The FP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The FP

Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
  • Christian Agypt
  • Brandon Barrera
Screenplay by
  • Jason Trost
  • Brandon Trost
Story by Jason Trost
Starring
Music by George Holdcroft
Cinematography Brandon Trost
Editing by Abe Levy
Studio
  • 248 Productions
  • Secret Identity Productions
  • Trost Productions
Distributed by Drafthouse Films
Release dates
  • March 13, 2011 (2011-03-13) (SXSW)
  • March 16, 2012 (2012-03-16) (United States)
Running time 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $60,000[1]
Box office $40,557[2]

The FP is a 2011 American independent action comedy film written and directed by Jason and Brandon Trost, and starring Jason Trost, Lee Valmassy, Caitlyn Folley, Art Hsu, Nick Principe, Dov Tiefenbach, and James DeBello. It premiered on March 13, 2011 at South by Southwest, and had a limited theatrical release on March 16, 2012.

Synopsis

Two rival gangs fight for control over Frazier Park ("The FP") using a dance-fight video game called Beat-Beat Revelation. After BTRO (Brandon Barrera) is killed by L Dubba E (Lee Valmassy) during a match, BTRO's younger brother JTRO (Jason Trost) retreats from The FP. A year later, The FP is in ruins, and JTRO is forced to return.[3]

Cast

Production

Frazier Park, California, where The FP was filmed.

The film's name comes from Frazier Park, California, where the Trosts grew up. Jason Trost got the idea for the film when he was 16 and played Dance Dance Revolution. He saw "how ridiculously into it people get," and thought of treating it "like some blood sport, like kickboxing or something." All of the character names were based on Jason's friends, and it was filmed on their father's property. Much of the profanity used in the film is pulled from what costume designer Sarah Trost would hear at parties. She designed the costumes around various influences, including Elvis Presley, Rocky, and the American Civil War.[4]

Release

The FP premiered on March 13, 2011 at the South by Southwest Film Festival.[5] It was later screened at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal, Canada on July 30,[6][7] the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Lund, Sweden on September 22,[8] and the Cinefamily theater in Los Angeles, California on February 25.[9] It began its limited theatrical run in the United States on March 16, 2012.[9]

Box office

The film was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films on August 1, 2011, one day after its premiere at Fantasia Festival.[7][10] The film grossed $22,571 in 28 theaters during its opening week, averaging $806 per theater. The following week, it dropped to nine theaters and grossed $9,314. In the remaining five weeks of its run, the film grossed $7,979, for a total domestic gross of $40,557.[11]

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 48% approval rating with an average rating of 5.2/10 based on 23 reviews.[12] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 48 based on 11 reviews, considered to be "mixed or average reviews".[13]

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a positive review, calling it "deadpan hilarious, a shameless satire of every teen gang, future-shock dystopian nightmare movie - combined with a brutal send-up of 8 Mile."[14] Tom Keogh of The Seattle Times gave the film 2½ out of 4 stars, saying that it "is short on outright laughs but laced with caustic perversity" and that "it's easier to appreciate the movie's overall novelty than to find fresh humor in it."[15] Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying that it was "awash in silliness" and its "goofy heart and soul" makes it a "potential cult-movie masterpiece,"[16] and Angela Watercutter of Wired called it an "instant cult classic", noting its similarities to Rocky, The Karate Kid, and 8 Mile.[1] Shawn Levy of The Oregonian gave the film a "B", praising its "eccentricity" and stating that "it's very hard not to admire its zealous commitment to its ethos."[17] In a mixed review, Peter Debruge of Variety praised Brandon Trost's camerawork, but reported that the film "plays its boilerplate premise with endearing earnestness, but runs thin in no time."[18] Matt Hawkins of Kotaku called it a "legit goofball comedy" and praised the fact that it "speaks to gamers without flat-out insulting them."[19] Michael Phillips, writing for the Chicago Tribune, gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, saying the film had a "funny idea" but only a "sometimes funny execution."[20]

