Happy Birthday, Harris Malden (2008)

Directors:

Juan Cardarelli
Benjamin Davidow

Writers:

Juan Cardarelli (written by)
Benjamin Davidow (written by)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Harris Malden has a secret. He fakes his facial hair.

Plot:

It's early July in Philadelphia. Childhood trauma has its hold on Harris Malden: he has no facial hair...

Plot Keywords:

Sweaty | Mustache | Fake Moustache | Birthday | Character Name In Title

Cast

Nick Gregorio	...	Harris Malden
Eric M. Levy	...	Paul Levine
Juan Cardarelli	...	Melvin Malden
Brigitte Hagerman	...	Susan
Susan Slatin	...	Grams Levine
Benjamin Davidow	...	Dusty the PA
Csaba Lucas	...	Frederic
Matt Walsh	...	Bobby Framer
Blaze Gregorio	...	Gerard
Vincent Peone	...	Pay None Customer
Christina Rose	...	Elsa
Rosy Muto	...	Ursula
Elaine Carroll	...	Tina
Dmitry Kushnir	...	Derek
Gene Foschini	...	Hank the Butcher

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Trivia:

One scene in the film had to be re-shot almost ten months after "Happy Birthday, Harris Malden" wrapped production due to an unfortunate "desktop cleanup" accident. Sweaty Robot chooses to keep the actual scene a secret, as it blends seamlessly.

Charmed my socks right off.

This is a great little indie film.

Heard about it from a friend on Facebook and decided to buy it on iTunes because the trailer looked funny.

Was very pleasantly surprised. It's wasn't anything like I was expecting; Stella-esquire absurdest humor meets zany group comedy a la Super Troopers, but was actually a lot closer to The Baxter or even Punch Drunk Love.

But much more subtle. Which may or may not be a good thing depending on the viewer. I love those aforementioned films, but they draw a line, where-as this one I could see being much more a crowd pleaser for a wider audience.

It is real quirky, but not for the sake of being quirky (like so many indie comedies are these days), and there's more than enough story to keep even those w/o the right sense of humor engaged.

In fact, I think the biggest surprise for me was that the story and the dependency themes were actually the thrust, rather than the comedy. But it is incredibly funny. Plenty of laugh out loud moments, and a whole lot of smirks and smiles in between.

Last but not least, the film creates it's own world, and that to me is generally the mark of good storytelling meeting good craftsmanship. Yes the lead character has a fake mustache, but it's believable in the world they've created, just like the Jaguar Shark is real in the world Wes Anderson creates in the Life Aquatic, etc.

Between this and On The Road With Judas, I got a real treat streak going on iTunes right now.