Reviews & Ratings for
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11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
A superb comedy with verve, 7 April 2003

Author: Aristides Trifilio (Aristide) from Houston, Texas

What a refreshing, well-written movie is the comedy New Suit. Talented fresh faces backed by solid veterans comprise a very able cast. The clever shooting was done in digital 24P a la George Lucas with fine results -- The framing, colors and scenes are quite lovely. This magnificent send-up of Hollywood is a delight to behold... Quite amazing considering its modest $1 million budget. New Suit is an excellent comedy and a fantastic tonic for the mediocre drivel that the big studios distribute. This movie is obviously the work of a great team -- it's a winner.

8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
I loved this film!, 21 April 2003
Author: (TinaBrandis) from Los Angeles

I was in New York and saw this film at the GenArt festival. I didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised with this smart comedy. With the kinds of movies the studios are releasing, it's refreshing to see such a well made, fun and entertaining indie film. The characters are hilarious, with an especially funny depiction of a desperate Hollywood producer by Dan Hedaya. The audience loved it and I was glad I got to see the film.

6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Smart, fast-paced and goofy, 5 March 2002

Author: Dory Owen (doryo@aol.com) from Madison, WI

I just saw this film screened in Aspen, CO last week. Had no expectations (I walked into the wrong screening room!) and loved this movie. I wish I knew when/if it will be released so I can tell my movie-loving friends to see it.

I have seen plenty of trite comedies (you too?) so when something unique comes along it really grabs me. Interesting visual effects, great comic acting, groovy music, colorful sets, snappy dialogue, swift pacing, a plot that was complex enough to keep surprising me without totally confusing me. All the actors are "characters" -- except maybe the lead actor. Initially, I was afraid the the "back-stabbing ex-girlfriend" would be just like every other nasty bitch you've ever seen in the movies -- but despite her selfishness and lack of ethics, I found myself liking this perky blonde schemer. I also worried that the hero would be to perfect, too squeaky clean. Not quite.

Unlike some other "behind the scenes in Hollywood" films, New Suit doesn't suggest that Hollywood is evil. These B.S. artists are really driven by a fear of failure or of looking like failures. So you feel a little sympathetic even as you laugh at these clowns trying to cover their hind ends and puff themselves up. And that's not just a Tinseltown syndrome.

For techies: I heard this movie was 'filmed' in high definition digital video using the same "24p" (24 frames per second) technology that George Lucas used for the new Star Wars movie.

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
If you like your movies funny & smart, this one's for you., 20 February 2002

Author: karma90036 from Los Angeles, CA

I came to a screening of NEW SUIT with a friend, and I was just blown away. I knew nothing at all about it beforehand, and afterwards I was just happy. It's kind of a feel-good satire. It's kind of like "The Player" and "Swimming With Sharks" but with more jokes, and snappier dialogue than "Swimming With Sharks" and no dead bodies. It's more fun and not as dark as those movies. I recommend seeing this one strongly. You won't regret it. The story itself sounds deceptively simple. Guy comes to Hollywood. He wants to be a writer and he ends up with a lame job as an assistant. He's really not happy. He plays a trick on his friends and tells them that there's a new script they have to read called "The New Suit" by a guy called Jackson Strawberry. The joke is that there is no script and no author. Very quickly, those friends tell their friends, and it runs out of control very quickly.

Soon everybody's talking about "The New Suit" and this mystery writer. It gets to a point where people are trying to buy this fake script. I won't spoil the ending, but it's really unexpected.

