The GoodTimesKid

Berlin

2010-01-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

The GoodTimesKid, Jan 6, 21:00, Jan 8, 22:00, Nobody Needs to Know, Jan 4, 19:00, Jan 17, 19:30 | Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Tel 030 2789 1919, www.babylonberlin.de

interview here

new review

2009-09-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

"I developed a real soft spot for this film - with my only complaint being that I wished it was longer." (read more)

2009-08-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

"This is not just the best disc released this week, but one of my favorite discoveries of the year so far. The GoodTimesKid is more than a breath of fresh air, it's an afternoon where you never look at your watch and throw your phone in the lake." - Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere (read more)

Screening Party tonite!

2009-08-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Join us to celebrate the DVD release of The GoodTimesKid
tonite, Thursday, 8PM
at the DownTown Independent
(251 S. Main St., b/t W. Third & W. Second Sts., Downtown (213-617-1033)
David Orlando (of Punky Reggae) spinning after the film

2009-08-11T16:16:00.000-07:00

"Evoking Giulietta Masina in Nights of Cabiria, Chaplin's dinner roll dance in The Gold Rush, and that staple of nouvelle vague coolness, The Madison from Godard's Band of Outsiders, Diaz's whimsical solo in a chocolate-stained dress and black Converse is one of those rare moments of fleeting joy whose ephemerality is only enhanced by its capture on film." - Cullen Gallagher, L MAGAZINE (read more)

"Today the good fellows at Benten Films release Azazel Jacobs' truly beguiling absurdist near-tragicomedy The GoodTimes Kid in a thoroughly lovely DVD edition." - Glen Kenny SOME CAME RUNNING (read more)

Dvd out today - new reviews

2009-08-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

"Every moment consequently is a sheer delight, doing its best to shake up all those depresso filmmakers who have done it all before and all you depresso cinemagoers out there who have seen it all before, and maybe remind you what the joy of making films and the joy of watching films is all about." DVD Times (read more)

"Diaz is a camera lens’ sweetheart: a laconic fusion of Audrey Hepburn and a young Conrad Veidt, she trumps Shelley Duvall’s Olive Oyl" Michael Atkinson, IFC (read more)

"The GoodTimesKid (Benten Films) — The boys at Benten Films absolutely crush it out of the park for the long overdue home video release of Azazel Jacobs’ enchanting second feature. A deadpan noir breakup comedy involving mistaken identities, The GoodTimesKid feels like it was shot in an earlier, more innocent time" Michael Tully, Hammer To Nail (read more)

"A film like 500 Days of Summer bends over backwards to convince you it takes place in a world where cultural totems of disaffection still mean something. The GoodTimesKid actually creates and takes place in such a world, without strain." Karina Longworth, SPOUT.com (read more)

"Before there was Momma's Man there was The GoodTimesKid. In Azazel Jacobs's second feature you can see his style beginning to take form, meshing a punk-rock attitude with cinema influences as wide ranging from Chaplin to Jarmusch." Jason Guerrasio, Filmaker Magazine (read more)

Blog Critic

2009-08-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

"The GoodTimesKid is a film that has it all — deadpan simplicity, whimsical heartbreak, drawn-on mustaches." (read more)

GoodTimesKid DVD August 11th

2009-07-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

The DVD by Benten Films of The GoodTimesKid is almost out. To celebrate there will be a screening at the Downtown Independent in L.A. and party afterward, August 13th at 8pm. Please come. The DVD should be widely available, rent from Netflix or order directly from Amazon.

• Director commentary with contributions from co-stars Gerardo Naranjo and Diaz

• The Whirled (1956-63): A never before released short film by Ken Jacobs starring Jack Smith that helped inspire The GoodTimesKid

• Let's Get Started: A short film by Azazel Jacobs

• Deleted Scenes

• Photo Gallery

• Original Trailer

• PLUS: An all-new essay by film critic Glenn Kenny

Release announcement

2009-03-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

Benten Films and Watchmaker Films Announce International Partnership

Both companies will continue to “support new and underrepresented filmmakers from around the world.” Benten is currently working on their first 2009 release, Azazel Jacobs’ “The GoodTimesKid,” which will be fully remastered from a 2K scan of the original negative, and preserved in an archival 4K scan. “It’s important to expand on the standard canon of great films and support up-and-coming filmmakers with state-of-the-art presentations in every format, from cinemas to DVD and beyond,” said Rance in a statement. (read more)

in Cleveland!

2008-10-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

The GoodTimesKid (along with Momma's Man) is screening at the Cleveland Cinematheque starting thursday the 16th of Oct- more info here

2008-07-13T19:51:00.001-07:00

One of Jacobs’ selections and a source of inspiration for The GoodTimesKid (among Jacobs’ other films) La Vie de bohème (1992) by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki follows on August 12. An adaptation of Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème, which was also the basis of Puccini’s La Bohème, this black-and-white film version features performances by Jean-Pierre Léaud and Kaurismäki regular Matti Pellonpää, as well as appearances by filmmakers Samuel Fuller and Louis Malle. The film concerns three penniless artists in contemporary Paris:
Rodolfo, a painter, Marcel, a playwright, and Schaunard, a composer, as well as the barmaid with whom Rodolfo falls in love. “[A] slow-and-steady mood piece,” says The Washington Post. The film was the winner of the FIPRESCI prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Jacobs’ first feature, Nobody Needs to Know (2003)—set in New York City and featuring a soundtrack comprises rap and reggae by Brooklyn-based bands—plays on August 13. Jacobs has cited diverse influences including Federico Fellini, The Clash, and Lenny Bruce, for this unconventional film. “[T]his black-and-white metafiction by Azazel Jacobs interweaves three story lines,” notes Chicago Reader, “an anonymous black guy peers into and then disappears behind the camera, his voice-over a mix of whimsical rap and omniscient narration; an aspiring actress suggestively named Iris (Tricia Vessey) ponders the meaning of her profession
while waiting for a callback about a movie role; meanwhile, a series of attractive women in slips audition for the same film by acting out death scenes for a director (Matt Boren) who becomes increasingly confused as to what he’s after.” The film had its world premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival, where Jacobs told the Daily Tiger (Rotterdam), “Nobody Needs to Know was more influenced by reggae music and The Clash than traditional
filmmaking, where a director shoots some scenes that he has rehearsed with the cast. Although there is one director I am really excited about—Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki.”

On August 14 is the second of Jacobs’ picks in the series, British cult film Rude Boy (1980), directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay. Rude Boy is part drama and part rockumentary, featuring performances by The Clash, a strong influence on Jacobs’ work, as it follows the perspective of protagonist Ray Gange, a fan and roadie for the band. “[S]tudded with electrifying concert footage,” notes Chicago Reader, while Channel 4 Film calls Rude
Boy “a must-see for anyone with an interest in The Clash.”

