A mockumentary that is as endearing as it is silly.
Comment
04/26/02
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The Independent (2001)
60
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:29
Rotten:19
Average Rating:6/10
Theatrical Release:Nov 30, 2001 Limited
Synopsis: Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller) is an independent schlock film producer-star-director with a problem. He's broke, and he can't finance his new film about a singing serial killer. The bank offers to... [More]
Starring: Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, Andy Dick
Director: Stephen Kessler
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Reviews for The Independent
Top CriticSo good-natured, its humor so loopy, and Fineman so charismatic in his crass way, that few film buffs will be able to resist its absurd charms.
04/26/02
Garofalo, wary but indulgent as the director's estranged daughter, has great comic rapport with Stiller.
04/24/02
Top CriticIf you're a tongue-in-cheek fan of bimbo-driven B-movies, The Independent should tickle your funny bone.
04/19/02
All in all, it's a good omen for Kessler's future career.
04/15/02
The final and best joke of the film might be that a movie ostensibly spoofing a blowhard of an untalented hulk of a filmmaker is itself the product of the same.
04/07/02
The press kit for the B-movie mockumentary The Independent is hilarious, sidesplitting, and leaps and bounds funnier than the awful film that the kit promotes.
03/29/02
Excruciatingly unamusing.
03/29/02
The Independent is at once the most insubstantial and doleful mockumentary of the early 2000s. As many major publications round up favourable reviews, they present themselves as counterfactual -- critiques that demand critiquing.
03/11/02
It's fun to watch Stiller throw fits and reveal some depth and sweetness.
03/01/02
Even with its over-the-top spirit, The Independent's sense of spoof quickly goes flat.
03/01/02
... a stretched-to -the-limit parody of B-movie audacity ...
02/26/02
The first half of the film is dead-on brilliant.
01/31/02
Most of what we see on the screen has been done before -- many times before, and many times better.
01/29/02
Morty Fineman ... doesn't really exist. But the cheese whiz with a camera makes for a hilarious subject.
01/24/02
Top CriticThis one is cute, and full of amusing cameos but when the clips of Morty's films end, so do the laughs.
01/24/02
Jokes and clips pull The Independent together.
12/21/01
If you've spent a lot of time watching late-night cable, you'll laugh a lot.
12/14/01
Film buffs with a taste for B or worse movies and a curiosity about those who toil maniacally on the fringes of Hollywood will find The Independent a hoot. But there’s little for the rest of us beyond the film’s easy-to-spoof concept.
12/09/01
Lots of satirical hilarity and characters one grows fond of, and it ultimately touches on truths about the hucksterism at the heart of showbiz.
12/07/01
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