I said that it's deceptively simple, because there's a lot going on here. First of all the movie is fast. It moves very quickly. The dialogue and characters are sharp, and nasty and absolutely dead-on hilarious. the movie never stoops to cater to the lowest common denominator. you've got to pay attention because things start to happen so quickly and the movie doesn't explain everything. You've got to figure it out. New Suit has a great look. I saw it projected in a wide-screen format and it was really rich. I recognized some of the actors (Dan Hedaye), but all of them were fantastic - across the board. The two leads (Marisa Coughlan and Jordan Bridges) were very charismatic. They were familiar to me but this movie really shows their capabilities. There's also Paul MCrane from ER. And you'll be surprised by his performance. And Heather Donahue from The Blair Witch Project has a supporting role, and she proves herself here. Dan Hedaye is raw and sleazy and scary here - an excellent performance as good as anything I've seen him do. But really, the acting is solid here. The music was very cool. Editing is quick. Its well-directed, but I did get dizzy at one point (you'll see what I mean). But mostly you're just going to laugh. Some of the jokes are set up way in advance and I had to laugh out loud, and I never do that. The dialogue was just sharp and youve met all of these characters before. I did get a little confused at one point and I will say that the movie starts out like a typical Hollywood story, and you feel like you've seen this before, and then it kicks in and surprises you. Overall you leave the theater feeling good. It's a fully-realized satire and I strongly recommend it. If you like your comedy with a brain, you'll like it a lot.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A silly insider look at getting a movie made., 1 May 2003
Author: PJoseph73 from Hollywood

New Suit, which opens tomorrow, I had the chance to see on the Fox lot last year. Having been around and developing several screenplays, I can honestly say that this film looks to have been written by someone who has gone through some of the exact same things.

While certainly some of the comedy falls short, because comedies aren't easy to do, Jordan Bridges plays a pretty good "new guy" just starting out in the biz who has high hopes, yet are dashed by how he sees that films are really picked.

Most ' angry film students' who lived in fantasy land, like I once did, won't really appreciate the humor because they are dealing mostly with the microcosm of film school where they can do what they like (like the previos reviewer). That said, I do think that much of the films humor may be lost on a non-industry crowd, so I don't know where this film's future lies. Needless to say, I enjoyed it. (The side characters of the junior executives is dead on.)

Certainly photographed and cut like any other comedy released by a major studio, New Suit may not leave a big mark on anyone, but it's worth a look.

pJ

4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
more than just another funny movie about Hollywood, 23 April 2003

Author: sondikroeger from united states

We all the know the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes"...of course the first time we heard it in Elementary School, the most fascinating part was that the guy walked through town naked. With age comes (some) sophistication. I'm talking about my experience screening a hilarious new independent film called "New Suit", based roughly on the old story, but set in modern Hollywood. I was fascinated by this film's ability to be so funny, yet so suspenseful at the same time. Just who will be the one (symbolically) naked in the end? The answer here will surprise you. I love Independent film. Like a growing number of people, I'm sick to death of being spoon-fed the latest studio comedy. On the other hand, there is also a small, but vocal group in Hollywood coming straight out of film school with plenty of disdain but no real ideas or experience for making a difference in Independent film. Happily, New Suit is a TRUE Independent film - a small movie with a clever script and unique characters, played by likeable actors that you recognize, but aren't sick of - and ultimately you get the feeling that there is a small group of talented filmmakers here having fun making us laugh.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Hip, smart and thoroughly enjoyable..., 28 April 2003
Author: mcseymour from Los Angeles

As self-confessed movie addict, I'd thought I'd seen it all -- but the new indie feature NEW SUIT still managed to impress me. Gorgeously filmed in the new digital 24P (the same technique used by George Lucas for the new Star Wars), NEW SUIT is reminiscent of other hip, fun movie satires like Swimming With Sharks, Living In Oblivion or even LA Story. This one, directed by Frenchman Francois Velle, is deliciously sharp and wickedly dark. Perhaps it takes an outsider to truly see through the gauze of the Hollywood dream factory. Smartly written, beautifully edited, finely acted and backed by a snazzy, peppy soundtrack, NEW SUIT is almost flawless as this French director's crossover English-language debut. As Hollywood hopeful Kevin Taylor, Jordan Bridges is both down-to-earth and likeable. Like his father Beau, he seems set for a very solid movie career. This kid has decency written all over him and is gorgeous to boot. The rest of the cast are equally charismatic, from Marisa Coughlin as beautiful aspiring agent Marianne Roxbury to Dan Hedaya as fearsome CEO Muster Hansau (even the names are hilariously on the nose). Mark Setlock and Heather Donohue (of Blair Witch fame) provide a wonderful comic due as Muster's put upon development executives, driven entirely by fear. Donohue, in particular, reminds one of a young Catherine O'Hara and one hopes she gets the chance to show off her comic talents in other movies. Screenwriter Craig Sherman even takes a cameo as the icecream man Kevin names his fictitious writer after (Jordan Strawberry).