The Films of Azazel Jacobs concludes on August 15 with a sneak preview of the director’s newest, much acclaimed Momma’s Man (2008) followed by a Q&A with Azazel Jacobs. Momma’s Man mixes fictional and autobiographical elements with his father, avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs, and his mother, visual artist Flo Jacobs, starring as the bohemian parents of the protagonist, Mikey (Matt Boren). The film was shot in the Tribeca apartment where the director grew up and where his parents continue to live. Jacobs writes in his
director’s statement, “Momma’s Man began as a way of documenting the place where I grew up…I wound up casting my parents to play the parents—really because I couldn’t picture anyone else in their bed, in their kitchen, in their place.” He continues to comment on the casting choices: “I wrote the part of their son, Mikey, for Matt Boren, who I had worked with on my first feature Nobody Needs to Know. He was someone that I thought of from the first line on…For the rest of the roles I used either the real person it was based on, or actors
that brought with them their own particular styles, hoping to create a cross-section/mish-mash of realities where some interesting things could emerge.”

In Momma’s Man, Mikey returns to his hometown of New York for a visit, and ends up staying longer than intended with his parents—neglecting his wife and child back home in Los Angeles. The New York Times comments, “[T]he film beautifully combines the idioms of independent fiction narrative with the personal expressiveness of the avant-garde for a work of surprising emotional and structural complexity. This is independent cinema defined.” The film will be released on August 22 by Kino International.

Tickets are also available by phone at 718.777.FILM, or online at BAM.org. For more
information, call the BAMcinématek hotline at 718.636.4100 or visit BAM.org.

2008-07-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn, July 11, 2008—From August 11–15 BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at
BAM Rose Cinemas, presents The Films of Azazel Jacobs. Azazel Jacobs has spent the last few
years forging his cinematic vision—he is a unique independent filmmaker in an age when
American independent cinema is faced with a creative drought. This series gathers three features by Jacobs— son of famed avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs—including his recent Sundance Film Festival hit Momma’s Man, along with two films selected by Jacobs. Momma’s Man will be released on August 22 by Kino International.

The series starts on August 11 with Azazel Jacobs’ sophomore feature The GoodTimesKid
(2005). Described as “an unexpectedly beguiling romantic comedy” by The New York Times,
The GoodTimesKid is the story of three characters told with little dialogue: Rodolfo (played by Jacobs), his girlfriend Diaz (played by Jacobs’ real-life girlfriend, Sara Diaz), and a stranger
named Rodolfo (Gerardo Naranjo, director of Drama/Mex [2006], a close friend of Jacobs and
co-writer of the script). When Jacobs’ character is drafted for military service, he leaves his
girlfriend in Los Angeles and Naranjo’s character moves into Diaz’s life. “Minimalist to the
max, Azazel Jacobs’ second feature, The GoodTimesKid emerges as an absurdist and nearly
wordless urban dance between two men and a woman over 24 hours in Los Angeles,” writes
Variety.

One of Jacobs’ selections and a source of inspiration for The GoodTimesKid (among Jacobs’ other films) La Vie de bohème (1992) by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki follows on August 12. An adaptation of Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème, which was also the basis of Puccini’s La Bohème, this black-and-white film version features performances by Jean-Pierre Léaud and Kaurismäki regular Matti Pellonpää, as well as appearances by filmmakers Samuel Fuller and Louis Malle. The film concerns three penniless artists in contemporary Paris:
Rodolfo, a painter, Marcel, a playwright, and Schaunard, a composer, as well as the barmaid with whom Rodolfo falls in love. “[A] slow-and-steady mood piece,” says The Washington Post. The film was the winner of the FIPRESCI prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Jacobs’ first feature, Nobody Needs to Know (2003)—set in New York City and featuring a soundtrack comprises rap and reggae by Brooklyn-based bands—plays on August 13. Jacobs has cited diverse influences including Federico Fellini, The Clash, and Lenny Bruce, for this unconventional film. “[T]his black-and-white metafiction by Azazel Jacobs interweaves three story lines,” notes Chicago Reader, “an anonymous black guy peers into and then disappears behind the camera, his voice-over a mix of whimsical rap and omniscient narration; an aspiring actress suggestively named Iris (Tricia Vessey) ponders the meaning of her profession
while waiting for a callback about a movie role; meanwhile, a series of attractive women in slips audition for the same film by acting out death scenes for a director (Matt Boren) who becomes increasingly confused as to what he’s after.” The film had its world premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival, where Jacobs told the Daily Tiger (Rotterdam), “Nobody Needs to Know was more influenced by reggae music and The Clash than traditional
filmmaking, where a director shoots some scenes that he has rehearsed with the cast. Although there is one director I am really excited about—Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki.”

On August 14 is the second of Jacobs’ picks in the series, British cult film Rude Boy (1980), directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay. Rude Boy is part drama and part rockumentary, featuring performances by The Clash, a strong influence on Jacobs’ work, as it follows the perspective of protagonist Ray Gange, a fan and roadie for the band. “[S]tudded with electrifying concert footage,” notes Chicago Reader, while Channel 4 Film calls Rude
Boy “a must-see for anyone with an interest in The Clash.”

The Films of Azazel Jacobs concludes on August 15 with a sneak preview of the director’s newest, much acclaimed Momma’s Man (2008) followed by a Q&A with Azazel Jacobs. Momma’s Man mixes fictional and autobiographical elements with his father, avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs, and his mother, visual artist Flo Jacobs, starring as the bohemian parents of the protagonist, Mikey (Matt Boren). The film was shot in the Tribeca apartment where the director grew up and where his parents continue to live. Jacobs writes in his
director’s statement, “Momma’s Man began as a way of documenting the place where I grew up…I wound up casting my parents to play the parents—really because I couldn’t picture anyone else in their bed, in their kitchen, in their place.” He continues to comment on the casting choices: “I wrote the part of their son, Mikey, for Matt Boren, who I had worked with on my first feature Nobody Needs to Know. He was someone that I thought of from the first line on…For the rest of the roles I used either the real person it was based on, or actors
that brought with them their own particular styles, hoping to create a cross-section/mish-mash of realities where some interesting things could emerge.”

In Momma’s Man, Mikey returns to his hometown of New York for a visit, and ends up staying longer than intended with his parents—neglecting his wife and child back home in Los Angeles. The New York Times comments, “[T]he film beautifully combines the idioms of independent fiction narrative with the personal expressiveness of the avant-garde for a work of surprising emotional and structural complexity. This is independent cinema defined.” The film will be released on August 22 by Kino International.

Tickets are also available by phone at 718.777.FILM, or online at BAM.org. For more
information, call the BAMcinématek hotline at 718.636.4100 or visit BAM.org.

Virginia

2008-03-29T06:40:00.001-07:00

The GoodTimesKid will screen in 35 at the James River Film Festival in Virginia April 5th! More info here

2008-02-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

momma's man.com

Victoria Film festival

2008-01-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

in Canada-
screening in 35 MM at
Sunday February 3rd at 12 PM
Monday February 4th at 9 PM

"Normally, stealing from Hollywood is just a bad idea for any independent filmmaker. But for director Azazel Jacobs, stealing film from a Hollywood blockbuster’s truck to make a movie about stolen identities and stolen hearts, couldn’t have been a more perfect allegory for The Goodtimeskid.

