Covering Media

A scene from DOUCHEBAG, a film directed by Drake Doremus. All rights reserved.

Opened: 10/01/2010 Limited

Trailer: Click here to view at Apple Trailers

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Rated: Unrated

Synopsis

Douchebag: the term refers to a person, usually male, with a variety of negative qualities, specifically arrogance, and engaging in obnoxious and/or irritating actions without malicious intent.

Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike on the occasion of its world premiere in competition at Sundance 2010, DOUCHEBAG is the second feature film by 27 year-old writer/director Drake Doremus, whose first film, "Spooner," was presented at Slamdance 2009. The story of two estranged brothers who reluctantly re-unite on the eve of the older brother's wedding, the film combines many of the classic elements found in the best odd-couple comedies with an original, edgy, and kinetic style all its own. DOUCHEBAG stars Andrew Dickler as tightly wound groom-to-be, Sam Nussbaum, and Ben York Jones as his easily cowed younger brother Tom. Both performers, making their feature film debuts, bring extraordinary truth to their portrayal of two ordinary guys. Doremus' highly improvisational technique allowed -- in fact, required -- Dickler and Jones to co- create their characters, resulting in a unique tone that is at once heightened for comic effect and yet completely "real." The funniest moments in DOUCHEBAG (a title that, at various times, describes each of the two brothers,) come from the way in which Doremus and his two leads capture human behavior -- and misbehavior -- at its most recognizable as well as its most riotous.

DOUCHEBAG begins as Sam is just a few days away from marrying Steph (Marguerite Moreau), his lovely live-in fiancee. As final preparations are underway, Steph remains uncomfortable with the fact that Sam's only sibling, Tom, is not coming to the wedding. When she decides to surprise Sam by picking up Tom and driving him down for the event, the two men suddenly find themselves under the same roof, forced to confront whatever it was that drove them apart in the first place. Since Tom has no date for the wedding, Sam decides they should hit the road to find Tom's former flame, Mary Barger. The problem is, he hasn't seen her since the fifth grade. With little more than Google and a full gas tank to guide them, the two brothers set off on a road trip that begins as Tom's search for his old girlfriend but ends as Sam's search for a final taste of freedom before settling down for good.

Doremus' departure point for DOUCHEBAG is timeless: take two mismatched characters, place them in a confined space for a concentrated period of time, put them on a dubious quest, and see what mayhem ensues. As tried and true as this mechanism is for a comedy, the fact is that the film's genesis was not its plot but, rather, its characters. As Doremus recalls, "I was in the editing room cutting my first feature, 'Spooner,' with my wonderful editor, Andrew Dickler, who was always busting me up. About a month into working with him it was 100% clear to me -- almost like lighting being caught in a bottle -- and I said 'you have to star in a movie, man.' I had this crazy vision of Andrew being paired with my longtime friend, the actor Ben York Jones. I had known Ben since we were 16 doing plays in the basement of my Mom's theater, and for some reason the idea of Andrew and him playing brothers who had issues just seemed right to me. I thought they would have this intense anti-chemistry, if you will, where there would be this natural conflict onscreen. We needed to build a story about them, so the road trip aspect came later. It seemed much more interesting than these brothers sitting in a room and talking for 80 minutes!"

Once the idea was formed in his mind, Doremus approached Jonathan Schwartz and Marius Markevicius, both of whom were his producers on the as-yet-incomplete "Spooner," proposing they create a film around "Spooner" editor Dickler and newcomer Jones. "At first I think they thought I was crazy," he remembers, "but they started to see the potential. They deserve a ton of credit for taking a leap of faith on me and this idea." To help solidify the material, Doremus re-teamed with his 'Spooner" co-scenarist, Lindsay Stidham. "She was extremely instrumental," he says, "both in getting out ideas, and in providing a good amount of words on paper, so we had a detailed map to follow when we started shooting."

When he refers to his (and Stidham's) scenario as a "map," Doremus is being accurate, insofar as it pointed him and his cast in the right direction. Beyond this, the majority of the "script' was improvised on set. "I grew up in the improv culture," he reveals. "My mother was a founding member of The Groundlings, which is an improv and sketch comedy group in LA that has spawned a lot of cool talent over the years. I was on stage messing around when I was 6. So, for me, the idea of organically discovering moments with my actors strikes me as such an incredible way to create something. I guess improvisation has always been in my blood, and will always be at the heart of my work.

