I Love Your Work (2003)

Director:

Adam Goldberg

Writers:

Adrian Butchart (writer)
Adam Goldberg (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

The film follows fictional movie star Gray Evans through the disintegration of his marriage, his gradual mental breakdown...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Mental Breakdown | Fame | Obsession | Movie Star

Cast

Marisa Coughlan	...	Jane
Judy Greer	...	Samantha
Shalom Harlow	...	Charlotte
Jared Harris	...	Yehud
Joshua Jackson	...	John
Nicky Katt	...	Goateed Man
Jason Lee	...	Larry Hortense
Franka Potente	...	Mia Lang
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Gray Evans
Christina Ricci	...	Shana
Vince Vaughn	...	Stiev
Elvis Costello	...	Himself
Eric Siegel	...	Phil
John Tottenham	...	Jett Trask
Dan Bucatinsky	...	The Director
Randall Batinkoff	...	Frat Brat Date Rapist
Rick Hoffman	...	Louis
Lake Bell	...	Felicia
Kathleen Robertson	...	Swoop Journalist
Anna David	...	ET Interviewer
Rio Hackford	...	Dorian
Pat Healy	...	Connor
Sam Rubin	...	Newscaster
Beth Riesgraf	...	Swoosh Photographer (as Beth Riegraf)
Holly King	...	Panties Girl
Haylie Duff	...	Frat Brat Girlfriend (as Hailey Duff)
Josh Janowicz	...	Subway Boy 1 (as Josh Jenowitz)
Ari Welkom	...	Subway Boy 2
Jandi Swanson	...	Eager Fan
Julian Fischer	...	Guy on Bike
Clark McCutchen	...	Photographer
David Alan Graf	...	Zoo Policeman
Bob Sattler	...	Policeman
Alex Schaffel	...	Another Officer
Daniel Cage Theodore	...	Officer #3
Patricia Belcher	...	Dr. Fein
Glenn Campbell	...	Paparazzi
Adrian Butchart	...	Narcissist
Roberta Hanley	...	Katie's Korner Host
Jason Bacher	...	The Blow Up Band
Emma Kathan	...	The Blow Up Band
Mitchell Cichocki	...	The Blow Up Band
Nate Farringer	...	The Blow Up Band
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Todd Fjelsted	...	Subway Stalker (uncredited)
Kaiwi Lyman	...	Artist (uncredited)

Directed by
Adam Goldberg

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Adrian Butchart		writer
Adam Goldberg		writer

Produced by
Serena Brosio	....	co-executive producer
Charlie Clour	....	co-executive producer
Daniel Diamond	....	executive producer
Jay Firestone	....	executive producer
Yoav Fisher	....	co-executive producer
Adam Goldberg	....	producer
Adrienne Gruben	....	consulting producer
Chris Hanley	....	producer
Al Hayes	....	executive producer
David Hillary	....	producer
Christina K.Y. Lee	....	associate producer (as Christina Lee)
Damon Martin	....	executive producer
Clark McCutchen	....	associate producer
Joshua Newman	....	producer (as Josh Newman)
Timothy Wayne Peternel	....	producer (as Tim Peternel)
Jeff Rice	....	executive producer
Kate Roughan	....	associate producer
Douglas Salkin	....	associate producer
Terry Spazek	....	consulting producer
Colin Spoelman	....	co-executive producer
Chad Troutwine	....	executive producer
Boro Vukadinovic	....	executive producer
Gary Michael Walters	....	executive producer
Laura Warner	....	co-producer
Michael Williams	....	co-executive producer
Douglas Wroan	....	co-executive producer (as Doug Wroan)

Original Music by
Steven Drozd
Adam Goldberg

Cinematography by
Mark Putnam

Film Editing by
Zachary Bell		(as Zack Bell)
Adam Goldberg
John M. Valerio

Casting by
Shannon Makhanian

Production Design by
Erin Smith

Art Direction by
Todd Fjelsted
Erin Smith

Set Decoration by
Erin Smith

Costume Design by
Dawn Weisberg

Makeup Department
Uli de la Lama	....	key makeup artist
Michelle Rene Elam	....	key hair stylist (as Michelle Torres)
Holly Elkjer	....	assistant hair stylist
Mikal Sky	....	makeup artist
Jay Viola	....	hair dye
Alexis Walker	....	assistant makeup artist