Filled with some of the most endearing deadpan humour since Peter Sellers and Buster Keaton, this is the story of two Rodolfo Canos. One Rodolfo Cano lives alone on a sailboat by the docks and the other lives with his soon-to-be-estranged girlfriend. Neither knew the other existed until one day the army misdelivers a Call-for-Service letter for Rodolfo-with-a-girlfriend to Rodolfo-with-a-boat. Thinking he only needs to explain the mistake to the office, Rodolfo-with-a-boat accidentally crosses paths with an oblivious Rodolfo-with-a girlfriend at the recruitment office. Intrigued and confused, he follows his unknowing namesake back home, only to stumble awkwardly into the lovelorn life of a woman that’s about to be left behind.

Leave your conceptions behind about what a comedy can be and The Goodtimeskid will deliver. Its characters are deep and complicated without ever needing to over-explain them. Its setups are sometimes so perfect you never see a laugh-out-loud moment coming until you’ve already spilled your popcorn on your date."

buy tickets here

IFC's Top ten at Sundance

2008-01-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

: Sam Rockwell - "Choke"

Sam Rockwell gave great performances in two films at last year's festival — "Joshua" and "Snow Angels" — and we can't imagine he's going to be any less memorable playing a sex-addicted con-man in this adaptation of a novel from Chuck Palahniuk, the writer behind "Fight Club."; Amy Adams - "Sunshine Cleaning"

The premise of this one -- a young mother and her flaky sister start a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service -- sound awfully quirky-cute, but the Oscar-nominated Amy Adams has proven she can brighten just about any film.; Colin Farrell - "In Bruges"

How often to you get to see Colin Farrell do comedy or speak in his actual accent? In Martin McDonagh's opening night film, he plays a hitman with a heart who ends up hiding out in a picturesque Belgian town after a job goes wrong.; Seu Jorge - "The Escapist"

The Brazilian pop star who played Knockout Ned in "City of God" and sang Bowie covers in Portuguese in "The Life Aquatic" returns to the screen in this film about a jail breakout that also stars Brian Cox and Joseph Fiennes.; Kelly Macdonald - "The Merry Gentleman"

In "No Country For Old Men," Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald impressed, and not just because of she flawlessly passed herself off as Texan. Here she plays a woman fleeing an abusive relationship and befriending a depressed hit man (apparently a theme of this year's festival).; Peter Sarsgaard - "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"

Who wouldn't want to see sensitive indie darling Peter Sarsgaard playing a biker with a big personality? Plus, this film is an adaptation of a novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Chabon, so the dialog is all but guaranteed to be above par.; Winona Ryder - "The Last Word"

The last few years have been tough on Winona Ryder, but she was game as a woman who had an affair with a ventriloquist's dummy in last year's "The Ten," so we're looking forward to seeing her opposite another off-the-radar actor, Wes Bentley, in this rom-com about a professional writer of suicide notes.; Summer Bishil - "Towelhead"

"Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball's directorial debut was one of the most talked-about and controversial films at the Toronto Film Festival. Suffice to say, 19-year-old star Summer Bishil, in her first big-screen role, is also set to get plenty of attention.; Ken Jacobs - "Momma's Man"

Famed experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs plays "Dad" while his wife Flo plays "Mom" in this second film from their son Azazel Jacobs (whose debut was the acclaimed "The GoodTimesKid"). Is your family this hip?; Naomi Watts - "Funny Games"

Naomi Watts plays the suffering poster child for director Michael Haneke's remake of his own extremely disturbing 1997 film, in which two polite young men torture a family for no particular reason.
http://blog.ifctv.com/sundance2008/top10.html

another Best Of 2007

2008-01-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

this from Kevyn Knox at The Cinematheque
also, site for the new film is up: Momma's Man

#9
The GoodTimesKid
Directed by Azazel Jacobs

When your daddy is one of the lynchpins of experimental cinema in the United States - and the world - your future has got to be a bright one, for you too can become one of the most underrated, underexposed, unheard of by most, avant-gardist auteurs in the history of cinema. With TheGoodTimesKid, Azazel Jacobs, son of legendary, if not quite a household name, Ken Jacobs, the man responsible for the brilliantly deceptive 1969 experimental bon mot Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son and the découpage juggernaut, 40 years in the making, Star Spangled to Death, gives us (and by us I mean myself, J. Hoberman and about three other film geeks from the East Village) one of the sweetest, funniest romances of the year. A melange of his paternally encrusted experimental roots, an obvious lust for the early French New Wave, live action Fleischer Brother quirkiness, Jim Jarmusch's brain in a jar, indie-pop licks and a screwball heart, all glazed over with a sort of low-def Boho Lubitsch touch, Jacobs' film - which played for exactly seven days in January of 2007 at the Anthology Archives in New York and has still not seen the shiny side of a dvd - is the one film of 2007 most in need of watching - mainly because so many have not.

NY POST Dec 30, 2007

2007-12-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

AND THE BEST FILMS OF 2007 ARE . . .

A provocative scene from “Glass Lips.”

December 30, 2007 -- CRITICS' end-of-the-year lists of the best movies fall into two general categories.

Most prevalent are the lists dominated by high-profile movies released in the year's final months.

Other critics, including this one, choose their movies more democratically.

They realize that a movie released early in the year with little fanfare can be just as worthy as, say, "No Country for Old Men" or "The Orphanage." (I recommend both, but can't in good conscience count them among the 10 best.)

And now, without further ado, Cine File's favorite films of 2007, in order of preference:

1. "12:08 East of Bucharest," a hilarious satire from Romanian helmer Corneliu Perumboiu. And the fact that I am quoted on the cover of the DVD has no bearing on my decision.

2. "The Host," South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's delightful mixture of horror and black comedy. A creature emerges from a river in Seoul. Officials have no idea what to do, so it falls to a middle-class family to save the world.

3. "Exiled," a bloody gangster yarn inspired by spaghetti Westerns and directed by Hong Kong cult star Johnnie To. The final shootout is a classic of its kind. Go, Johnnie, go!

4. "Away From Her," in which Julie Christie breaks hearts as a woman afflicted with Alzheimer's. An auspicious feature-directing debut by sweet and talented Canadian actress Sarah Polley.

5. "Rescue Dawn," Werner Herzog's unfairly forgotten drama in which Christian Bale leads an escape from a guerrilla prison camp in 1966 Laos.

6. "Glass Lips," a hypnotic and often shocking beauty from Polish-American filmmaker Lech Majewski.

7. "Flanders," French director Bruno Dumont's anti-war shocker. Not for everyone.

8. "The Band's Visit," a comedy about eight musicians from Egypt who travel to Israel for a concert and immediately gets lost. The feature debut for Israeli director/writer Eran Kolirin.

9. "The Wayward Cloud," Taiwanese favorite Tsai Ming-liang's ode to watermelon as a sex toy.

10. "The GoodTimesKid," a minimalist, micro-budget oddity about a woman (Sara Diaz) and two men of the same first name. Directed by Azazel Jacobs, offspring of avant-garde ace Ken Jacobs. In case you're wondering, it unspooled for a week in January at the Anthology.

