Out of Time

2 days till release.
Crap review in Time Out. The reviewer didn't get the film. You're meant to be terribly British about bad reviews & take them on the chin. If you make films you have to have a very thick skin. But this really pisses me off. You work on a feature film for 3 years, take immense financial & personal risk, staking everything on getting your film out there. Because you know people will want to see it & will enjoy it.
How do we know this? Because we've watched it on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood with execs from Paramount & Dreamworks in the audience, and 500 people loved it. Our screening was busier than the screening of Transamerica next door which had all four Desperate Housewives in attendance.
Then some bloke watches a DVD, doesn't get it & tells Londoners his opinions. I've got no probs with people not liking the film. That's life. I've never really liked Time Out. I've also got no probs with bad reviews which are insightful & intelligent. The LA Weekly reviewer trashed us, saying "no can do", explaining this kind of indie film didn't work for him. You've got to ride these hits.
My problem is that this is lazy reviewing. The Time Out reviewer writes that "it's unfunny to the point of becoming tedious". Has he actually watched the same film? We didn''t make The Gigolos as a comedy. But it is funny. At every screening we've been to - from Sunset Blvd to Dinard in France to Cambridge & London - audiences really enjoy the film and laugh.
The critic ends by wondering how Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant "would have spun this meaty set-up"... I love their work, but how many feature films have they written, produced, directed and performed in themselves, having raised all the cash to do it?
More respect please!
More respect for the audiences who watch the film and do laugh. Why don't they get to review the film for Time Out?
Fortunately we have a really sexy ad in Time Out which will more than make up for it.