Pete Smalls Is Dead

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Movie
German title Pete Smalls Is Dead
Original title Pete Smalls Is Dead
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2010
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Alexandre Rockwell
script Alexandre Rockwell,
Brandon Cole
production Alexandre Rockwell,
Brandon Cole,
Floyd Byars ,
Peter Dinklage ,
Paul Hudson ,
Dan Keston ,
Jen Li ,
Sean-Michael Smith
music Mader
camera Kai Orion
cut Jarrah Gurrie ,
Aldolpho Rollo ,
Josiah Signor
occupation
synchronization

Pete Smalls Is Dead is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Alexandre Rockwell as an independent film .

action

The unsuccessful screenwriter K. C. Munk learns of the death of his friend Pete Smalls, who, unlike him, has made a career as a director in Hollywood. Because K.C. has a debt of $ 10,000, his believer takes possession of his dog Buddha as pledge. In order to get his dog back and to be able to settle the debt, K. C. can be persuaded by his friend, the acting teacher Jack Gomes, to accompany him to Pete Small's funeral service. Then Jack wants to raise the $ 10,000 for K.C. When he arrives at the Los Angeles airport , Jack picks up the small K. C. with a moped . Together they drive to Pete's funeral service, which is staged as an art installation by Pete's widow Julia . In the open coffin there is not Pete's body, but a dummy. Angry, Jack tears off her head, whereupon Julia alerts the police. After K.C. and Jack paid their respects to the deceased who was laid out in a body bag , Jack explains to his friend how he will get the $ 10,000. For his last film Pete used a screenplay by K. C. without having acquired the rights to it. When selling the as yet unpublished film, Jack K. C. wants to help assert his rights to the script and receive a corresponding fee for it.

Together they go to Saskia, the film's French editor. This assures K. C. that his script was actually used by Pete. The next day, K. C. and Jack meet with the potential investor Bernie Lake and his lawyer Leonard Proval. Bernie, who mistakenly thinks K.C. is Pete Smalls, is willing to pay up to $ 20 million for the worldwide film rights. When Jack clears up the misunderstanding, Bernie gets into an argument with his personal assistant and lover Shannah and is no longer interested in the film, even if Jack assures him that the last film by a dead director would be a lucrative source of income. Jack then says that he can get the money from Saco, an Armenian . Saco is quite willing to help K. C. get his dog back. In return, however, he demands that K. C. shoot a hot “love film” for him, which he refuses. Pete's producer Hal Lazar, in turn, is convinced that K. C. no longer has rights to the script and relies on Julia's statement that K. C. once sold the script to Pete for $ 150 for rent. K. C. does not deny this, which subsequently makes Jack very angry.

At Joey Sausa, another friend from the old days, Jack finds a notarized document with which Pete had returned the rights to the script to K.C. Hopefully he takes the letter to Hal Lazar. But he tears it up and breaks Jack's little finger. Surprisingly, he still offers K. C. $ 10,000. However, K.C. refuses the money because he can't stand Lazar. A short time later he meets Saskia again, who learns from Jack the following evening that K. C. was once married and that his wife died ten years ago. Buddha is the only thing that K. C. has left of his marriage, which is why he is so attached to the dog. Together they finally forge a plan. K. C., Jack, his daughter Xan and their Armenian friend Aram dress up as panda bears and pretend to be pizza delivery people. While Saskia is distracting a security guard, they sneak into the storage room of Lazar's film studio and steal the reels of Pete's film. Lazar doesn't mind that much, after all, the insurance pays for the damage. When K. C. and Jack want to visit Saskia, they find their apartment empty. With the help of a book of matches that had been left lying around with the label "Café Blanco" on it, K. C. believed he could find the young woman again in Mexico .

K. C. drives over the border with Jack, Xan and Aram and after a long search finds the café. The owner of the restaurant immediately leads K. C. into the back yard, where Buddha is already waiting for him, and reports that it was Saco who left the dog for K. C. in the café. K. C. is happy to have his dog back, but regrets that Saskia doesn't seem to be there. Sitting pensively at the bar, he watches on TV how Hal Lazar is said to have had an affair with Julia on the news and a video showing the two having sex is shown as evidence. In the course of this revelation, speculation about a murder of Pete grows. Suddenly, however, Pete, who is still alive, joins K. C. at the bar. As it turns out, Pete had only staged his death in order not to have to publish a film that was embarrassing to him. Saskia was also involved in the production. She sees K.C again at a party organized by Pete. When he accuses her of being a liar, she angrily throws her drink in his face.

The next day Pete flies back to Los Angeles with the film roles. The media hype about the film and his person has changed his mind, and he finally wants to release the film. Jack, however, had swapped roles a short while ago and is happy to have cheated Pete. While local children play with the film strips, K. C. walks along the beach. Suddenly Saskia is with him and takes his hand. And Buddha also joins them.

background

The shooting took place in Altadena , Glendale , Los Angeles and on the Salton Sea .

Pete Smalls Is Dead premiered on September 17th, 2010 at the Oldenburg International Film Festival. This was followed by screenings at the Stockholm International Film Festival and the Slamdance Film Festival . On April 14, 2011, the film ran in US cinemas. On July 6, 2012 it was released in Germany on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Reviews

"As a satire disguised, moderately funny independent film, which too loquaciously wants to expose the beautiful, vain Hollywood world," said the lexicon of international films . Variety's Dennis Harvey found it “hard to imagine” that a film starring Peter Dinklage, Steve Buscemi and Rosie Perez could be “completely uninteresting”. But that is exactly what the film is. As an “unconventional comedy”, it loses itself in “sloppy humor” and “disgusting characters who present themselves as quirky weirdos”.

Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times attested the film, when he focused on the friendship between Dinklage and Boone, "a shabby, quirky energy." According to Olsen, it would have been better if the film had dispensed with its “repentant, envious satire on Hollywood” because it only seemed “constructed and forced”.

Awards

The film was nominated for the audience award of the German Independence Awards at the Oldenburg International Film Festival.

German version

The German dubbed version was created in 2012 by Metz-Neun Synchron Studio- und Verlags GmbH.

role actor Voice actor
K. C. Munk Peter Dinklage Michael-Che cook
Jack Gomes Mark Boone Junior Wolff von Lindenau
Bob Withers Todd Barry Gilles Karolyi
Julia Rosie Perez Sabina Godec
Take David Proval Renier Baaken
Pete Smalls Tim Roth Sasha Nathan
Saskia Theresa Wayman Tanja Ash

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Pete Smalls Is Dead. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 3, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. “It's hard to imagine a film sporting such reliable talents as Peter Dinklage, Steve Buscemi and Rosie Perez […] could be completely unappealing, but Pete Smalls Is Dead somehow manages. The off-kilter comedy […] curdles into loutish humor and obnoxious characters posing as wacky screwballs. " Dennis Harvey: Pete Smalls Is Dead . In: Variety , September 17, 2010.
  3. “The film has a mangy, oddball energy when it focuses on the fractured friendship between Dinklage and Boone […]. Rockwell's film might have been better off dropping its rueful, sour-grapes satire on Hollywood altogether, as it just feels artificial and forced. " Mark Olsen: Movie review: 'Pete Smalls Is Dead' . In: Los Angeles Times , November 11, 2011.
  4. Pete Smalls Is Dead. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing index , accessed on February 3, 2020 .