Without giving the plot away, the bones of the story are deliciously simple. Disgusted by the game-playing and back-biting of the studio industry, Kevin takes the concept of the Emperor's New Clothes and makes up an entirely fictitious 'hot script' - just for the joy of seeing his peers squirm as they pretend to have read it. Too late, his 'joke' snowballs out of control - and even Marianne gets in on the scheme. Before she and Kevin know it, she's incited a bidding war between two rival producers, mediated by a icy, bald-domed studio head Braggy Shoot (with his own personal Feng Shui advisor) in a very funny performance by ER's Paul McCrane.

There's far too much to compliment about NEW SUIT -- it's richly layered with many, many insider jokes - and it's the kind of movie you'll want to watch a few times over to really savor all the funny details and smart/snide punchlines. NEW SUIT has the potential to be a hip cult favorite.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A slick, fast moving satire on the film industry's the holy grail: a hot script, 21 April 2003
Author: pollard_sams from United States

I saw New Suit at a student screening. The movie is a slick, fast moving satire on the film industry's the holy grail: a hot script.

This is a little movie that packs a lot into what I was told a One Million Dollar budget. The lead character, a hapless D-boy, JORDAN BRIDGES (development assistant/staff reader) stuck in a thankless job is charming and likeable from the get go. In fact, he may make a lot of the aspiring D-Boys nervous, since he has the routine down pat. The humor in the story has as tongue in cheek quality to it, and is a refreshing change from all the indie films that are trying way too hard to be "cool." Heather Donahue shows her comedy chops and is a majo, especially since her other big role was the from Blair Witch.

I may be the only one who sees this flick as a homage to CANDIDE in many ways. But, what the hell, I had a good time. The D.P, rocks, especially since he clearly had to make every shot count working on such a tight time frame and budget.

It may go down swinging, but it still goes down., 20 June 2011

Author: MBunge from Waterloo, Iowa

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

So, let's see how this film does when it steps up to the plate. It's an inside look at the mean and phony world of Hollywood where one character with integrity is beset on all sides by selfish, stupid jackasses.

Strike one.

New Suit is a comedy that barely averages one legitimate joke every 10 minutes.

Strike two.

The script has far too many characters to begin with and just keeps adding more as it goes along, while never realizing the real point of its story.

Strike three.

Kevin Taylor (Jordan Bridge) is a naïve young man who comes to Hollywood to be a screenwriter and ends up working a low level job in a film production company, the sort of job where he has to wear a tie while he fetches coffee and washes other people's cars. Even though Kevin never demonstrates talent, intelligence or virtues of any other kind, the audience is clearly supposed to identify with him and lament the implied unfairness of his circumstances. I say implied unfairness because nothing bad every happens to Kevin and he's not show to be mistreated in any way.

One day, out of bored and self-righteous spite at being the only person he knows who is not a grasping lemming, Kevin dreams up a screenplay and a mysterious author to make fun of how Hollywood people reflexively lie and can never admit they don't know something. This non-existent script and writer become an overnight sensation with everyone in show business wanting a piece of them, something Kevin's ex-girlfriend Marianne (Marisa Coughlan) uses to advance her own career. Eventually, those two get the past-his-prime head of Kevin's production company in a bidding war against an old rival to buy the illusionary script, with a studio executive emerging out of nowhere to take the side of Kevin's boss. The whole thing ends with a triple fake out where Kevin tries to tell the truth, it turns out not to matter and then that turns out not to matter to Kevin.

Ever since The Player, there's been a slew of films like New Suit and for every one of them that got made, there's got to be another dozen or two scripts written in the same vein. This basically has become the plot that every struggling writer in Hollywood turns to and that every self-loathing producer tries to make at some point. In fact, New Suit assumes you've already seen the story before, glossing over the same clichéd ground so quickly and perfunctorily that it's more like an outline than a script. I mean, it can't even be bothered to show Kevin's transformation from hopeful author to indifferent wage slave. It simply introduces him, throws him in bed with Marianne, then jumps forward 18 months and the viewer is automatically supposed to know and dread what that year and a half was like.

