Heckler (2007)

Director:

Michael Addis

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Tagline:

Everyone's a critic.

Plot:

HECKLER is a comedic feature documentary exploring the increasingly critical world we live in. After starring in a film that was critically bashed...

Cast

Louie Anderson	...	Himself
Criss Angel	...	Himself
Dave Attell	...	Himself
Vince August	...	Himself
Maria Bamford	...	Herself
Fred Belford	...	Himself
Doug Benson	...	Himself
Al Berman	...	Himself
David 'Elsewhere' Bernal	...	Himself
Lewis Black	...	Himself
Uwe Boll	...	Himself (as Dr. Uwe Boll)
John Bowman	...	Himself
Stephen Burrows	...	Himself (as Steve Burrows)
Christa Campbell	...	Herself
Paul Chilsen	...	Himself
Chingy	...	Himself
Andrew Dice Clay	...	Himself (as Andrew 'Dice' Clay)
David Cross	...	Himself
Tommy Davidson	...	Himself
Mike Ditka	...	Himself
Eric Edwards	...	Himself
Robert Englund	...	Himself
Jim Everett	...	Himself (archive footage)
Devin Faraci	...	Himself
Craig Ferguson	...	Himself
Adam Ferrara	...	Himself
Carrie Fisher	...	Herself
Greg Fitzsimmons	...	Himself
Larry Flynt	...	Himself
Pablo Francisco	...	Himself
Judah Friedlander	...	Himself
Billy Gardell	...	Himself
David Garrett	...	Himself
Todd Glass	...	Himself
Gilbert Gottfried	...	Himself
Tom Green	...	Himself
David Alan Grier	...	Himself
Kathy Griffin	...	Herself
Peter Grumbine	...	Himself
Peter Guber	...	Himself
Arsenio Hall	...	Himself
Bill Hicks	...	Himself (archive footage)
Paris Hilton	...	Herself (archive footage)
Perez Hilton	...	Himself
Christopher Hitchens	...	Himself
James Inman	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dom Irrera	...	Himself
Ron Jeremy	...	Himself
Robert Kelly	...	Himself
Jamie Kennedy	...	Himself
Jewel Kilcher	...	Herself (as Jewel)
Andy Kindler	...	Himself
Jen Kober	...	Herself (archive footage)
Richard Kyanka	...	Himself
Dean Larit	...	Himself
Bobby Lee	...	Himself
Tom Leykis	...	Himself
Jon Lovitz	...	Himself
George Lucas	...	Himself
Rod Lurie	...	Himself
Bill Maher	...	Himself
Leonard Maltin	...	Himself
Howie Mandel	...	Himself
Nicole Mandich	...	Herself
Joe Mantegna	...	Himself
Jamie Masada	...	Himself
Craig Mazin	...	Himself
Rob McKittrick	...	Himself
Andy Milonakis	...	Himself
Chance Minter	...	Himself
Eugene Mirman	...	Himself
Patton Oswalt	...	Himself
Rick Overton	...	Himself
Russell Peters	...	Himself
Drew Pinsky	...	Himself (as Dr. Drew Pinsky)
Dennis Prager	...	Himself
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Simon Rex	...	Himself
John Ridley	...	Himself
Paul Rodriguez	...	Himself
Richard Roeper	...	Himself
Joe Rogan	...	Himself
Jim Rome	...	Himself (archive footage)
Roseanne	...	Herself (as Roseanne Barr)
Jeffrey Ross	...	Himself (as Jeff Ross)
Eli Roth	...	Himself
Deep Roy	...	Himself
John Salley	...	Himself
Julian Schnabel	...	Himself (archive footage)
Flip Schultz	...	Himself
Joel Schumacher	...	Himself
Pauly Shore	...	Himself
Bobby Slayton	...	Himself
Jeffrey Sneider	...	Himself (as Jeff Sneider)
John Stockwell	...	Himself
Barbra Streisand	...	Herself (archive footage)
Nick Swardson	...	Himself
Scott 'Carrot Top' Thompson	...	Himself (as Carrot Top)
Paul F. Tompkins	...	Himself
Daniel Tosh	...	Himself
Danny Trejo	...	Himself
The Used	...	Themselves
Jody Vaclav	...	Herself
David Wain	...	Himself
George Wallace	...	Himself
Sheila Wenz	...	Herself
Mike White	...	Himself
Harland Williams	...	Himself
Henry Winkler	...	Himself
Mark Young	...	Himself (as Dr. Mark Young)
Sean Young	...	Herself
Rob Zombie	...	Himself

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, and for brief nudity.

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:MA | UK:18

Company:

Jizzy Entertainment

Movie Connections:

Features Stricken (1998)

Soundtrack:

I'm Senstive

No comment...... on second thought

A friend of mine once said something that I think is important to mention when bringing up the documentary Heckler produced and featuring as its guide/interviewer Jamie Kennedy, and it's about the whole process of movie-making. There's usually considered to be three steps: the writing, the shooting, and the editing. But there is a fourth part, arguably, and that is the film with an audience, how they react to it. I mention this because this friend of mine is an aspiring filmmaker who once made short films in college and would intentionally sit in with the audience to see how the film was received by his fellow student filmmakers and other people, and then would get reactions from everybody afterwords. As someone else, myself, who has also made short films and aspires to direct on a professional level, it is the most sobering and soul-crushing experience imaginable to be told a) your movie was great, b) your movie was a piece of s***, and c) what *was* that? And, the question comes, what if they were to write either (or all) of these?

So, as someone who has been on both the end of the creative stick and that of being in that leper colony of people who write on this God-forsaken den of vice and misery known as the inter-web, I respect and admire Jamie Kennedy for what he's done here. I'm reminded why I do what I do on here, and why this "comment" on his production of Heckler I've made personal - because, frankly, so does he here. At the same time I also have to realize with this movie, for everything about it that is funny- and at times it's not just funny but f***ing funny (re: Deep Roy's jacuzzi rant, Kennedy's confrontation with his own critics), it goes without saying that the documentary itself is not that great. It's insightful, it's meaningful, and I know that aside from little tid-bits and a few anecdotes, it's not staying in my collection as more than a rental. I would preface this by saying "I'm only being honest", but that would in turn suggest I lie often enough to have to mention it.

But, then again, what the hell am I doing on here than to say what works or doesn't? How can I write or say something constructive about a movie that is about the very subject of a monkey throwing verbal or written feces at a creative traveler? Do I write that it needs more, well, criticism on critics? On the nature of heckling? On maybe relaying the ratio of blood-alcohol content in a comedy club or at a keyboard to how reactions come out? Heckler can't really get much better, or worse, than it is. It's a series of stories and opinions from people talking about people who have an opinion. It is worthwhile to see that. Nobody can say they're not in the audience on some level, even if, as George Lucas says, you're a creator and not a destroyer. If you're at all in any field of entertainment, you create AND you destroy, to one degree or another, sometimes in crude terms like the gossip bloggers, and sometimes, well, you're Roger Ebert.

Whew. Bottom line, 'the fourth stage', as my friend calls it, is never an easy thing. If it weren't, then I and the creators wouldn't be here. Just remember the scene in History of the World Part 1: for every man making a cave painting, there's someone coming around to bring his urine sample to the equation. Perhaps Jamie Kennedy will, or already had by the end of the movie miraculously enough, come to terms with that fact of being in a business of comedy and movie-making: this is what you do, and that is most certainly what "they" do was well. It's a face. Certainly this is a first step into a world where both he and, in fact, Stanley Kubrick are fair game. And yes, I just compared Jamie Kennedy to Stanley Kubrick, so I may have just devolved this entire discourse. Whatever.