V.A. Musetto is film editor of The Post

Total Love

2007-12-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

excerpt from Julien Temple's Joe Strummer The Future Is Unwritten:

A young man's film with an old soul

2007-11-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

"THE GOOD TIMES KID. Over 48 hours, Rodolfo Cano, an aimless and melancholy man who lives on a boat, finds his life intertwining with that of Rodolfo Cano, a younger and comically inept punk-rock dude. Rodolfo 1, whose psychotic girlfriend has split, befriends Rodolfo 2's girlfriend, whom the latter seems ambivalently intent on leaving. Azazel Jacobs' wonderful debut is a romantic comedy a la Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki: naturalistically quirky, funny, sparse on dialogue and long on visual style and heart. Jacobs (who plays punk Rodolfo) delivers a young man's film with an old soul, precisely lyrical and hopefully bittersweet. 5:15 p.m. Sat., Nov. 3, and 7 p.m. Tue., Nov. 6. Harris (BO)

Pittsburgh City Paper

Pittsburgh

2007-10-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Goodtimeskid will screen at The Three Rivers Film Festival

Sat 11/3	Tue 11/6
5:15	7:00
Harris Theater
$8

Azazel Jacobs, son of experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs, calls his second feature film “a story about stolen love and stolen identities shot on stolen film.” A quirky, charming story, Kid has a wonderful sense of rhythm that recalls early Jim Jarmusch, as well as some of his dad’s anarchic spirit. The premise is modern romance -- two guys are named Rodolfo, one of whom gets renamed Depresso by the girlfriend of the other – and it’s a tribute to Jacobs’s skill that this is enough. An indie that’s low-budget and proud of it, the effect is magical: intimate close-ups capturing every flicker across the actors’ effortlessly expressive faces. Could be the sleeper hit of the film festival. (Azazel Jacobs; USA; 2007; 77 min)

Raindance

2007-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

London Screenings:
Weds 26 Sept 9:15pm
The Rex

Sat 29 September 9pm
Cineworld

FESTIVAL

"Mistaken identities, stolen hearts and self-discovery lie at the heart of Azazel Jacobs’ breathtaking sophomore feature. When two men sharing the name Rodolfo Cano turn up at the same army recruitment office, their lives take a whirlwind turn across the next 24 hours in Los Angeles. One is a middle-aged depressive trying to escape his own life, the other a highly-strung punk rocker whose tempestuous relationship with girlfriend Diaz has reached its breaking point. When the first Rodolfo follows the second home, only to find the angry punk storming out, he and Diaz find friendship in each other in the hope of finding meaning in their own lives. Throughout the course of the night, all three characters intertwine as they wander through the city.

The beauty of the film lies not in its plot but in the masterful manner in which cinematic and musical styles blend seamlessly together. Shades of Chaplin, early Godard and Tati are met with Gang of Four. Jacobs’ love of silent cinema is evident as the film contains little dialogue, however he merely demonstrates how sometimes it’s just not needed.

Shot on 35mm film stolen from a big-budget feature, The GoodTimesKid is a perfect example of what indie cinema should be: defiant, insightful, and above all a sheer joy to watch. You won’t see anything else like it this year."

James Merchant

Love Letter

2007-08-31T16:14:00.000-07:00

THE GOODTIMESKID

Indie comedy The GoodTimesKid is the second feature from director Azazel Jacobs, son of avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Taking a more mainstream tack than his noted ancestor, the interestingly named Azazel constructs a gentle, good-hearted if slightly inconsequential tale of romantic estrangement around three disillusioned thirtysomethings crossing paths over 24 hours in LA.

Shot in fourteen days with a crew of six, on film stock lifted from a major Hollywood studio, the film is low-budget and proud of it. Taking its cues from early Jarmusch, Hal Hartley and classic Chaplin, the film develops almost wordlessly. The minimal narrative centres around two men, both called Rodolfo Cano, and their helpless attraction to an unnamed girl, charmingly played by the director’s girlfriend Sara Diaz. Indeed, the entire film could be seen as something of a love letter to Diaz, as the two Rodolfos find themselves in orbit around this unpredictable creature.

There are scenes of real beauty in The GoodTimesKid: a central sequence of tentative romance on a houseboat unfolds almost flawlessly, opening up these taciturn characters, drawing us into their world. The camera is used to magical effect, intimate close-ups capturing every flicker across the actors’ effortlessly expressive faces. There are a few indie clichés on display here: hints of artful dispassion; helpless, existentially traumatised men; a free-spirited woman who expresses her independence by dancing to old jazz records. But the film is perfectly constructed, strikingly photographed and never less than involving. The enduring impression is of a sweet, transitory experience, as slight as a backward glance but just as intriguing.

Tom Huddleston

Electric Sheep Magazine

semi-weekly film recommendation

2007-08-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

"As the now-redundant mumblecore movement has the press of the print world a-twitter this week, just as they have enthralled the film blog world for a few years, I thought I’d point out a film that, for no reason I know of, slipped under most people’s radars. As someone in his 20s, I connected more with what The GoodTimesKid had to say about young life and love than with whatever the followers of Mr. Bujalski seem to be mumbling on about. I’m not intending to knock Funny Ha-Ha (2002) or Mutual Appreciation (2005). Those films accomplished a great deal and with very little, making a strong statement about this generation. But beyond that, I’m ready for what was once a humble core of filmmakers to get over their ineloquence. Speak up! or shut up. For the most part, Mr. Jacobs refrains from flapping his gums, letting the characters’ action and inaction do the talking. Made the same year as Mutual Appreciation and ’shot on stolen film’, The GoodTimesKid goes deeper than the rambling nature of the ‘talkies’. The GoodTimesKid sends-up, at the same time it effectively deals with identity-crisis - two charcters share the same name, and something more than just hilarity ensues. What’s more, the reality of today’s world - war, albeit a war fought ‘over there’, but war, nonetheless - lurks in the background, threatening to intersect with the lives of the characters. This, coupled with the emotional late night bus ride of two hearts competing for the attention of another, leads to one of those rare, soul-stirring moments that only film can achieve, causing this audience-member to hold his breath. The need an audience has for a protagonist to root for - Viva Depresso! - is as cinematically timeless as it is universal. The GoodTimesKid provides three such protagonists with whom to identify. Whether you root for one or all of them is up to you. Just as Jacobs is not interested in clearly revealing characters’ intentions, he not going to dictate how to feel about them. And yet, he is making a singular cinematic statement. With a few Godardian audio cuts and more than a few Jarmuschian tableaus, Jacobs takes cues from these predecessors in order to fit his take on the current moment into a larger picture, one that I predict will last longer than the aging-prone mumblecorers. At the heart of it, the new DIY movement makes a well-intentioned clarion call - anyone can pick up a camera and tell a story. And that’s all fine and good, and they may make some Bujalski rip-off with ease, but The GoodTimesKid is not just a statement about the current generation of twentysomethings that anyone could have made. It is a film that only Azazel Jacobs could and did make."
Cinema Stubble

My Guitar Hero!

