By Ramona Flume
Writer-director Macon Blair (I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., 2017 Sundance Film Festival) returned to the Festival on January 24 with the world premiere of The Shitheads, a raucous spin on the time-honored trope of a road trip that goes off the rails.
Fast, fun, and wild in all the right places, riotous laughter was ringing out from the Library Center Theatre as a packed house rode the highs and lows of this bawdy new comedy following two mishap-prone drivers (Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who attempt to safely deliver a troubled rich kid to rehab against all odds.
“I’ve decided it’s going to be my next movie, like, four times,” Blair says about the evolution of his latest feature film. “We almost made it in 2017 and it fell apart in pre-production, so it’s had some ups and downs.” Chaffeurs/chaperones for rehab patients didn’t seem like jobs with a lot of qualifications or oversight, and Blair just couldn’t shake his interest in it as a premise for a comedy.
The character of the burnt-out slacker, Mark (Franco), was originally intended for an older actor (in his 50s), but when Blair realized Franco was interested, he shifted his script, skewed younger, and cast him as an important anchor of the film. Franco also joined on as a producer, helping to guide the film’s financing and steering Blair toward casting picks like Mason Thames (who is astounding as the sociopathic Sheridan) and, most importantly, his co-star O’Shea Jackson Jr.
“I just knew he was the guy. I knew we would have this chemistry even though our characters are at odds the entire film,” Franco says, looking to his side at Jackson during the post-premiere Q&A. The two worked together on a project five years ago and bonded over a similar sensibility that Franco knew he could play off of in this film. “We feel safe with each other. I just love you, man. And I feel that because of that we’re able to take these huge swings and do weird shit.
“Dave told me he needed me for a project and he felt like I could kill it,” Jackson remembers about Franco first approaching him for the role. “When you hear one of your friends say that, it gets personal — and you feel like you can’t let them down.”
The pair has an undoubted onscreen chemistry that spikes every scene with a one-two punch of authentic tenderness and manic energy at any given moment. “I did ask Dave, ‘Do I do anything weird?’ and he said ‘No, I do all the weird stuff,’ and I was on board immediately after that.” His character might avoid some of the more unfortunate pitfalls that Franco’s Mark endures, but Jackson exhibits an impressive amount of vulnerability and heart as Davis, providing a perfect foil for Franco throughout the film. “It was an amazing ride. I showed the most emotion I’ve shown in my career and I got the safe space to allow me to do it.”
When I found out how much went into Shitheads,” Jackson says. “I realized … you got to treat it right, you got to treat it with respect, because that’s Macon’s baby.”
An exceptional supporting cast fills out the rest of the ensemble, including Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, and Peter Dinklage, all of whom were in attendance.
Dinklage, who first met Blair at the Sundance Film Festival, says he’ll show up any time the director calls. “I was on a jury here. So, I judged Macon before I met him,” Dinklage says. “I gave him the [Grand Jury Prize Dramatic] Festival award, so maybe our friendship is a lie based on awards.” Blair concurred slyly, “It’s all payola.”
The energy in the theater embodied a classic, crowd-pleasing, “fun at the movies” atmosphere that extended into the joke-laden audience Q&A. One attendee asked Blair how he had the confidence to swivel to such extreme dark moments amid the madcap comedy.
“No one said I was confident,” Blair quipped with a deadpan expression. “But here’s the quickest way I can think to say it: When I was a kid, I got really obsessed with The Pixies. They’ve got these very soft, gentle verses and these very explosive, angry choruses and I never felt like, ‘Hey, pick a lane! Is it loud or soft?” Blair says he carried that sense of duality with him when he started writing scripts.
“I started to really like big swerves, knowing that it might not always work, but I wanted to try that instead of keeping the same vibration. … And then I did one of these,” Blair says, crossing his fingers. “And hoped it would land.”