Conversely, Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club gave the film a "C+". He noted the influences of John Carpenter, The Warriors, The Road Warrior, and A Clockwork Orange, but criticized Jason Trost's performance and called the film "a junky, disposable lark, created for a midnight audience to swallow, belch, and forget about the next morning."[21] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine gave it 1½ out of 4 stars, calling it a "humorless void" and a "wannabe cult hit."[22] Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe gave it 1 out of 4 stars, saying that the film was "neither obliviously dreadful enough to be "so bad it's good," nor intentionally tongue-in-cheek enough to be funny."[23] Christy Lemire of the Associated Press echoed this opinion, giving it 1 out of 4 stars, and saying the film is "just plain bad -- and boring, and repetitive" and that "as comedy, it just feels numbing."[24] In a more lukewarm review, Max Nicholson of IGN stated the film "is by no means the worst thing [he's] ever seen", but that it "should have been a three-minute sketch on Funny or Die."[25] Andy Webster of the New York Times said "its bargain-basement production values and lack of wit unexpectedly prove a greater liability than an asset,"[26] while Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times reported that it "so desperately wants to be cultishly admired [...] that it forgets to be genuinely offbeat or funny."[27]

In response the film's criticism, Brandon Trost expressed his opinion that many audiences "don't get that it's a comedy." Jason Trost said that the film is passionately loved or hated, and that he "never heard from somebody, ‘Eh, it’s OK.’" Sarah Trost called several negative online comments "funny."[1]

Home media

The FP was released on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, video on demand, and digital download on June 19, 2012 by Image Entertainment. It features a making-of featurette, interviews with costume designer Sarah Trost and composer George Holdcroft, audio commentary by Jason and Brandon Trost, and a special edition collector's booklet with an introduction by Rob Zombie, Brian Taylor, and Mark Neveldine.[28]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Watercutter, Angela (March 15, 2012). "Instant Cult Classic The FP Does It for the LuLz". Wired. Retrieved February 6, 2014. 
  2. ↑ "The FP (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 1, 2014. 
  3. ↑ "The FP - Drafthouse Films". Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Retrieved February 4, 2014. 
  4. ↑ Carey, Anna (March 19, 2012). "Makers of ‘The FP’ discuss inspiration for their surreal film". The Daily Californian. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  5. ↑ Hall, Jacob (March 14, 2011). "'The FP' SXSW Review: Silly, Filthy and Utterly Unique". Moviefone. AOL. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  6. ↑ Sandwell, Ian (August 1, 2011). "Player one, start". Screen International. EMAP. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Stevens, Caitlin (August 1, 2011). "Drafthouse Films picks up THE FP". Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  8. ↑ "Today’s movies – Thursday". Lund International Fantastic Film Festival. September 22, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Savage, Sophia (January 30, 2012). "Trost Brothers' 'The FP' Premiering February 25 at Cinefamily; Drafthouse to Widen Release March 16". Indiewire. Snagfilms. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  10. ↑ Stewart, Andrew (August 1, 2011). "Drafthouse Films picks up "The FP"". Variety. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  11. ↑ "The FP (2012) - Weekly Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  12. ↑ "The FP (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  13. ↑ "The FP Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  14. ↑ LaSalle, Mick. "'The FP' review: a shameless satire". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  15. ↑ Keogh, Tom (March 15, 2012). "'The FP': a mad mashup of fierce footwork". The Seattle Times. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  16. ↑ Savlov, Marc (March 16, 2012). "The FP - Film Calendar". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  17. ↑ Levy, Shawn (March 15, 2012). "'The FP' review: ganglords of the dance". The Oregonian. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  18. ↑ Debruge, Peter (August 13, 2011). "Review: ‘The FP’". Variety. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  19. ↑ Hawkins, Matt (March 19, 2012). "The FP: The Kotaku Movie Review". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved February 4, 2014. 
  20. ↑ Phillips, Michael (March 23, 2012). "'The FP' a riff on gang warfare wagged via dance-off". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 6, 2014. 
  21. ↑ Tobias, Scott (March 15, 2012). "The FP". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved February 4, 2014. 
  22. ↑ Schager, Nick (March 11, 2012). "The FP Review". Slant Magazine. Retrieved February 4, 2014. 
  23. ↑ Gilsdorf, Ethan. "The FP movie review". The Boston Globe. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  24. ↑ Lemire, Christy (March 21, 2012). "Review: Hip-hop dance parody `The FP' is whack, yo". Associated Press. Boston.com. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  25. ↑ Nicholson, Max (March 16, 2012). "The FP Review". IGN. Retrieved February 1, 2014. 
  26. ↑ Webster, Andy (March 15, 2012). "A Gang War in the Future - ‘The FP’ Sets Out to Parody ’80s Sports Films". New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  27. ↑ Shirey, Eric (March 19, 2012). "'The FP' Out of Sync With Critics, Audiences Groove Along". Yahoo! Movies. Yahoo!. Retrieved February 3, 2014. 
  28. ↑ Gallagher, Brian (June 14, 2012). "The FP Blu-ray and DVD Debut June 19th". MovieWeb. Retrieved February 6, 2014. 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.