2007-08-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Mick Jones is gonna be forced to watch our movie!!!!!
http://www.nme.com/news/iggy-pop/30165

Time Out Chicago

2007-08-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

"Check out Azazel Jacobs’s The GoodTimesKid (Thu 16, 6pm), the quirky, charming story of three lost souls (two men and a woman). While not a comedy, Kid has a lightness and wonderful sense of rhythm that recall early Jim Jarmusch. Jacobs is a director to watch; he has a natural eye for composition, and his camera movement is subtle and resonant. A delightful and assured film, Kid rarely hits a false note."- Patrick Friel

full article

Chicago

2007-08-14T08:54:00.001-07:00

"The Goodtimeskid Filmmaker Azazel Jacobs calls this "a story about stolen love and stolen identities shot on stolen film." He's the son of Ken Jacobs (Star Spangled to Death), with some of his pa's anarchic spirit, and because he apparently stole good 35-millimeter stock, he doesn't have to worry that much about the story anyway. The slender premise--two guys are named Rodolfo, one of whom gets renamed Depresso by the girlfriend of the other--seems mainly an excuse to hang out with these people, and it's a tribute to Jacobs's skill that this is enough. He knows how to put air around his characters, pace their movements, and chart their interactions in various locations, and when the heroine starts dancing at one point, she's so good that I wanted to cheer. 77 min. "(Jonathan Rosenbaum) arrow Chopin Theater, 6 PM.
Chicago Reader

Chicago screening 16th of August

2007-08-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

GoodTimesKid in the Chicago Underground film festival

Date

August 16, 2007 6:00 PM

Location

Chopin Theater
1543 W. Division
Chicago, IL 60622

[map it!]

Info Line

773-278-1500

tickets

New-ish

2007-07-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

one of the 25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM in the August issue of FILMMAKER MAGAZINE

Azazel Jacobs

When he bought a one-way ticket to New York City in January, Azazel Jacobs was determined to shoot his third feature no matter what. The story of a young man who travels home to New York for the holidays, leaving his wife and baby — and is then unable to leave the sanctuary of his parents’ apartment — Mommas Man was meant for a winter shoot, so Jacobs had to work fast. Collaborating with producer Alex Orlovsky (Half Nelson), Jacobs found financing from Artists Public Domain and a free location — his parents’ own NYC loft — and was shooting just a few weeks later.

Jacobs’s moviemaking boasts a punk-minimalist sensibility that mines multiple influences, from naturalism to Chaplin to Jarmusch to the avant-garde. His debut feature, Nobody Needs to Know, was one of the pioneers of the free-download terrain, available online in late 2004. His second feature, shot in his hometown of L.A. in 2005, The GoodTimesKid, is a beautifully framed, freewheeling and deadpan comedy about two men with the same name and the woman that comes between them. Jacobs starred in the film alongside girlfriend Sara Diaz and co-writer Gerardo Naranjo (director of the upcoming Drama/Mex). He also co-shot the film with Naranjo and Eric Curtis. The film is, in his own words, “kind of like a home movie we shot on 35mm.”

Extending the home movie metaphor, Jacobs allowed his own parents — including avant-garde filmmaker father Ken — to play themselves in his latest feature. Their loft — crammed with 40 years worth of stuff — was shot exactly as is. “If you can document the people and places that are close to you,” Jacobs says of his filmmaking philosophy, “you wind up winning no matter what. The coolest thing for me is just to realize that film is something you can get better at as you go on.” — Durier Ryan

Best of 2007 so far

2007-07-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

The GoodTimesKid made it as #2 on the NY Post's best of 2007 so far by critic V.A. Musetto!

an interview with Depresso

2007-07-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

Gerardo Naranjo (Rodolfo in The GoodTimesKid) interview with Indiewire for the release of his film "Drama/Mex"

Screenings

2007-07-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

Screenings of the GoodTimesKid are coming up in Calgary, Canada and London England
dates to be posted soon

a review from The Cinematheque:

"Azazel Jacobs could very well be called heir to the Ken Jacobs throne of avant-garde cinema - though with the exception of a small gaggle of dedicated cinephiles who hang out regularly at New York's Anthology Archives, and possibly a handful of critics as well, it may be rather too Lilliputian a kingdom to even worry about - but here I am anyway, praising the forthright crowning of a new, possibly clown, prince of counter-culture cinema.

A royal chip of the ole block perhaps, but in actuality, the Jacobs fils is less like pop than more. Shying away from the experimental, this piper's son goes instead for the hip, somewhat grungy, indie look and feel for his debut feature about a slacker who is emotionally awakened by a carefree, Max Fleischer-esque heroine. Now with having never been all that enamored with the slacker generation American indie scene (all thos Linklater wannabes) it came as quite a shock when I realized how much I was enjoying this film. With the sub pop integrity of the sire Jacobs and his ilk, Azazel has managed to infuse early Nouvelle Vague aesthetic - complete with seemingly impromptu and equally amateurish dance number - into his film, creating something unusual even by his father's standards. Bravo indeed." [03/03/07]

next screenings..

2007-06-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Louisville Kentucky
Saturday June 16th at 6:50 pm
playing with one of the greats- Richard Elfman's "Forbidden zone"!

Woods Hole
Friday August 3rd at 7 pm

GoodTimesKid and Hannah Takes The Stairs

2007-06-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

from Jake Meaney for POPMATTERS.com

Jake Meaney

[1 June 2007]

These films share connecting tendrils of a strident defiance of convention, of this total faith in the surface non-sequitur; a seeming senselessness that really only masks the deeper connections and traditions flowing beneath their surfaces.

TheGoodTimesKid (dir. Azazel Jacobs)
I absolutely adore the tagline for Azazel Jacobs’ highly idiosyncratic, utterly charming TheGoodTimesKid: “A story about stolen love and stolen identities, shot on stolen film”. I’d also add that he may be stealing a march on some of his Ameri-Indie peers, as well, drawing deeply from a rich well that’s gone relatively untouched lately. But I love this notion of “stolen” film, which is meant both very literally and as a perfect metaphor for the space the film inhabits, a space woven entirely out of stolen ideas and stolen moments, but transformed into something refreshingly unique.

But yes, I do mean literally stolen. Costar Gerardo Naranjo, who, along with Jacobs plays one of two characters named Rodolfo Cano, “borrowed” the 35mm stock the film was shot on from a bigger budget project he’d been working on, claiming that the latter film wouldn’t miss it. Who knows what the film was, but I’m happy for their “generosity”. A good portion of TheGoodTimesKid’s success, if predicated in large part of the fact that, despite its obvious microbudget, it very much looks like “the movies” (and this is a film greatly concerned with other films, though not explicitly), having that richness and depth 16mm or DV just don’t have.

But its real ace-in-the-hole, which makes it stand out above the parade of inferior, low-budget peers, is its buoyant, ambitious orchestral score by first-time film composer Mandy Hoffman. A riot of clashing styles and loopy refrains, referencing everything from musicals to spy films to Westerns, her compositions provide vital aural clues to the “action”, which is mostly free of dialogue and, well, free of significance too, it seems. But it’s also just a lot of fun to listen to on its own, and I hope beyond hope that it somehow gets a separate release as a CD. During the Q&A following the screening, Jacobs joked that the score is bigger—both bigger in budget and more ambitious—than the film itself, but I think he’s right.

