Full Grown Men
Full Grown Men | |
---|---|
Directed by | David Munro |
Written by | David Munro Xandra Castleton |
Produced by | Brian Benson Xandra Castleton Alan Cumming David Ilku David Munro Paul Zaentz Sheila B. Ennis Donna Garrison Lawrence Lippman Scott Karpf Todd Tiberi |
Starring | Matt McGrath Judah Friedlander Alan Cumming Amy Sedaris Deborah Harry |
Cinematography | Frank G. DeMarco |
Edited by | Alex Blatt Affonso Gonçalves |
Music by | Charlie Campbell |
Release date | April 27, 2006 |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Full Grown Men is a 2006 American independent comedy film directed by David Munro and starring Matt McGrath, Judah Friedlander, Alan Cumming, Amy Sedaris, and Deborah Harry, is the bittersweet story of a thirtysomething man with family who grudgingly realizes it is time to trade adolescence for adulthood. The film won the 2007 indieWIRE Undiscovered Gems Film Series Audience Award competition.
Plot
Alby Cutrera is a pathologically nostalgic guy who, at 35 years of age with a wife and young son, really just wishes he could ride his Schwinn 5 speed around all day on a Cherry Slurpee high.
His wife Suzanne and son Josh love him because he's funny and creative but for Suzanne it’s getting old and there’s rent to pay. Finally losing patience with Alby, Suzanne kicks him out of the house with the unequivocal instruction: "Don't come back 'til you grow up!"
Alby's having none of that and does what any hopeless case of arrested-development would do – he goes back to Mom's house. There, after having his fill of eating Fruit Loops and watching cartoons on TV, he decides to look up his old best friend from childhood, Elias Guber.
Alby is thrilled to get back with his old pal and relive old times, but there’s a problem – Elias remembers a much less rosy version of their childhood – one in which he was Alby’s performing monkey. But as always, Elias can't resist Alby's entreaties to take him along on a trip to Diggityland, a theme park up in central Florida that was their favorite place as kids. Elias is going there to get an award for his work as a special-ed teacher, a decidedly grown-up occupation, while Alby needs a ride up the coast to sell his precious action figures to a collectibles broker – a move he thinks will reinstate him in the good graces of his family and signal his transition into adulthood.
Along the way the two friends meet a series of similarly damaged romantics: a hitchhiking disgruntled former employee of Diggityland who has a "little matter to settle with the management"; Trina, a horny bartender who attends "Clownin' School" in hopes of earning her "Clownin' Degree" and joining the Circus; and a delusional fading beauty who lives in an Airstream trailer and obsesses over her past glory as the most beautiful and popular Weeki Wachee mermaid. Each pokes a new hole in Alby’s fantasy bubble of being a kid forever.
Ultimately it’s one of Elias’s students, a developmentally disabled boy named Rollie, a boy literally denied by fate the chance to ever become an adult, who teaches Alby the value of seeing beyond himself and taking responsibility for his actions.
Cast
Actor | Role |
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Matt McGrath | Alby Cutrera |
Judah Friedlander | Elias Guber |
Alan Cumming | The Hitchhiker |
Deborah Harry | Beauty |
Amy Sedaris | Trina |
Katie Kreisler | Suzanne Cutrera |
Richard Lozano/Steven Lozano | Josh Cutrera |
Joie Lee | Annie |
Jerry Grayson | Mr. Tinsman |
Benjamin Karpf | Rollie |
Jim Fyfe | Night Manager |
David Ilku | Pool Man |
Zully Montero | Teya
Darwin Sealey Bus Driver |
Peter Donald Badalamenti II | Bert |
Nadia da Silva | Mrs Cutrera |
Festival screenings
- Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago Indie Comedy Sneak Preview! June 22–25, 2007
- Provincetown International Film Festival June 15–16, 2007
- Mendocino Film Festival Mendocino, California May 18, 2007
- Florida Film Festival Orlando, Florida March 30–31, 2007
- Miami International Film Festival March 9–10, 2007
- San Jose Film Festival March 3–5, 2007
- American Film Institute Fest Los Angeles November 3–4, 2006
- Williamstown Film Festival Williamstown, Massachusetts October 22, 2006
- Mill Valley Film Festival Mill Valley, California West Coast Premiere October 7–15, 2006
- CineVegas Film Festival Las Vegas June 9–17, 2006
- Tribeca Film Festival New York World Premiere April 27 – May 5, 2006