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Strangers with Candy

  • 20052005
  • RR
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
5.9/10
8.2K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Amy Sedaris in Strangers with Candy (2005)
Home Video Trailer from Think Film, Inc
Play trailer2:25
2 Videos
28 Photos
  • Comedy

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 restart her life.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 restart her life.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 restart her life.

IMDb RATING
5.9/10
8.2K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Paul Dinello
  • Writers
    • Stephen Colbert(series Strangers with Candy)
    • Paul Dinello(series Strangers with Candy)
    • Amy Sedaris(series Strangers with Candy)
  • Stars
    • Amy Sedaris
    • Stephen Colbert
    • Paul Dinello
Top credits
  • Director
    • Paul Dinello
  • Writers
    • Stephen Colbert(series Strangers with Candy)
    • Paul Dinello(series Strangers with Candy)
    • Amy Sedaris(series Strangers with Candy)
  • Stars
    • Amy Sedaris
    • Stephen Colbert
    • Paul Dinello
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 79User reviews
    • 45Critic reviews
    • 57Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos2

    Strangers with Candy
    Trailer 2:25
    Strangers with Candy
    Strangers with Candy
    Trailer 2:25
    Strangers with Candy

    Photos28

    Carlo Alban and Amy Sedaris in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Stephen Colbert in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Stephen Colbert in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Amy Sedaris in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Amy Sedaris in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Paul Dinello in Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Stephen Colbert at an event for Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Chris Pratt, and Amy Sedaris at an event for Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Chris Pratt at an event for Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Chris Pratt at an event for Strangers with Candy (2005)
    Amy Sedaris at an event for Strangers with Candy (2005)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Amy Sedaris
    Amy Sedaris
    • Jerri Blankas Jerri Blank
    Stephen Colbert
    Stephen Colbert
    • Chuck Nobletas Chuck Noblet
    Paul Dinello
    Paul Dinello
    • Geoffrey Jellineckas Geoffrey Jellineck
    Paul Sedaris
    • Bus Driveras Bus Driver
    Chandra Wilson
    Chandra Wilson
    • Inmateas Inmate
    Kristy Thomas
    Kristy Thomas
    • Inmateas Inmate
    Dee Finley
    • Inmateas Inmate
    • (as Dee Finely)
    Deborah Rush
    Deborah Rush
    • Sara Blankas Sara Blank
    Ian Holm
    Ian Holm
    • Dr. Putneyas Dr. Putney
    Dan Hedaya
    Dan Hedaya
    • Guy Blankas Guy Blank
    Joseph Cross
    Joseph Cross
    • Derrick Blankas Derrick Blank
    Elisabeth Harnois
    Elisabeth Harnois
    • Monicaas Monica
    Alexis Dziena
    Alexis Dziena
    • Melissaas Melissa
    Ivette Dumeng
    • Melanieas Melanie
    • (as Ivette Diaz Dumeng)
    Carlo Alban
    Carlo Alban
    • Megawattias Megawatti
    Greg Hollimon
    • Principal Blackmanas Principal Blackman
    • (as Gregory Holliman)
    Hechter Ubarry
    • Nicoas Nico
    Allison Janney
    Allison Janney
    • Aliceas Alice
    • Director
      • Paul Dinello
    • Writers
      • Stephen Colbert(series Strangers with Candy)
      • Paul Dinello(series Strangers with Candy)
      • Amy Sedaris(series Strangers with Candy)
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    46-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 is to return to the home and family she left 32 years earlier to embark on her depraved life. When she gets there, her mother has died and her father has married a much-younger woman and fallen into a stress-induced coma in part because she disappeared. She takes the cleaning-up-her-life one step further when her father's doctor tells her that he might emerge from his coma if life could return to the way it was before she left, only better: she must make her father proud. So Jerri returns to Flatpoint High 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: Principal Onyx Blackman, who needs a winning science fair team so as not to have to return discretionary school board funding, which he obtained through fraud and which he has since misappropriated; science teacher Chuck Noblet, a married born-again-Christian closet homosexual who tries quietly (or not so quietly) to win back the affections of his lover, Geoffrey Jellineck, the sensitive art teacher; and Roger Beekman, the winning teacher of the past nine science fairs whom Blackman brings into Flatpoint as a ringer, much to Noblet's chagrin. Jerri must also also keep her focus on the end goal of her father, which might not be easy for a socially-unaware middle-aged libidinous junkie prostitute who wants to be one of the popular kids, and do it with the big man and the innocent virginal girl on campus. —Huggo
    • black comedy
    • absurd comedy
    • parody
    • satire
    • hot
    • 21 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Taglines
      • Going to high school for the first time is always scary... Especially the second time around.
    • Genre
      • Comedy
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated R for sexual content, language and some drug material
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      David Letterman jumped on board as a producer because he said that Amy Sedaris is one of the few people in this world that can actually make him laugh.
    • Goofs
      When Geoffrey leaves Noblet's classroom with the sign up sheet and mug, he is seen next in the hallway with only the sign up sheet for the science fair that he posts on the bulletin board.
    • Quotes

      Geoffrey Jellineck: You pushed me away!