Production Management
Michael Williams	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jasmine Alhambra	....	second assistant director
Nicholas Lee	....	first assistant director
Kyle Lemire	....	additional assistant director
Adam Rehmeier	....	second unit director
Matthew A. Thomas	....	second second assistant director

Art Department
Chris Eguia	....	property master
Kevin Gilbert	....	on-set dresser
Kerry Gould	....	scenic
Randy Hoffman	....	scenic
Amy F. Hutchinson	....	scenic
Samuel L. Kopels	....	scenic
Henri Lubatti	....	scenic
Brian Mallman	....	scenic
Mary Jean Mallman	....	scenic
Mary Beth Ramsey	....	additional on-set dresser
Naomi Schenck	....	set dresser
Robert Sobul	....	swing
Patricia Viayra	....	scenic
Jason Wahler	....	set dresser
Chandler Wood	....	storyboard artist
Chandler Wood	....	swing

Sound Department
Gary Alexander	....	supervising sound re-recording mixer
Christopher Eakins	....	sound effects editor
Dennis Grzesik	....	sound mixer
John Marquis	....	sound designer
John Marquis	....	supervising sound editor
Monica Ruiz	....	sound assistant
Christopher Sheldon	....	supervising sound editor
Pablo Solorzano	....	adr recordist
Pablo Solorzano	....	foley recordist
Stacey A. Washer	....	boom operator
Andrew Troy	....	post-production sound (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Christopher Dusendschon	....	digital imaging supervisor: iO FILM (as Christopher Dusendschön)
Chris Ervin	....	open title sequence
Adam Hawkey	....	lead compositor: iOFilm

Stunts
Pee Wee Piemonte	....	stunt coordinator
Daniel Cage Theodore	....	stunt performer

Camera and Electrical Department
Steve Alcala	....	second assistant camera (as Steven Alcala)
James Amos	....	best boy grip
Jeremy Brussell	....	key rigging grip
Dan Chavkin	....	still photographer
Brian Christie	....	grip
Justine Ariel Cook	....	grip (as Justine Cook)
Kyle Drevlo	....	best boy grip (as Kyle Drevio)
Cory Foster	....	electrician (as Corey Foster)
Jordan Garretson	....	best boy grip (as Jordon Garretson)
Chris Goe	....	key rigging grip
Michael E. Gonzales	....	first assistant camera (as Michael Gonzales)
Michael E. Gonzales	....	focus puller
Anthony Gotta	....	gaffer (as Tony Gotta)
Jeffrey Guziak	....	director of photography: second unit
Jarrod Heath	....	rigging gaffer
Trevor Houghton	....	electrician
Miki Janicin	....	grip (as Mickey Janicin)
Jennifer Lai	....	assistant camera: second unit
Katya Lidsky	....	still photographer
Gary Lowrance	....	grip
James Mann	....	grip
Maggie McGraw	....	camera loader
Matt Michaels	....	best boy
Dara Norman	....	best boy electric
Simon Oliver	....	Steadicam operator
David Ortkiese	....	electrician
Bradley Patrick	....	still photographer
James R. Powell	....	assistant camera: second unit (as Jim Powell)
Caleb H. Poynter	....	electrician (as Caleb Poynter)
Kate Quinlan	....	still photographer
Rod Reyes	....	grip
Daniel Roemer	....	videographer
Aaron Schulte	....	grip
Jacob Solima	....	best boy rigging grip
Michael Steffen	....	grip (as Mike Steffen)
Deron Tse	....	electrician
Rick Tucker	....	best boy rigging grip
Miranda Turin	....	still photographer
Alpheus Underhill	....	grip
Tim Wattez	....	grip
Matt Wilbur	....	key grip
Andreas Wood	....	Steadicam operator
Rachel Wyn Dunn	....	additional camera operator (as Rachel Dunn)
Rachel Wyn Dunn	....	crane operator (as Rachel Dunn)
Tony Magaletta	....	second assistant camera: "b" camera (uncredited)