DOUCHEBAG was actually shot in two separate sessions over the course of a year, primarily on locations in Los Angeles, with additional material filmed in Palm Springs and San Diego. As Doremus describes it, "the first time we went out, we had a very detailed outline from which the actors improvised, and we filmed for 12 days. I took several months to edit that footage, and then went back for another seven days of shooting. The second time, we had a loose script, with written lines of dialog, because we knew the exact pieces needed to finish the story. It was always about two brothers, one of whom was getting married, and they always went on the road to find Mary Barger. It was really just about finding the support structure to tell that story."

He adds, "It's very exciting to dream up ideas on how to finish the story while in the editing room -- to, essentially, continue the writing while cutting. The film kept evolving that way, and there was always an opportunity to make things better. When you have time to reflect and gain perspective on where the story wants to go, it will tell you. The footage we had spoke to us, and the rest of the story just kind of filled itself in. It was very clear at a certain point what we needed. Now, I think it's really the only way I would work. My new film, 'Like Crazy,' starring Jennifer Lawrence of 'Winter's Bone' and Anton Yelchin, was improvised from a very specific 50-page outline."

One thing that enables Doremus to work in this fashion is that his material draws so heavily upon personal experience, whether his own or that of his cast. Though DOUCHEBAG isn't autobiographical (unlike "Like Crazy," which very much is), it is based on an actual relationship--that of Doremus and Dickler. "I think the autobiographical element is spawned from my friendship with Andrew in real life," the director observes. "We became fast friends, but I suddenly found myself in intense conversations with him about things I never discussed with anyone else before, like whether figure skating is a sport or a dance contest, or his opinion of me when he learned that I didn't have a credit card. Of course, I also found myself listening to his theories about eating meat, and the environment." Each of these conversational encounters worked its way into the film, pretty much as they happened in life. "The character Andrew plays in the film," Doremus says, "is a very exaggerated version of himself, and that was always the plan. Given the fact that he had never acted before, I was and still am blown away by his ability to commit to the moment."

Doremus' longstanding friendship with Jones had similar impact on the evolution of DOUCHEBAG. In fact Jones was the only actor he had in mind to play the part and he helped develop the character of Tom during the writing process. The first film I made," confides Doremus, "was a short called 'The Bum,' with Ben Jones playing the starring role. He was 17 at the time and I was 18, and it was an incredible experience to start learning about film that way together." Almost a decade later, they found themselves continuing the process with DOUCHEBAG.

Not surprisingly, Doremus' favorite scene in the film features his two actors at their most unguarded-- a point when it is impossible to tell whether they are being most like themselves, or most like Sam and Tom. "I have a few scenes that I love," he admits, "but if pressed to pick just one, I would have to say my favorite is the scene in which the brothers spend a night in a rundown motel in Palm Springs. It's really the turning point for both characters in the story, when they are practicing how they would approach speaking to the younger brother's fifth grade girlfriend after not speaking to her in 16 years and having drunk a ton of beer. It's brilliantly acted by Ben and Andrew, who are just so utterly in the moment with each other." It is this sort of scene that expresses the very essence of DOUCHEBAG. "The film is about brothers rediscovering their friendship," Doremus says " but in a way never quite seen on screen before. At times, the film has a sort of ethereal tone, and its ultra-realism is complimented by these strange events that these brothers experience together."

Though his films are very character and situation-driven, Doremus is quick to point out that he is also attuned to the more formal aspects of his work -- such as camera placement, lighting, and cutting -- even though his approach is more intuitive than technical. "I close my eyes," he says, "and picture the scene on a more instinctual level, and decide where to put the camera based on that more than anything. I like to think about visual progressions in the story and whose point of view the scene is from, and those are definitely issues of craft. However, in DOUCHEBAG, the filmmaking was more about how to best capture the performances as up close and personal as we could, rather than crafting cool-looking shots. In 'Like Crazy' I tried to do both. I think the best movies are about people. Tone and genre can elevate their story, but the people are what make the movie matter. I did go to film school, to AFI from 2003 to 2005. It's a graduate program, but I was one of the only fellows in the class to not have an undergraduate degree. Sometimes, I regret not going to college, but then I would be four years behind where I am now, doing what I love, making movies."

"I started making movies when I was 18," Doremus concludes. " I had written a few plays when I was in high school, and film just seemed like a natural jump for me. I guess I started making films as a way to express how I felt and say what I was thinking. There's no better feeling than finishing a movie and knowing it expressed something you felt at the time. It almost marks you as a person for that year--what music you were listening to, your overall mood about the world. I guess it's better than keeping a diary."