      Chuck Noblet: I wasn't pushing you away, I was pulling me toward myself.

    • Crazy credits
      Over credits cast dance in silhouette before breaking through the paper screen.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Superman Returns/Monster House/The Devil Wears Prada/Strangers with Candy/Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
    • Soundtracks
      Pink Deville
      Written & Performed by Paul Rothman

      Courtesy Extreme Music Library USA ASCAP

    User reviews79

    Review
    Top review
    6/10
    Amy Sedaris' Borat-Level Transformation Only Goes So Far in a Fitfully Funny Comedy
    What remains remarkable in the translation from Comedy Central TV show to mainstream feature film is Amy Sedaris' complete lack of vanity in replaying her comic alter-ego, the aptly named Jerri Blank, a 47-year old ex-con who decides to return home after a lengthy prison term and finish high school. The original concept for the three-season cult series was a fun idea full of possibilities, satirizing the high-minded seriousness of the ABC Afternoon Specials in the 1970's by having the hapless Jerri learn some significant life lesson after going through some humiliating situation. Probably a disappointment to dedicated fans of the show, the 2006 movie is really no different except the paper-thin plot feels dragged out to its eighty-minute length (wisely cut from its 97-minute length in theaters). It has the additional burden of feeling repetitive of the series without providing much more in the way of texture or complexity.

    Director Paul Dinello (who plays effete art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck), along with co-writers Sedaris and Stephen Colbert (who plays closeted science teacher Chuck Noblet), uses the opportunity to fill in a bit of Jerri's back story in coming back to the family home and dealing with her father's comatose state. According to kindly Dr. Putney, the only cure lies with Jerri's efforts to do her father proud by winning the school science fair. Of course, the easily misdirected Jerri wants to be part of the in-crowd, in particular, getting horizontal with Brason, the school's hunky squat-and-thrust champion. This consequently means turning her back on her science project team, the Fig Neutrons, which includes Tammi, Jerri's best friend and object of Sapphic desire, and Megawatti, the Indonesian geek who has an unexplainable crush on Jerri. Lots of hijinks ensue until the inevitable conclusion, including the insertion of several star cameos - Allison Janney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as bickering school board members, Sarah Jessica Parker as self-absorbed grief counselor Peggy Callas, Ian Holm as Dr. Putney, Dan Hedaya as Jerri's comatose father; and Kristen Johnston as a wheelchair-bound coach. Matthew Broderick actually has a bigger role as Noblet's adversary, the preening Roger Beekman.

    Much of the TV series cast is here as well with Colbert the standout as the blustery, uptight Chuck who secretly yearns for Geoffrey, who spurns him to be Roger's idea man. For most of the time, it is fitfully funny if only because the scabrous screenplay takes no prisoners in its approach. Consider this the comic flipside to "Sherrybaby" with plenty of familiar elements from "Carrie" and "Napoleon Dynamite" thrown in for good measure. But most of all, it is a tribute to Sedaris' Borat-like transformative skills as a comic actress. The 2006 DVD has a commentary track by Sedaris, Colbert and Dinello, and although they are obviously having a good time together, much of that rapport surprisingly does not translate well for the viewer. There are eighteen minutes worth of deleted scenes, most understandably excised though interestingly, it looks like Parker's counselor was the chief victim of the cuts. Also included are the theatrical trailer (another case of a promising trailer that's a lot funnier than the movie itself) and a music video for Delano Grove's "Atomic Car".
    helpful•14
    7
    • EUyeshima
    • Feb 2, 2007

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 21, 2006 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • De vuelta al 'insti'
    • Filming locations
      • Bayonne High School - Avenue A & 28th Street, Bayonne, New Jersey, USA
    • Production companies
      • Comedy Central Films
      • Roberts/David Films
      • Worldwide Pants
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $3,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,072,645
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $43,141
      • Jul 2, 2006
    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,254,124
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 37 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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