If the past decade has taught me anything, it’s that the “Stupid Teen Movie” genre has grown at an alarming rate. With the majority of critics lambasting nearly every movie to fall into this category, Miss March arrived in theaters on March 13.
Yet, despite its faults, horrifyingly low critical reviews and an absurd premise, Miss March wasn’t all that bad. In fact, there were parts of the movie that were genuinely entertaining and others that were downright funny.
The premise of the movie is rather elementary: after waking from a coma, Eugene (Zach Creggor) and friend Tucker (Trevor Moore) embark on a cross-country journey to the Playboy Mansion after discovering that Eugene’s high school sweetheart is now the Playmate of the Month.
While on the road to every male’s fantasy, the two companions encounter a variety of challenges (including Tucker’s pissed-off girlfriend and a gang of villainous firefighters), which pave the way to the coming-of-age conclusion.
Creggor and Moore are best known for their work on the IFC show The Whitest Kids U’ Know, where their sketch comedy antics aptly prepare them for the smorgasbord of buffoonery in Miss March. Their acting is satisfyingly perfect for their roles as a couple of bumbling blockheads, which is oddly reminiscent of Dumb and Dumber.
Also making an appearance alongside Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is Craig Robinson (best known as Darryl of The Office) playing a hip-hop artist named Horsedick.MPEG (you read that correctly) who offers to drive the two across the country on his tour bus. As you might have guessed, things don’t work out so smoothly when Horsedick.MPEG reveals he’s hooked up with Eugene’s once chaste girlfriend.
In all, Miss March works hard to make you laugh, but never loses sight of its role in the movie universe as a teen comedy. Proving that sometimes you can have a blast watching stupid movies, Miss March has undoubtedly played an important role in getting the incredibly talented Whitest Kids crew into filmmaking.
I recently got the opportunity to sit down and chat with the genius minds behind the show and their new film.
Q: How much has working on The Whitest Kids U’ Know helped prepare you to write and direct feature films?
Zach: A lot. It’s been like training basically. The show is how to handle a small crew and a schedule really, and then this is like the next level with a bigger crew and a more important schedule.
Trevor: The show is even harder to direct than the movie really because we’re shooting more stuff in less time. [Doing the Whitest Kids U’ Know] is really, really helpful.
Q: The movie itself feels like there’s the one main plot and then mini sketches built on to it. Was this intentional?
T: I think the way we write can be similar to sketches. One thing we were conscious about when we were making the movie though is that we weren’t just doing a scene that didn’t move the story. We try to make sure that every sketch in this movie is actually propelling the story or showing you a little more about the characters.
Q: The show also feels like a stream of consciousness. How does that joke process differ from what you did with the movie?
Z: With the movie everything is basically like one organism; everything has to have the same DNA and has to function together. There are so many more things you have to take into account. The universe that the movie takes place in has to be consistent; you can’t have wacky events and then have something real.
Q: Are you ever surprised by which sketches catch on when you put them on the internet?
Z: “Slow Jerk” is probably our most successful sketch, I think. And that one that we were like… we didn’t think that was going to be that great; we were just trying to shoot that thing out so we could move on to another sketch that we really liked that nobody gave a shit about.
T: The gap between that one and number two and number three is huge and just for some reason that one just took off. We used to do that as a live sketch and we were like, “Yeah we can do that for the TV show,” but we didn’t think anything of it.
Q: Are there any real-life situations that help you come up with this stuff?
T: There definitely are. There have been lots of times where it’s not like the exact sketch happens, but you’re just sitting in the situation.
Q: Are you planning on releasing another album?
T: We’re supposed to. We want to. We just haven’t had time because of the movie.
Q: You’ve been called by some to be the Shakespeares of modern sketch comedy…
Z: I know! That’s so great!
Q: …and by “some” I mean “me”…
Z: That was going to be my question.
Q: …How do you respond to that?
Z: I don’t think that’s accurate.
Q: Is there ever going to be an unrated cut of the film?
Z: I’m sure, but that’s up to the studio. Honestly I can tell you right now that everything we shot that we wanted is in the movie. There’s not a shot that the censors were like, “You can’t do it!” They might put in some scenes that were trimmed that haven’t gone before the MPAA to say it’s “unrated” but that’s how all those unrated DVDs are.
Q: Are you guys planning on making a movie with Darren and…
Z: Yeah we’re working on it now. We’re finishing up a script for a Whitest Kids film. I think it’s’ going to be really good.