This is also one of those comedies that can't be bothered to tell jokes. Now, a film doesn't have to throw a gag at you every 15 seconds like an assembly line sit-com, but there needs to be some humor coming from somewhere. These characters, however, say and do very little that's funny. Maybe if you're in the movie business, you might smile knowingly at things you see in New Suit that resemble stuff from your real life but that's it. Without that frame of reference, the viewer is left with no set up, no punch line, no nothing.

The multitude of overlapping and redundant roles in the script is sort of the rancid icing on the rotten cake. Kevin and Marianne are sort of essential, but why does Kevin have three separate doucebag friends working similar jobs to his? Why does he have not one but two immediate bosses at the production company? Why does the movie have to throw in an older writer for Kevin to bond with? If this tales is meant to be about Kevin, why is his faded producer boss not enough of an adversary/obstacle for him to overcome? Why is the studio executive introduced above and beyond the producer, squeezing Kevin's two immediate bosses off the stage for the final act? It's like writer Craig Sherman came up with New Suit in segments, using different characters to tell each individual part of the story, and never bothered to look at what happened when all those parts were hooked together.

Worst of all is that this is supposed to be a take off on The Emperor's New Clothes about how image is all that matters in Hollywood, even when people know that image is all it is. But the real point of this production is that it's guys like Kevin who are the real mover and shakers in Hollywood. That's because, as they're portrayed here, guys like Kevin are the only people in town who ever have to know anything. All the higher ups rely on guys like Kevin to give them the information they need, unwittingly trusting everything they are told. That's the reason the whole fake script takes off and might have been the premise of a much better and funnier movie.

Unless you're a struggling drone in the film industry and want to see some poorly conceived wish fulfillment on screen, there's no need to try on New Suit.

1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Deserving of Its Obsurity, 22 June 2006

Author: aimless-46 from Kentucky

If you have not seen the film and are looking at the generally positive (if limited in number and possibly associated with the production) comments about "New Suit", you must be puzzled about why this independent film was not picked up for theatrical release.

A movie about a struggling screenwriter in Hollywood who sells a screenplay without having a real script! Sounds like "The Big Picture" and "Office Space" (but trust me - "New Suit is not nearly as funny). Also sounds like another of those situations where an actual screenwriter had so little real life experience that the only thing he could write about is the movie business.

So they take an old concept from "The Emperor's New Clothes", "As Young as You Feel", or "Being There" and change the setting to Hollywood; partly because it's the only world they know anything about, partly because it lends itself to super cheap production design, and partly because those in "the business" are subject to a conceit that those outside the business are just dying to see a detailed examination of Hollywood workplace dynamics. Kevin Taylor (Jordan Bridges), an aspiring screenwriter by night and a lowly assistant to a producer (Dan Hedaya in a good supporting performance) by day, invents a writer named Jordan Strawberry (a Baskin Robbins employee and the flavor Keith orders) and an unseen script titled "New Suit". His agent and sometimes girlfriend (Marisa Coughlan) cleverly parlays it into something everyone must have, with producers bidding millions for the rights to produce it. You have to suspend disbelief a little here but Coughlan's manipulations are pretty convincing.

Now if this is starting to sound like something with extremely limited viewer appeal I haven't mentioned the worst part. Just as things are getting fun and you begin to identify with the two schemers, Kevin changes his mind and confesses rather than take advantage of the situation. So instead of being able to get off on the situation and have some vicarious glee, the viewer is subjected to an extremely tired lecture on morality and personal integrity (as if anyone actually believed this story was anything more than a satirical fantasy). And they wonder why these things lose money.

A word about Marisa Coughlan, this is the third of her films I have seen ("Pumpkin" and "Teaching Mrs Tingle" were the others). All three were lousy films made watchable by her performances-"New Suit" was the best if only because it was her biggest part. Coughlan strikes me as a actress who brings 200% to the set each day and whose performance must be restrained by the director rather than motivated-a problem that directors wish they had to deal with all the time. Hopefully she will get work in some decent ventures soon because she more than deserving.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

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