Strangers with Candy (2005)

A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year-old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her life over.

Director:

Paul Dinello

Writers:

Stephen Colbert (series Strangers with Candy), Paul Dinello (series Strangers with Candy),

Stars:

Amy Sedaris, Paul Sedaris, Stephen Colbert

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Amy Sedaris	...	Jerri Blank
Paul Sedaris	...	Bus Driver
Chandra Wilson	...	Inmate
Kristy Thomas	...	Inmate
Dee Finley	...	Inmate (as Dee Finely)
Deborah Rush	...	Sara Blank
Ian Holm	...	Dr. Putney
Dan Hedaya	...	Guy Blank
Joseph Cross	...	Derrick Blank
Elisabeth Harnois	...	Monica
Alexis Dziena	...	Melissa
Ivette Diaz Dumeng	...	Melanie
Carlo Alban	...	Megawatti
Greg Hollimon	...	Principal Blackman (as Gregory Holliman)
Hechter Ubarry	...	Nico

Storyline

Forty-seven year old Jerri Blank is a socially unaware ex-con junkie alcoholic prostitute. After being released from her latest stint behind bars, Jerri wants to clean up her life and decides the best way to do so is to go home, where she left thirty-two years earlier when she began her depraved life. She arrives home to find that her mother has died, her father has remarried a much younger woman, and her father fell into a stress induced coma in part because she disappeared. She takes that cleaning up her life one step further when Dr. Putney, her father's doctor, tells her that he may emerge from his coma if life were to return to the way it was before she left, but better as she has to make her father proud. So she decides to go back to her old high school, Flatpoint, to get her high school diploma. She quickly decides the best way to be the best student possible is to participate in and win the state science fair. In her quest, she gets caught up in the competing agendas of: ...

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Plot Keywords:

prequel | school | high school | loser | based on tv show | 

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Taglines:

High school is difficult... for a 47-year-old ex-con junkie crack whore.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, language and some drug material

Details

Official Sites:

Roberts/David Films, Inc. Silverstar Productions [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 2006 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

De vuelta al 'insti'

Filming Locations:

Bayonne High School - Avenue A & 28th Street, Bayonne, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$43,141 (USA) (30 June 2006)

Gross:

$2,068,323 (USA) (15 September 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Comedy Central Films, Roberts/David Films, Worldwide Pants

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

David Rakoff's character Boswell is named for Samuel Johnson's biographer James Boswell.

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Quotes

Jerri Blank: I'm just having some cruel fun at your expense! Jeez, I thought you people had thicker skins than that. You know, fighting those tigers in the jungle and all.
[pauses]
Jerri Blank: Why doesn't anybody like me?

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Connections

Follows Strangers with Candy (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Float On"
Performed by The Floaters
Written by James Mitchell Jr., Marvin Lee Willis and Arnold Darnell Ingram
Published by Songs of Unviersal, Inc.
Courtesy of MCA Records, under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Jerri Blank, recently released from prison returns home and re enrolls in high school in an attempt to pick up where she left off thirty two years earlier.

Anybody in search of sophisticated comedy should avoid this movie like the plague. However, if you're a fan of blue comedy and belly laughs,"Strangers with Candy" is the one for you. The film like the short lived Comedy Central series is filled with cynical takes on adolescence, high school, family life and sex.If you're a fan of the show, the first glimpse of Jerri's hideous face will give you a serious case of the giggles immediately. She's the ultimate outsider, a real troll who says what the rest of us were afraid to say to the A-list kids in high school. The scene of Jerri's revenge on a student attempting to leave a "gift" in her locker will elicit laughter and some vicarious pleasure from all those who ever suffered the torments of bullies. Even when people try to victimize Jerri, they take a chance of being dragged down to her level of depravity, an irony not lost on fans. "Strangers with Candy" is a wacky look at a time in life that most of us would prefer to forget but the humor ranging from the elliptical to the scatological will make high school a lot more fun this time around. I haven't been in a theater with that much laughter since I saw "Animal House" in 1978. The ninety minute length of the film keeps the gags from getting stale.