Back in February we noted that Polyphonic Spree maestro Tim DeLaughter had composed the score to the indie black comedy, “The Assassination of a High School President,” which played at the SXSW 2008 Film festival in March.
We also mentioned that he had already completed the score for another comedy, the upcoming film, “Visioneers” starring beloved comedian Zach Galifianakis, Judy Greer (Kitty From “Arrested Development”) and James LeGros.
Well, the trailer was just released, it looks really amazing and seems to find a fantastic home for Galifianakis’ pathetic sad/funny and deadpan sense of humor (“Howard, it’s your father… I brought home some chicken (pause) It’s delicious.”) DeLaughter’s score is suitably melancholy to fit the tone of the film which features a lugubrious Zach as an office drone who appears to loathes his uber-mundane life; it’s not unlike some of the music you’d hear coming from Jon Brion which is appropos since the Polyphonic Spree were also featured on the “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” soundtrack that Brion scored.
The film looks like its yet another indie about suburban ennui – the repressed Galifianakis seemingly plays a suburban dad with a monotonous life, a stilted marriage and excruciating tedium forces him to crack.
But, it actually has more of an odd surrealist bent and involves dreams and impending spontaneous combustion (see the Gondry-like synop below). Eventually he just goes fully off the rails. Ok, we adore the “my beawd huwts!” comedian, so we might be a little biased, but we seriously found this to be the funniest trailer we’ve seen in weeks. His delivery is just so amazing. If you’ve never seen “Zach Galifianakis: Live At The Purple Onion” do yourself a favor, stop what you’re doing and go rent it immediately (or add it to the top of your Netflix queue, stat).
The official synopsis: George Washington Winsterhammerman (Galifianakis) lives an ordinary life. He has a wife, a kid, a house, and a boat. Every day George gets in his minivan and goes to work as a Level Three Tunt with the Jeffers Corporation, the largest and most profitable corporation in the history of mankind. It is an utterly comfortable life, but when people around George begin exploding, he fears he might be next. George visits his doctor and learns that the dreams he’s been having are a symptom of impending explosion. Unfortunately, George can’t stop dreaming, and as the explosion epidemic worsens, he is forced to question the life he’s been living.
The film will get its long-awaited world premiere later this month at the Seattle International Film Festival (June 12) and then will screen again at the CineVegas film festival on June 17 (the fest runs June 12-21 at the Palms Casino) and hopefully we’ll see it in regular theaters by the end of this year. We cannot wait to see this, someone please hook us up.
Zach Galifianakis: My Beawd Huwts! (from ‘Purple Onion’)
“Visioneers” looks like it’s “American Beauty” (with explosions) as shot by the people who made “Napoleon Dynamite.”
It appears the executive producer of Napoleon Dynamite is one of the Producers on this one…very interesting.