We Makes Movies on Weekends isn’t just a cool title; that is legitimately what we do. Maybe not as often as we like, but don’t doubt for a second that we all have that drive to produce amazing cinematic content. We understand the passion, the desire, the drive and the ambition that goes into making a film, and that’s why the appropriately titled We Make Movies resonates so well.
Director Matt Tory plays Stevphen Bixby – Yes, I did spell that correctly – and he was born to make movies. Following a string of projects made with his closest friends, he’s attempting to put together his best film yet, with the help of extremely awkward right hand man Donny (Jordan Hopewell), reluctant but loyal friend Garth (Jonathan Holmes), pretentious method actor Leonard (Zack Slorts), and Donny’s laid back cousin Jessica (Anne Crockett). What they’re making isn’t original, or inventive, or even good, but it sure is a hell of a good time.
This film is honestly brilliant; admittedly a lot of jokes don’t quite hit, but much like A New Don, it’s not entirely original. There’s many stereotypes and cliches with regards to the comedy that are played wonderfully and it ultimately doesn’t matter when jokes don’t land. Having said that, some of it is downright hilarious. The improv comedy scene in particular is great, and mostly just the interactions between the characters, all performed wonderfully by the cast. It’s one thing to perfectly embody the character you’re playing, but it’s another thing to work successfully as a unit. This film would fail if it wasn’t for the strong chemistry between all the actors, or if the characters weren’t written as tightly as this, but thankfully both of these aren’t an issue.
This film will strike a chord with pretty much anyone who has ever tried to make a film. The last time I tried was when I was in school; my best friends and I wrote a short comedy that evolved over the through years, through many different versions and ideas but ultimately we settled on one, and we didn’t have a whole lot of luck getting it made. We faced some of the same issues faced by those in the film; not being able to get actors, not having the best equipment, not having enough time – but it was an experience I’m so glad I had. My favourite parts of this film were the moments spent planning A New Done, or even just the breaks on set, sitting around and chatting and such. While we never got to finish our film, it was way too much fun to ever be too sad about it, and we were quite proud of the little footage we got, and the many laughs that came out of it. That was the most important thing to me about We Make Movies; beyond the characters being passionate, it’s pretty obvious that everybody involved was passionate too, and that’s the most beautiful thing about any film really.
We Makes Movies is like a great hybrid between Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Ed Wood (The film, not the director); a low budget film that perfectly captures the experience of making a low budget film, highlighting what’s important about it and carefully crafted by a group of people who clearly love what they’re doing.
We Make Movies is available on Amazon Video now!