TheGoodTimesKid

Because very little seems to really happen in TheGoodTimesKid. The film is such a purely cinematic experience, that any attempt at summarizing it would be both a disservice and probably impossible. The “story”, if there is one, centers around a waify girl named Diaz, as she navigates between two men with the same name; her troubled boorish boyfriend Rodolfo Cano, and an unassuming schlub who lives on a houseboat, also named Rodolfo Cano. The two Rodolfos cross paths at an Army recruitment office, and the second Rodolfo eventually ends up at a a birthday party Diaz has thrown for her boyfriend, which the first Rodolfo has stormed out of.

Rodolfo 2 and Diaz wander through the night together searching for Rodolfo 1, eventually ending up back on Rodolfo 2’s boat and giggling together in the dark as his ex-girlfriend shows up, hollering and swearing at him. The next morning, Diaz looks like she is going to run away with Rodolfo 2, but inexplicably, he takes Rodolfo 1’s place on the Army bus that pulls up, and, well, that’s that.

It doesn’t sound like much. In fact, it doesn’t sound like anything at all. And maybe it’s not. But channeling early Godard, early Jarmusch, and maybe even Chaplin (TheGoodTimesKid almost works as a traditional silent film comedy, albeit with that wonderful score), Jacobs summons a good deal of the vitality, oddness, and spirit of fun that seems to have been lost in independent film lately. Scenes arise and flow into one another naturally, even though they are seemingly random and unconnected. The connections are in the grammar of cinema itself, in the accretion of the underground histories of new wave movement.

There’s an innocence here, a purity, that burns off any apparent pretension. In a way, TheGoodTimesKid reminded me strongly of Paul Thomas Anderson’s similarly sui generic Punch-Drunk Love. Both films move to odd rhythms that seems born out of the very lifeblood of cinema; primordial and inchoate. But they’re only odd-seeming because we’ve been trained to ignore if not loathe such innocent stylization.

Hannah Takes the Stairs

Hannah Takes the Stairs (dir. Joe Swanberg)
Speaking of loathing, if the walkouts during the screening I saw are any indication, Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs may be on the “right” track, as well. A loose, totally handheld shot collection of improvised scenes of white 20-somethings yakking at each other in inanities and faux philosophical ruminations, hooking up, making out, getting naked in the tub, and bleating out the “1812 Overture” on trumpets, Swanberg’s film is likely to confuse and irritate as many people as it excites. Count me among the latter.

Along with cowriter and player Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation), Swanberg is one of the key figures in a nascent movement of amateur indie film hearkening back to American indie roots of Cassavetes, and, yes, back to French New Wave, as well. A revival of amateurism for its own sake, these films are shot in an affected verite style, usually on grainy, hand held cameras, hewing almost dogmatically to a dedication to formless improvisation, letting the actors take the film where they will, script or story be damned. It’s a style that favors the mundane, the inane, the non-sequitur.

The film moves not so much to its own rhythm as to no rhythm at all. It is herky jerky, tedious, mostly drama free, entirely dependent on the whims and talent of the actors (amateurs all). And yet, I can’t see any of these as faults—Bujalski’s films are two of the most exciting and hopeful American indie films I’ve seen in years, and now I’d couple Hannah Takes the Stairs with them. But though I find these films especially refreshing, I wonder how long they can keep this up, since really, they are almost making the same film over and over again. The names change, the situation is always different, but there is eventually a sameness to their execution.

Hannah Takes the Stairs

Your reaction to Hannah Takes the Stairs and the other films in this “movement” (I have a feeling Swanberg and Bujalski might blanch at the thought of being the ringleaders of any such thing) is not based so much on your tolerance for naval-gazing, self-involved hipsters, as it is for a type of cinema that is deliberately, unapologetically uncinematic; a style that eschews narrative, character, development and focus, in favor of the immediacy of the mundane, of those lost moments that you never see in other movies, those moments you could probably call “real life”, if such a thing is possible in a narrative film.

And though TheGoodTimesKid and Hannah Takes the Stairs couldn’t be more different in conception, style and execution, there are these connecting tendrils of a strident defiance of convention, of this total faith in the surface non-sequitur, a seeming senselessness that really only masks the deeper connections and traditions flowing beneath their surfaces.

Hannah Takes the Stairs Trailer HannahTakestheStairs.com

Boston Globe

2007-05-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

"The GoodTimesKid"

"Written and directed by co-star Azazel Jacobs (son of legendary avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs), this low-fi comedy bounces off the festival circuit and lands with a lovely little splat. It's one day in the life of three hapless Los Angelenos: two men named Rodolfo Cano (Azazel and Gerardo Naranjo) and the free spirit who bounces between them (Sara Diaz). Very rough, very funny, with sensibilities derived equally from Chaplin, Jim Jarmusch, and the Gang of Four." -- Ty Burr BOSTON GLOBE

Boston!

2007-04-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

The GoodTimesKid will screen at the Independent Film Festival of Boston

Thursday April 26 - 10:15pm Somerville Theatre in Davis Square
Saturday April 28 - 8:00pm Somerville Theatre in Davis Square

From Salon

2007-01-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

Salon.com

"The GoodTimes Kid": The ultra-indie '80s spirit lives on!
Just a footnote to New Yorkers, urging you to catch Azazel Jacobs' second feature, "The GoodTimes Kid," during its brief run this week. A zero-budget L.A. filmmaker somewhat in the vein of Jacques Rivette or the early Godard or the early Jarmusch (OK, a lot in the vein of the early Jarmusch), Jacobs is building a small but growing cult following, and is about as close to being an underground hero as you can get in the 21st century.

Jacobs himself plays a slacker idiot named Rodolfo, who abandons his wry, cute, long-legged girlfriend (Sara Diaz) to a near-silent sailor who has exactly the same name as him, and who has crossed his path at an Army induction ceremony. (Don't ask, because I can't really explain it.) Rodolfo No. 2 (Gerardo Naranjo) moves through the film in a nearly silent state of rumpled, Chaplinesque dignity, even as Diaz's character dubs him "Depresso," performs a beautiful Converse-sneaker soft-shoe routine for him, and then beats him up for following her.

Those two take a bus ride and spend the night on a boat, where Rodolfo No. 2's psycho girlfriend shows up, the one who has spray-painted "FUCK YOU I HATE YOU CALL ME" across his door. Then they go back home, where Diaz (character and actress have the same name) smashes Rodolfo No. 1's favorite punk albums and draws a mustache on the sleeping girl he's brought home. That's really about it; it's plenty. "The GoodTimes Kid" has a whimsy, a passion, a sophistication and, above all, a vigor that's mostly drained out of Amerindie cinema over the last decade or so. (It plays at Anthology with "Two Wrenching Departures," an experimental feature by avant-garde film pioneer Ken Jacobs, who is Azazel's father.)

"The GoodTimes Kid" is now playing at Anthology Film Archives in New York. Other engagements may follow.

-- By Andrew O'Hehir

more reviews

2007-01-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

some other good ones

TV Guide

Time Out NY

Self-Reliant Filmmaking

Village Voice

NY TIMES!

