los Angeles, they slowly find common ground.
Simmonds has an uphill battle as she's trapped in a caricature -- a double-header male fantasy of the nightmare "crazy chick" and the wild, tough-talking girl with a secret vulnerability -- though she shines in sequences where she's allowed dimension. An extraneous subplot involving Vivian's possessive, red-neck ex-boyfriend, Jack, is over the top.
Pushing 30, Wilson is stuck between adolescence and adulthood, and McNairy (Six Feet Under, Art School Confidential) projects the likability, intelligence and basic decency underneath his character's slovenly exterior. He's a find, the kind of actor one longs to see again.
With his tall, lanky physicality, McGuire, once Holdridge's real-life roommate, shows a natural comedic aptitude as Wilson's would-be mentor in the love department, a guy who's clueless when it comes to women. Both men display tenderness and hurt feelings in their romantic relationships, which is a refreshing change from the usual glibness.
Inconsistent in tone, Kiss vacillates among wistfulness, the genuinely funny and juvenile crudity. Holdridge's dialogue is sometimes forced or hit-and-miss, and he doesn't always stage his shots to best advantage, but he has assembled a crew of talented collaborators.
IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS
IFC First Take
Midnight Kiss Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Alex Holdridge
Producer: Seth Caplan, Scoot McNairy
Executive producer: Anne Walker-McBay
Director of photography: Robert Murphy: Editors: Frank Reynolds, Jacob Vaughn
Cast:
Wilson: Scoot McNairy
Vivian: Sara Simmonds
Jacob: Brian Matthew McGuire
Min: Katy Luong
Wilson's Mom: Twink Caplan
Jack: Robert Murphy
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
MILL VALLEY, Calif. -- In Search of a Midnight Kiss, an amusing ensemble piece about the troubles of dislocated twentysomethings attempting to find their way through life and love, is most effective as a vehicle for its attractive young performers and the film's promising writer-director, Alex Holdridge.
Holdridge aspires to a Woody Allen-style romantic comedy in the vein of Manhattan -- a hard act to follow even for a more seasoned filmmaker -- but needs stronger writing and character development to pull it off. Dispensing with crude jokes wouldn't hurt, either. Robert Murphy's crisp, black-and-white cinematography lends class and style to a standard story of a lovable, depressed slacker who blossoms when he finds love in an unlikely place.
If the film gets support from critics and is marketed to a young demographic, it could find an audience, but boxoffice is likely to be modest. The film, which also screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival, has been acquired by IFC First Take.
Kiss opens magically with "As Time Goes By" on the soundtrack and the sight of couples kissing on city streets at night. For Wilson (a winning Scoot McNairy), a writer adrift in Los Angeles, unable to sell his screenplay or get over the breakup with his girlfriend, being kissed at midnight on New Year's Eve is his one tangible goal in life. Noting that Wilson is unable to get action or traction, his best friend, the sweet, gawky Jacob (Brian Matthew McGuire), who's smitten with the lovely but faithless Min (Katy Luong), urges Wilson to put a personal ad on Craigslist.
No sooner does he write, "Misanthrope seeks Misanthrope" than he's contacted by Vivian (Sara Simmonds), an out-of-control, neurotic, pill-popping blonde with an alienating habit of uttering whatever insensitive remark comes into her head. The pair gets off to a rocky start as lovers and antagonists, but as they walk the seedy streets of downtown Los Angeles, they slowly find common ground.
Simmonds has an uphill battle as she's trapped in a caricature -- a double-header male fantasy of the nightmare "crazy chick" and the wild, tough-talking girl with a secret vulnerability -- though she shines in sequences where she's allowed dimension. An extraneous subplot involving Vivian's possessive, red-neck ex-boyfriend, Jack, is over the top.
Pushing 30, Wilson is stuck between adolescence and adulthood, and McNairy (Six Feet Under, Art School Confidential) projects the likability, intelligence and basic decency underneath his character's slovenly exterior. He's a find, the kind of actor one longs to see again.
With his tall, lanky physicality, McGuire, once Holdridge's real-life roommate, shows a natural comedic aptitude as Wilson's would-be mentor in the love department, a guy who's clueless when it comes to women. Both men display tenderness and hurt feelings in their romantic relationships, which is a refreshing change from the usual glibness.
Inconsistent in tone, Kiss vacillates among wistfulness, the genuinely funny and juvenile crudity. Holdridge's dialogue is sometimes forced or hit-and-miss, and he doesn't always stage his shots to best advantage, but he has assembled a crew of talented collaborators.
IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS
IFC First Take
Midnight Kiss Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Alex Holdridge
Producer: Seth Caplan, Scoot McNairy
Executive producer: Anne Walker-McBay
Director of photography: Robert Murphy: Editors: Frank Reynolds, Jacob Vaughn
Cast:
Wilson: Scoot McNairy
Vivian: Sara Simmonds
Jacob: Brian Matthew McGuire
Min: Katy Luong
Wilson's Mom: Twink Caplan
Jack: Robert Murphy
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/1/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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