Amateurs, The

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I must admit that I had never previously heard of the film "The Amateurs" when I was first asked to review the title. I had not known of it by its previous title of "The Moguls", nor did I know the film had a limited release a couple of months ago on December 7th and sitting idle for a couple of years. When any film is shelved for any length of time, it is typically not a good sign, but I was nicely pleased with the ensemble cast of "The Amateurs" and felt the story by director Michael Traeger was original and interesting. With Jeff Bridges, William Fichtner, Joe Pantaliano, Patrick Fugit, Ted Danson and Jeanne Tripplehorn, the film is filled with a number of familiar faces and this little film that has mostly been ignored by the general public is a decent little film with a lot to like about it.

Star Jeff Bridges has portrayed a few peculiar characters during his long and prosperous career. Perhaps his most loved performance is that of Jeffrey Lebowski in the Coen Brothers cult classic "The Big Lebowski." Another film with a strong cult following is the 1984 film "Starman" where Bridges played the enlightened title character. He was Jack Lucas in "The Fisher King" and has been responsible for a number of well-received dramatic roles over the years and a few action films. His role as the laid back slacker Andy Sargentee in "The Amateurs" borrows heavily from past performances and you could almost imagine ´The Dude´ walking around in a bath robe and replacing Sargentee in this film. If anything, "The Amateurs" solidifies the notion that the talented and hard-working Bridges is the ultimate actor when it comes to middle-aged slackers.

The premise of the film is that Andy is down on his luck. He has literally pissed on a few bosses and lost more than one job. This has cost him his marriage to Thelma (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and estranged him from his own son Billy (Alex D. Linz). One night, while reading a paper and appearing to be quite ´spaced-out,´ Andy rallies the locals with a money-making idea he considers to be original and guaranteed to be profitable. Andy has his friends Barney (Tim Black Nelson), Some Idiot (Joe Pantoliano), Otis (William Fichtner), Moose (Ted Danson) and brothers Moe (John Hawkes) and Ron (Brad Henke) lend two thousand dollars each to help finance a little project that will be based around the community and use only community talent; Andy has decided that his little town of ´Butterface Fields´ and his friends should finance and create a porno.

The title of the film comes from the fact that none of the characters has any clue how to make a pornographic film. The friend nicknamed Some Idiot claims to have the studious background to be a writer and director for the film, but his ideas are too ´pie in the sky´ to easily translate to a low budget porno film. He wants high-cost action scenes and unbelievable situations. Barney is Andy´s best friend and wants to help anyway he can, but he spends his time denying his love for local girl Helen (Glenne Headly), who denies knowing that Barney loves her and wants something more in life. Moose is a homosexual male that is not honest with himself on his own sexuality, but all of his friends realize the truth. The Moe-Ron brothers are none too bright, but eager to double-team any willing actresses. Otis just wants to watch the scenes as they are filmed. Local video worker Emmett (Patrick Fugit) is enrolled to be the camera-man and editor and has perhaps the only concept of filmmaking.

The adventure of the group of friends trying to find lovely women willing to engage in sexual acts for the porno film and other difficult tasks create comic situations throughout the film. The general plot of the film is engaging enough, but the problems faced by the friends are what keep the film together. The story pokes fun at the stereotypical porno films and the friends try their hand at making the ultimate porn film by combining every element of every good porn film into one cheaply made picture. They do find willing leading ladies, but unseen situations crop up around every corner and keep the laughs coming. There are always laughs to be had when discussing the finer points of a porno, but "The Amateurs" puts the laughs to celluloid effectively.

The cast is another very strong asset of "The Amateurs." Bridges is simply incredible anytime he portrays a slacker or a down-on-his-luck man going through mid-life crisis. He needed to don a bathrobe for a scene or two for "The Big Lebowski" fans, but that didn´t happen. John Hawkes, Patrick Fugit, William Fichtner, Tim Blake Nelson, Joe Pantaliano, Ted Danson and Jeanne Tripplehorn are all wonderful in this film. Many of these actors are A-list talent, but they are all very talent and each shines in their own regard in "The Amateurs." I´ve enjoyed John Hawkes since following HBO´s "Deadwood" and Tim Blake Nelson was brilliant in the Coen Brothers´ "O´ Brother Where Art Thou?" This is an a film with a solid ensemble cast of B-list talent that puts forth an A-list effort.

I enjoyed "The Amateurs" a good deal and much of the credit goes towards Jeff Bridges, but the remainder of the cast and the story by writer/director Michael Traeger is quite good. I noticed a relatively low score of 6.3 on the Internet Movie Database, but I film this picture is under-appreciated. Perhaps a large portion of those that have seen the film has never laughed hard at how formulaic and silly most pornographic films are, but I found many of the best jokes in "The Amateurs" were things I had laughed about with friends during my college days when one or two get-rich-quick schemes centered around making our own porno. We never gave it a try and usually forgot our ideas by the time the morning hangovers set in, but I´m sure we would have faced many of the same problems shown in this film. I guess if you are offended by the films that "The Amateurs" pokes fun at, and then this is probably a horrendous experience. For me, I thought it was a well-acted comedy that had a funny premise that was well executed by its director.

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