2007-01-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOVIES January 17th 2007

A Father and a Son Tell Their Own Tales of Love and Loss

By MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

Azazel Jacobs's unexpectedly beguiling romantic comedy,

"The GoodTimesKid," opening today at the Anthology Film

Archives, boasts a 77-minute running time that's maybe 10

percent dialogue. The remainder is spent watching alienated

characters - a young woman named Diaz; her boyfriend,

Rodolfo; and another man who's also named Rodolfo - drift

through a deadpan-surreal city while remaining lost in their

own heads.

The wisp of a plot finds the first Rodolfo (a spiritually

battered bohemian played by Mr. Jacobs) mistakenly receiving

a letter ordering him to report for military induction.

Report he does, partly to escape his sweet but suffocating

girlfriend, Diaz (the daffy knockout Sara Diaz), and partly

because he's afflicted by the same comic paralysis as the

rest of the characters and is desperate to make a big

decision (or any decision).

At the same induction, the even more existentially

shellshocked second Rodolfo (played by the actor and

filmmaker Gerardo Naranjo, who has Hector Elizondo's gentle

eyes and 1970s Warren

Beatty hair) hears his own named called, sees the

first Rodolfo stand up, keeps his trap shut, follows the

first Rodolfo home, observes his exit from the relationship

and then walks right into Diaz's life.

Diaz is O.K. with this; within minutes of meeting the

second Rodolfo, she nicknames him "Depresso" and dances in

the kitchen like a Max

Fleischer cartoon character to a vinyl recording of

"I Can't Give You Anything But Love."

Shot in ripe color on 35-millimeter film stock reportedly

stolen from a Hollywood production, and featuring a Mandy

Hoffman score that suggests Nino Rota music

performed by an orchestra that's being gradually digested by

a boa constrictor, "The GoodTimesKid" finds poetry in

wordless scenes of observation: Diaz destroying her ex's

records, pausing to glance at the liner notes; the first

Rodolfo drunk in a pub, baiting a gang of toughs while clad

in a leather helmet, boxing gloves and a cape made from an

American flag; Diaz and the second Rodolfo gazing frankly at

each other in a coffeeshop while an off-screen television

plays a soap opera.

Mr. Jacobs's approach is descended from a long line of

minimalist filmmakers, from Jac ues Tati ("Monsieur Hulot's

Holiday") up through Jim Jarmusch

("Mystery Train"), but "The GoodTimesKid" dances, like Diaz,

in its own sweet style. It doesn't get to the point because

getting there is the point.

Also having its premiere at the Anthology Film Archives

is "Two Wrenching Departures," a video version of a 1989

experimental feature by Mr. Jacobs's father, the filmmaker

Ken Jacobs.

Designed as an elegy for two of Ken Jacobs's friends, the

cameraman and co-director Bob Fleischner ("Blonde Cobra")

and the performer Jack Smith ("Flaming Creatures"), it dices

up black-and-white footage taken when the men attended night

school at the City University of New York in the late 1950s,

reprinting and repeating individual frames and breaking them

up with stretches of blackness. The resultant stutter-step

effect suggests an attempt to seize time and live forever in

the moment.

TWO WRENCHING DEPARTURES

Opens today in Manhattan.

Directed and edited by Ken Jacobs; director of

photography, Mr. Jacobs. At the Anthology Film Archives, 32

Second Avenue, at Second Street, East Village. Running time:

90 minutes. This film is not rated.

THE GOODTIMESKID

Opens today in Manhattan.

Directed and edited by Azazel Jacobs; written by Gerardo

Naranjo and Mr. Jacobs; directors of photography, Mr.

Jacobs, Eric Curtis and Mr. Naranjo; music by Mandy Hoffman;

produced by Sara Diaz, Georgina Garcia Riedel and Ernesto

Garabito. At the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue,

at Second Street, East Village. Running time: 77 minutes.

This film is not rated.

*************

KEN & AZAZEL JACOBS screening together in NEW YORK CITY JAN 17th-23rd!

2007-01-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

Ken & Azazel Jacobs

at the ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
January 17th-23rd

Please come see:
Azazel Jacobs 2nd full length film:

The GoodTimesKid

A story about stolen love and stolen identities, shot on stolen film.
Starring Diaz & Gerardo Naranjo

The GoodTimesKid
dir. Azazel Jacobs
35 MM 77 min.
2006
SHOWTIMES:
Wednesday, January 17 to Friday, January 19 at 7:00

Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 5:00 & 9:00

Monday and Tuesday, January 22 and 23 at 7:00

to learn more about the film and see clips & trailer go to: www.goodtimeskid.com

The ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES is located at 32 Second ave. (at 2nd st) telephone: (212) 505-5181

Ken Jacobs Nervous System piece:

TWO WRENCHING DEPARTURES

Starring Jack Smith & Bob Fleishner

Two Wrenching Departures
dir. Ken Jacobs
b&w video, 90 min
2006
SHOWTIMES:

Wednesday, January 17 to Friday, January 19 at 9:00

Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 7:00

Monday and Tuesday, January 22 and 23 at 9:00

to learn more about Ken Jacobs and his work go to: www.starspangledtodeath.com

The ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES is located at 32 Second ave. (at 2nd st) telephone: (212) 505-5181

GoodTimesKid in New York City

2006-11-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

The GoodTimesKid will be having a weeks run at the Anthology in New York City, along with a film of my father's, Ken Jacobs "Two Wrenching Departures" starting January 17th. More info will follow..

Drama/Mex at AFI fest

2006-11-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

Monday Nov 6th at 7 pm
Tuesday Nov 7th 12:30 pm
at the ArcLight Theater 12

HALLOWEEN CAL ARTS SCREENING

2006-10-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

The GoodTimesKid screening
at Cal Arts October 31st
7 pm in the Bijou Theater

Poster try

2006-07-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

credit goes to Gerardo for this marketing attemp-

Depresso in Cannes

2006-06-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Maine Int. Film Festival

2006-06-27T09:17:00.001-07:00

Saturday 07/15/2006: 9:30 pm
Wednesday 07/19/2006: 3:30
get tickets and more info

after Brooklyn

2006-06-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

A great response off of IMDB
"A beautiful movie that escapes the tyranny of words, 5 June 2006

Author: jorjny from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Just saw this at the Brooklyn Film Festival. What a great film! Very entertaining. Unusual and unconventional as a film, but not because it is trying to be.

I don't know how this was shot on a small budget. It is visually near perfect. It's beautiful but not in a gratuitous way. The visual beauty of the film and the perfection of the shots are exactly in line with the story being told.

Another reviewer has mentioned that the people in this film seemingly fail to say or do things that one would expect them to say or do in real life. It is definitely true that the people in the film completely fail to say or do things that they would say or do in a typical movie. I'm not so sure about in real life. By the end of the movie you understand what has been happening, to some extent, in the hearts of the characters and this accounts for their not trying to fill in the gaps in the information held by each other. During the film you are expecting people to say things that they fail to say, but by the end of the movie you realize that it could have happened just like it was filmed. The dialog that does take place sounds exactly like unscripted everyday speech.

