Strangers with Candy (film)

Infobox Film
name = Strangers with Candy


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Paul Dinello
producer = Stephen Colbert
David Letterman
writer = Stephen Colbert
Paul Dinello
Amy Sedaris
Mitch Rouse
starring = Amy Sedaris
Stephen Colbert
Paul Dinello
Dan Hedaya
Joseph Cross
Deborah Rush
music = Marcelo Zarvos
cinematography = Oliver Bokelberg
editing = Michael R. Miller
distributor = ThinkFilm
Comedy Central Films
released = June 28, 2006
runtime = 97 min.
country = flagicon|USA
language = English
budget = $2 million
gross = $2,068,323
website = http://strangerswithcandymovie.com/
imdb_id = 0369994

"Strangers with Candy" is a film released in 2006 by ThinkFilm, first screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It is a prequel to the TV show "Strangers with Candy". Among the executive producers was David Letterman.

Plot

Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris), a former high school dropout and self-described "junkie whore", is released from prison and returns to her childhood home. She discovers her mother has died, her father (Dan Hedaya) has remarried to the hateful Sara Blank (Deborah Rush) and she has an annoying half-brother Derrick (Joseph Cross). To make matters worse, her father is in a "stress-induced coma." Taking the suggestion of the family doctor (Ian Holm) literally, Jerri decides to pick her life back up where she left it, beginning her high school all over again as a freshman at Flatpoint High.

Jerri joins Chuck Noblet's (Stephen Colbert) science fair team, the Fig Neutrons, along with her new friends Megawatti Sucarnaputri (a spoof on Megawati Sukarnoputri) and Tammi Littlenut (Maria Thayer). Noblet is not pleased to learn that Flatpoint's Principal Onyx Blackman (Greg Hollimon) has hired a ringer for their team (played by Matthew Broderick) to ensure that Flatpoint wins, and so Noblet creates a second team. As she struggles to fit in and make her teammates proud, Jerri discovers that though the faces have changed, the hassles of high school are just the same.

Cast

*Amy Sedaris as Geraldine "Jerri" Blank
*Stephen Colbert as Chuck Noblet
*Paul Dinello as Geoffrey Jellineck
*Dan Hedaya as Guy Blank
*Joseph Cross as Derrick Blank
*Deborah Rush as Sara Blank
*Allison Janney as Alice
*Matthew Broderick as Roger Beekman
*Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry
*Sarah Jessica Parker as Peggy Callas
*Justin Theroux as Carlo Honklin
*Chris Pratt as Brason
*Maria Thayer as Tammi Littlenut
*Carlo Alban as Megawatti Sucarnaputri
*Kristen Johnston as Coach Divers
*Ian Holm as Dr. Putney
*Elisabeth Harnois as Monica

Production

Writer/star Amy Sedaris admitted in an interview that they never intended on making a film after the series was cancelled, stating, "Paul, Steve, and I were working on our book "Wigfield" ... We kept coming up with funny Jerri Blank stuff to say, so it would go into a file, and by the end of the book, Paul opened the file and there was all this Blank stuff, and he said, 'Oh, it would be so funny to write a movie.' That's really how it happened." [Gillette, Amelie. [http://www.avclub.com/content/node/49863 "The Onion A.V. Club Interview: Amy Sedaris"] , "AVClub.com" June 28, 2006.]

Characters not returning

* Orlando Patoboy looked too old to reprise his series role as Orlando Pinatubo. His character was then replaced by the similar Megawatti Sacarnaputri.
* Larc Spies did not return for the role of Derrick Blank because, according to Amy Sedaris, "he looks like a longshoreman now." Several other characters were re-cast because the original actors looked too old to believeably play high schoolers. The only original student to return was Maria Thayer as redhead Tammi Littlenut.
* Roberto Gari did not reprise the role of Guy Blank, who was instead portrayed by Dan Hedaya. Hedaya portrayed Guy's comatose state differently than Gari; in the television show, Guy is frozen in humorous, almost statuesque state, whereas the film had Guy simply be unconscious.

References

External links

* [http://strangerswithcandymovie.com/ Official site]
*
*
*
*