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Funny Scripts and Funny Actors Make Funny Pictures, 19 August 2003
Author: Joe Coughlin ([email protected]) from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
"Jane White is Sick and Twisted" isn't the easiest film to describe. I guess the best way I've so far been able to articulate is that it's like the theme song the the old MTV game show "Remote Control":
Kenny was unlike the other kids REMOTE CONTROL TV mattered, nothing else did... REMOTE CONTROL Girls said yes and he said NO! Now he's got his own game show!
Yeah, it's kind of like that, except Kenny is a teenage girl and she didn't get her own game show. Oh, and Wil Wheaton is in it. But the quizmaster of 72 Whooping Cough Lane manages to make a pretty interesting movie.
See, Jane White is a teenage girl who is obsessed with TV. This is apparent from the imaginative opening sequence featuring parodies of more than a few TV show opening credits. She aches to be on her estranged father's talk show which is pattered after Jerry Springer. Jane, a naive sort, decides to become a closet transvestite prostitute so she can earn her way onto the Gerry Show.
Jane White is played by the uber-cute Kim Little with hyper-energy and just the right sort of sparkle. She's able to convince the audience that she really does live in this TV dream world and it helps the film tremendously. Otherwise it would be little more than an obscure TV reference festival. She also makes you like Jane. The script by itself doesn't really make you want to like her, but Kim Little helps you like her.
Wil Wheaton plays her boyfriend Dick. Jane loves Dick because she thinks he's a serial killer. Dick loves Jane because they both have braces and she gives him money to save his car, Betsy. Wil obviously has a lot of fun playing the over-the-top character. This is some of the best work I've seen him do. Anyone, who with full knowledge of how silly he looks, wears the wig he wears in this film deserves my respect.
Jane and Dick's relationship is really what drives this picture. Both of them are quite insane, but for different reasons. Jane lives her life in TV reruns and Dick...well, Dick has a major problem with people going to the bathroom in the desert due to a tragic deer in the desert accident. You know, that old chestnut.
The rest of the cast is filled with cameos by various TV stars of yesteryear and improv superstars of today. You'll see Debra Wilson (MAD TV), Maureen McCormick (The Brady Bunch), Alley Mills and Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years), Eric Lutes and Andy Lauer (Caroline in the City), David Lander (Laverne and Shirley), Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood (Whose Line is it Anyway?) and Dustin "Screech" Diamond (Saved By the Bell). Each cameo is a little surprise when it happens and adds quite a bit to the TV references in the film.
The music to this film is tremendously important to its impact. I know I was singing the "Jane White Show" theme after the credits. The songs, although by different artists, sound stylistically similar and add to the stylized atmosphere of the film.
"Jane White is Sick and Twisted" is a hilarously fun retarded "Bonnie and Clyde" adventure ride through TV. It's a lot of fun and lends itself well to repeat viewing. I got quite a few references on the first go, I'm sure I'll find a lot more on the second. If you're a classic TV fan like me, then you'll want to get yourself a copy of the film.
The DVD contains several fun extras including inteviews with the cast and a commentary track with the director David Michael Latt, Kim Little and castmember Chris "MTV's Singled Out" Hardwick.
The Good
-Kim Little and Wil Wheaton. Little is wonderful as the naive yet headstrong Jane White. Wheaton shows us just a little of what he can do when given a chance.
-Colin Mochrie has a standout cameo performance as Mr Barney, the not gay (okay, but like pinky's worth of gay) customer of Jane. He knocks his scenes out of the park.
-The Music. When no one is saying anything, the music says it for them. It, too, is loaded with references to pop culture and is well matched with the action on screen.
-Dick's monologue about the tragic (yet, in retrospect hilarious) death of his father and Jane's final words about setting a course for adventure.
The Odd
-Wil Wheaton in claymation. How long before this gem is sold on eBay?
-Screech in drag. 'nuff said.
-It's a full length movie about television. Ironic yes, but I like it, too. (I'd love to see this as a TV show...something along the lines of a Fernwood 2-Night, maybe?)
The Funny -There are several throwaway reference that made me smile in recognition. For example, Mr Barney lives on 704 Hauser Street. So did Archie Bunker.
-Kids who swear. C'mon, you know you laugh, too!