This movie certainly doesn't look or feel like a Terrence Malick film, but watching it reminded me of a review I read when Malick's "Days of Heaven" first came out. The review claimed that "Days of Heaven" was the first movie ever made that was truly a movie and in no way a book set to pictures. The words didn't come first, either as a storyline or later as dialog. The dialog in "Days of Heaven" fades in and out and sounds like eavesdropping most of the time. And any storyline would necessarily say only a fraction of what the movie says.

"The Goodtimes Kid" doesn't duplicate Malick's feat of simultaneously painting a portrait of individual human hearts and an entire era. (Probably only films set in the past can do that.) But it does succeed in the same way as a Malick film in being a work of art that escapes the left brain tyranny of the internal narrator. The characters are all at loose ends and driven by their emotions and so aren't trying to construct a logical life plan at this particular point in their lives. And the director doesn't intervene and impose an external structure for the sake of the audience.

The film has a plot, but the plot turns on completely visual events. By a completely visual event I mean something that you really need to see to catch the meaning of, and that the left brain would be completely at a loss to show, (although not to *describe*).

An example of this is one wonderful scene where the heroine of the movie performs a short impromptu dance (one of the best dance scenes you'll see in a recent movie). I won't spoil it by going into too much detail, but what the character is wearing and the type of music that is playing, and the type of dance she does all serve to cause a motive for another character's decision later in the film. And since we are standing in that other character's place, we feel the same motive, and understand.

By the way, by saying that the film has a plot, I hope I'm not providing a spoiler.. this isn't one of those aimless slice-of-life depictions of colorful characters. This movie tells a story.

Great soundtrack too, go see it if you can (hope it makes it to theaters) and give your right brain a treat. Entertaining because of the mastery of the visuals and the way it tells a story in so relentlessly nonverbal a way, but also because it has something to say to the human heart."

Hello Brooklyn!

2006-05-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

The GoodTimesKid
A story about stolen love, stolen identities, shot on stolen film.

screening SUNDAY JUNE 4th at 9:30 pm
at the Brooklyn Film Festival
purchase tickets http://wbff.org/showtimes/day.asp?day=3

festival located at Brooklyn Museum - 200 Eastern Parkway - Brooklyn, NY 11238
Please come and check it out, your support will be super appreciated!!
and please forward to friends.

Depresso is happy

2006-04-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Gerardo Naranjo, star of The GoodTimesKid, will have the world premiere of his new feature film "DRAMA/MEX" in this years Critics Week at CANNES!
Well done Depresso!
Read about it HERE

2006-01-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

Thank to Robert Koehler of Variety for putting The GoodTimesKid in the Special Mention for best films of 2005 in his WORLD category.

Variety Review

2005-11-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

The Goodtimeskid
By ROBERT KOEHLER VARIETY 11/18/05

Minimalist to the max, Azazel Jacobs' second feature, "The GoodTimesKid" emerges as an absurdist and nearly wordless urban dance between two men and a woman over 24 hours in Los Angeles. Building his dry comedy out of a basic confusion of names, an Army recruitment slip and one man's curiosity, Jacobs creates a droll, meandering and defiantly uncommercial film that will have distribs shaking their heads, but is sure to pick up an underground following and the interest of forward-looking fests hungry for fresh American creations.

Pic's early moments, following Rodolfo (Jacobs) as he rises from bed and ignores g.f. Diaz (Sara Diaz), then leaves their ramshackle Echo Park house, suggest countless other Yank indie films about lonely and disconnected young people in domestic situations. But when another fellow -- also named Rodolfo (co-writer Gerardo Naranjo) -- also wakes up in his houseboat in Marina Del Rey, matters begin to revolve in odd and unpredictable ways.

Both men report to an Army recruiting office -- though it could be that Naranjo's Rodolfo (call him Rodolfo II) was wrongly notified. In any case, Jacobs' shaggy, bored and volatile Rodolfo I signs up, leaving Rodolfo II in confusion. He follows Rodolfo I from the recruiting office, and eventually, back home, where Rodolfo II meets Diaz.

Rodolfo II, having lost track of Rodolfo I, now has a new object of curiosity in Diaz.
The threesome follow and intersect paths with each other through the night and early dawn, and the film works a certain fascination on the viewer, as Jacobs is able to juggle his expression of love for the films of Chaplin, Rivette and Aki Kaurismaki along with a light-hearted application of sustained silences and barely articulated behavior. And just as Rodolfo II and Diaz appear on the verge of a new adventure, an unexpected turn leaves "The GoodTimesKid" on an oddly right final note.

Jacobs, son of pioneer film avant-gardist Ken Jacobs, shares his father's taste for droll silent sequences where men play games, and even wrestle, with one another, but the son's interest in narrative (albeit stripped-down) and beautifully wrought 35mm color compositions also sets him apart. Naranjo (helmer of "Malachance"), Diaz and Jacobs play three shades of doe-eyed sadness, with Jacobs liable to burst into sudden violence and the limber Diaz sometimes resembling a Latina Olive Oyl.

Made with a tiny crew on a micro budget, pic looks terrific save for a nighttime beach scene between Rodolfo II and Diaz that's far too dark. Mandy Hoffman's eclectic score adds considerable texture, though what little dialogue there is is only barely audible.

PREMIERE

2005-10-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

The GoodTimesKid will premiere in Los Angeles at the AFI Film Festival
screenings are
November 12th, Saturday at 6:30 pm
November 13th, Sunday at 2:15 pm
please buy tickets and get more info at the AFI website

The GoodTimesKid

Berlin

new review

Screening Party tonite!

more

Dvd out today - new reviews

Blog Critic

GoodTimesKid DVD August 11th

Release announcement

Benten Films and Watchmaker Films Announce International Partnership

in Cleveland!

Virginia

Victoria Film festival

IFC's Top ten at Sundance

Sam Rockwell - "Choke"

Amy Adams - "Sunshine Cleaning"

Colin Farrell - "In Bruges"

Seu Jorge - "The Escapist"

Kelly Macdonald - "The Merry Gentleman"

Peter Sarsgaard - "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"

Winona Ryder - "The Last Word"

Summer Bishil - "Towelhead"

Ken Jacobs - "Momma's Man"

Naomi Watts - "Funny Games"

another Best Of 2007

NY POST Dec 30, 2007

AND THE BEST FILMS OF 2007 ARE . . .

Total Love

A young man's film with an old soul

Pittsburgh

Raindance

Love Letter

semi-weekly film recommendation

My Guitar Hero!

Time Out Chicago

Chicago

Chicago screening 16th of August

New-ish

Best of 2007 so far

an interview with Depresso

Screenings

next screenings..

GoodTimesKid and Hannah Takes The Stairs

Jake Meaney

[1 June 2007]

Boston Globe

Boston!

From Salon

more reviews

NY TIMES!

KEN & AZAZEL JACOBS screening together in NEW YORK CITY JAN 17th-23rd!

GoodTimesKid in New York City

Drama/Mex at AFI fest

HALLOWEEN CAL ARTS SCREENING

Poster try

Depresso in Cannes

Maine Int. Film Festival

after Brooklyn

Hello Brooklyn!

Depresso is happy

Variety Review

PREMIERE