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NY NY | Tropfest in Tribeca, "Fatboy" Uptown and Yom Kippur
On The Scene coverage presented by "2 Days in Paris."
by Charlie Olsky (September 27, 2007)
This week in New York, the Film Society of Lincoln Center gave its younger cineastes a chance to loosen up with "Run, Fatboy, Run", while Two Boots Pioneer Theater provided a place for Jewish New Yorkers to atone for their sins. And the Tribeca Film Festival threw its first "Tropfest@Tribeca", an offshoot of the popular Australian short film festival.
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Thursday night, Lincoln Center treated a mostly 20-something audience to an advanced screening of David Schwimmer's upcoming release "Run, Fatboy, Run" and a Q&A with Schwimmer, stars Simon Pegg and Thandie Newton, and screenwriter Michael Ian Black. The showing was part of its bi-monthly "Young Friends of Film" program, designed for film enthusiasts between 20 and 40 to access Film Society's programming (the series generally has past entries from either the New York Film Festival or the New Directors/New Films Festival), along with Q&As from cast members, directors, and/or critics associated with the work.
David Schwimmer, Thandie Newton, and Simon pegg at the Q&A for "Run, Fatboy, Run". Photo by Charlie Olsky
Thursday's screening, then, was decidedly against type. "Fatboy" is the story of an out-of-shape security guard who trains for a marathon in order to win back his gorgeous ex-fiance (Newton) from her unctuously perfect current beau (Hank Azaria). It's not the usual fare of the Film Society - likeable, slight and occasionally quite funny, but far from the brilliant genre satire of Pegg's more notable work in "Shaun of the Dead" or "Hot Fuzz". The modest aims of the film were summed up by Black, who explained his inspiration as "I thought to myself - 'Fat Guy runs a marathon - that's a good idea for a movie!'".
The screenplay started out life based in New York, but was transplanted to London after London-based company Material Entertainment optioned the script, with Schwimmer attached for his feature directing debut; Pegg did some quick brush up work- as he put it, "'He runs past the Empire State Building' changed to 'He runs past the Millennium Wheel'", Schwimmer was now directing a British film, complete with the lovely Thandie Newton (the audience learned, after a tense moment, that it is pronounced "Tandie", not "Th-andie"), who must have been surprised to find herself in a movie with the word 'fat' in the title.
The film is at its best when exploring the competition between Azaria and Pegg - summed up terrifically in a locker room scene in which Azaria -- the most unattractively buff guy this side of infomercial mainstay John Basedow -- threateningly displays his manhood to an awe-struck Pegg, whose facial reaction is all the more priceless for being authentic.
"Hank had the option of wearing a modesty thing," explained Schwimmer, "but he left it off." Pegg has his own reason for his stance -- "It didn't escape my attention at any point that I was looking at Moe the Bartender's c*ck."