Casting Department
Jennifer Goldstein	....	casting associate
Bill Marinella	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Christina Afferholder	....	costumer
Rachel Carr	....	seamstress
Debbie Peiser	....	costume assistant
Kate Quinlan	....	wardrobe supervisor
Joanna Smith	....	wardrobe intern

Editorial Department
Adrienne Gruben	....	post-production
James Haygood	....	additional editor (as Jim Haygood)
Dan Muscarella	....	film color timer
Douglas Salkin	....	post-production

Music Department
John Marquis	....	additional music editor

Transportation Department
Richard Rollison	....	transportation coordinator

Other crew
Allen Barnwell	....	assistant production coordinator
Jon Bell	....	video consultant
Carrie Cantore	....	assistant location manager
David Harari	....	production assistant
Julie Landholt	....	graphic artist: titles (as J. Kathryn Landholt)
Clark McCutchen	....	production attorney
Don Napoli	....	production accountant
Kim Percival	....	production coordinator
Chris Phillips	....	production assistant
Amanda Roberts	....	assistant production coordinator
Tracy Scott	....	script supervisor
Leif Tilden	....	location manager
Elizabeth Traylor	....	production assistant
Lisa Villaire	....	set intern
Michael P. Hall	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Boyd Kelly	....	stand-in: Giovanni Ribisi (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Cyan Pictures
• Departure Entertainment
• Departure Studios
• Muse Productions
• Rice/Walters Productions

Distributors

• THINKFilm (2005) (USA) (theatrical)
• America Video Film (2003) (Non-USA) (DVD)
• Prorom Media-Trade (2003) (Romania) (all media)
• Stardis Pictures (2006) (Spain) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment  cranes and dollies
• Media Distributors Film Source  Fuji film provided by

MPAA:

Rated R for language, sexuality, some drug content and violent images.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Australia:MA | Germany:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Cyan Pictures

Movie Connections:

References The Wild Bunch (1969)

Soundtrack:

Best of Sunday

Transgression of Individuality

Gray Evans (Giovanni Ribisi) is an internationally acclaimed movie star, and so is his beautiful wife Mia Lang (Franka Potente). In a wild ecstasy of fame and alcohol, he is getting more and more unable to differentiate between fans and stalkers. His marriage starts to suffer from his obsessions. In a video store, he meets John (Joshua Jackson) and his attractive girlfriend Jane (Christina Ricci) with whom he falls in love. But she seems to be unreachable for him, because John and Jane are a happy couple. Gray even engages a detective to observe days long each step of the life of John and Jane, pretending their were stalkers. The detective delivers Gray binders of photographs, transcriptions of what they speak in their apartment and what they eat for dinner.

But this highly underrated movie is not about the film star's dream of possessing the girlfriend of someone else. It is not simply a movie about the difference of having what you want versus wanting what you have either. It goes much deeper. The film deals with the dissolving of the borders between Grey's wife Mia and John's girlfriend Jane on the one side and of Grey himself and John on the other side. It also deals with a very special kind of "imitation of life": Grey controls the life of John and Jane in order to be a part of their life, hence imitating it, fully unaware of the fact that their life is not his own. In Grey's fantasy, Mia and Jane fall together, he turns two women into one who has both the qualities of Mia and of Jane.

From the standpoint of metaphysics, the borders between subject and object are transgressed. Therefore, the logic of the story of "I love your work" does not follow classical Aristotelian logic, in which this border can only be crossed by death. One remembers R.W. Fassbinder's "Despair – A Trip into the Light", where the protagonist Hermann Hermann also abolishes the borders between him as subject and the fair-grounder Felix Weber as object. Like Hermann, Gray, too, looks at himself having exchanged his position with the position of John and having become Jane's boyfriend, so he changes the subject-object relation twice and abolishes in the end the individuality of Mia and Jane by merging them into one fictive personality. Like Fassbinder's "Despair", also "I love your work" is a trip into the light – but while Fassbinder's movie ends with showing the insanity of the protagonist in a bright alpine village, where he assumes to be a movie star, the protagonist in Adam Goldberg's movie is in fact a movie star. Like in "Despair", at the end, the police arrest the protagonist, but in Goldberg's movie it is not the sunlight in which Gray's trip into insanity ends, but the floodlights on the roofs of dozens of police cars.

Rating: 10 points.