http://vimeo.com/217780804A Used Furniture Salesman helps a Jazz Radio DJ attempt to end his life in the most complicated way possible.
“Why bother?” sums up Gabe’s feeling about life. He lives alone. He has a turtle. He’s a DJ at a smooth Jazz Station in the middle of nowhere. He’s peaked and he’d rather go out with a bang than ride out the slow steady decline that we all face. Lucky for him, there’s a local guy who fancies himself a Craigslist Kevorkian helping people with their er… exit strategy. His name is Lenny and he has an awesome Van to cart away the furniture of the deceased as a form of payment for his services, though he may not be upfront about that. Although 'Last Call Lenny' takes an absurdist view of choosing suicide, behind the comedy there’s also a want to find the answer to Gabe’s question. Why bother indeed?
With Last Call Lenny, we wanted to create characters we hadn’t seen before, operating at the edge of believability. Could a used furniture salesman also offer his services to help depressed people commit suicide? Would a suicidal person hire someone off of Craigslist to help them end their lives in an exciting and moderately priced way? We wanted the audience to buy into this scenario, so we normalized the unusual setup and placed the film in a location that has a slightly altered-reality feel - The Salton Sea. Look it up. Go there. It’s surreal. Just being there and away from L.A. really helped settle the actors and crew into the right space to tell this story. The end result is a film that expresses our unruly sensibilities and solidifies our off-kilter storytelling style.
That was a belly buster, thanks for the laugh Brian.
I have to say Lenny was a genius in tying up/wrapping the gun in two places with that string. Must have taken hours and then to have that darn DJ bend over just at the 'right' time was a precious bit of comedy.
Truly enjoyed the link. Thanks for your enlightening posts, this one was especially good.
Alex
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