A film that is generating a great deal of buzz with me personally and my immediate social circle (and really should be generating buzz with everyone else as well because it's a masterpiece) is Seduction Of The Wonder Dick. This movie is almost as impossible to describe as it is fun to watch. Essentially, it is a "breaking of"documentary about a feature film that doesn't exist. But it's oh so much more than that. Every few seconds, the film seems to wildly change directions, keeping the audience fascinated and entertained until it all builds to…something. Like many recent independent films, this movie is difficult to discuss without spoiling almost everything. So, rather than make any further efforts myself, I sat down with the man who wrote and directed this completely unique film, Mr. Tony Rizzo
Odd Duck Interviews: Welcome, sir.
Tony Rizzo: Thanks, really glad to be here, honored to be your first interview!
ODI: If you had to describe your movie…
TR: I wouldn't.
ODI: Fair enough.
TR: You kind of have to compare it to other things that exist. The whole clip-full documentary is slowly becoming its own genre, with movies like Room 237 and Los Angeles Plays Itself and This Film Is Not Yet Rated being popular examples. Although all three of those movies are so crazy different from one another, they get mentioned when each is discussed because people don't know how else to describe them. I'm guilty of that too. My movie actually contains clips from more movies than all three of those combined, and I think it also plays differently from any of them and uses the clips differently.
ODI: The movie is edited at such a rapid fire pace, it's sometimes hard to pin point source material before it changes to something else.
TR: Yeah, that was part of the goal. I see documentaries about movies or about anything really and they leave one clip on for an insane amount of time. Like, a full minute is way too long for a clip in most cases. After a while, at least to me, it seems like you're killing time with someone else's work. Use clips, but use them to tell your own story and put them in a unique order and so forth. Let them work for you.
ODI: Your clip sources are all over the place in terms of…well, everything.
TR: Yeah, horror movies, romantic comedies, action flicks…it all just kind of works together. Even other documentaries. Whatever footage is needed to tell the story.
ODI: If someone asked you to tell the story, how would you do it?
TR: Well, it would be odd to tell someone the story of your own movie rather than just tell them to watch it. Or ask them to watch it. Telling them to watch it sounds needlessly hostile. But basically it's a movie about movies within a movie about comic books that talks about obsession and mental illness and sexuality and Batman. And it's not for kids.
ODI: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. The movie that doesn't exist seems like it would be a G-rated flick, but this is…not.
TR: Yeah. So I'm concerned DVD is going the way of VHS with all the digital downloads the kids are doing these days, but you know how when you used to buy DVDs, the little fine print under the list of bonus features says "Bonus materials may not be rated?"
ODI: Yeah.
TR: I just love the idea of a movie whose bonus features have content that is just crazy inappropriate for the movie. Of course that would never really happen on this level. It would be messed up to put sexually explicit or violent or profane material on a kids' movie DVD, but since the kids' movie in this case doesn't exist, this is the next best thing.
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