On the Road with Judas

This is not one of my twenty-seven favorite films, but it really is worth the watch.

Having-a-plot-line wise, "On the Road with Judas" is a bit lacking, but it is cohesive with the way it was made and was intended to be. See, instead of the basic book-to-movie adaptation, the film suggests that the book (written by writer/director J.J. Lask) has already been made into a movie, and a lot of the footage is interviews with the "actors" in the "movie," as well as the "real" people whom the book was "based on". A little confusing, but it works.

The "double-life" description really doesn't do the film justice.

What was really interesting was the director Q&As afterward (I saw it as SIFF), for it ends up that J.J. Lask (who played the interviewer in the movie) had each of the actors read his book, and then he interviewed them, in character, improv-style. The rest of the movie was written afterward, based on what they said in the interviews.

Also, Aaron Ruell is just adorable.

Just watched a Sundance showing with an appreciative audience, On Jan 23rd in Park City. The theater was crowded with a 20 something crowd eager for something different. What they got was a confusing but compelling work which blends documentary style with dramatic insight. Touching, funny and twisted themes will keep the audience puzzled but engaged. The author and director JJ Lask has taken his well received book and created a screen play that works well in the Sundance arena but may be difficult to sell to a broader audience. Great performances, original writing and editing make this otherwise hard to watch film worth the effort. The score was dense with original and contemporary work.

On The Road With Judas was a gem of a film, using an interesting device of stories within stories, of a book's characters, the screen version characters, the writer's vision, all looped together around a talk show host's coverage of the writer and his works. To really enjoy this unusual method of storytelling, relax and wait for it to start making sense—it will, if you pay attention—all the way to the end.

This unique story centers on two boys in high school learning thievery for fun, and then as adults perfecting techniques and becoming thieves as an avocation to supplement their entrepreneurial business. Their business crew is clever and hardworking. The ensemble cast played well together, lead by Aaron Ruell and JJ Lask himself. Judas is small and smart, his best friend tall and more noticeable, which lands him in prison, "temporarily". Lask adds in a girl for a peek at how socially numb Judas reacts, to mix things up.

The entire film worked, on many levels, including the acting, cinematography and editing. JJ Lask, Writer/Director of this film adaptation of his 2002 novel, whipped up a fascinating and elegantly fashioned bit of intellectual explorations. Quite witty and relevant. Ben Starkman, a lifelong friend of Lask's and fellow commercial editor of award winning commercials, did a fantastic job of lensing this complex, location-rich and day/night filming endeavor. Aaron Ruell adroitly delivers an intriguing Judas. I hope that this will come to a local art house so you can catch it. Otherwise, buy it or rent it on Netflix...Lask's original work is definitely a great addition to any discerning film collector's library.

I saw On The Road With Judas in Phoenix a few weeks ago and have been transfixed on this film ever since. Everything about it is completely mesmerizing... The multiple planes of reality are constantly toying with the viewers perception of what is happening on screen, what is implied as "reality" and the meta-reality of the film's world...Definitely warrants multiple views.

I happened to catch this while the filmmakers/distributors were touring it around the country this Fall and fell in love! It is definitely a challenging film, and I can see why it hasn't gotten a very wide release, even despite the great cast, many of which are well-known actors (I LOVE Kevin Corrigan!), however, if you liked Eternal Sunshine, even Synecdoche, NY, you should certainly check this one out, the non-linear, meta-narrative is prevalent!

If nothing else, this movie has the timeless appeal of a classic con-man story. The two kleptomaniac main characters are excellent in their extra-curricular pursuits of collegiate artifacts ranging fro faculty Apple computers to rare art pieces adorning scholastic hallways…They are hilariously casual in their thievery!

Highly recommend you seek this one out, it's on Netflix… I picked up a copy of the DVD at the screening and have already revisited it a number of times and it just keeps getting better. There should be more films like this out there!

This played Sundance I think last year. It's crazy. It's like a not-at-all creepy David Lynch. It's very hard to explain. But you have a writer of an autobiographical book, and the book is being adapted into a movie. The film follows the author, the actor playing the author, the filmmaker making the movie, and also the author of the REAL book/actual director of the movie, JJ Lask.

If you think Charlie Kaufman is meta, then you haven't even scratched the surface of On The Road With Judas. There are some of my favorite actors in the film too - Kevin Corrigan, Aaron Ruell (from Napoleon Dynamite), and that guy from American Pie Eddie Kaye Thomas is in it too. It's a real mindfuck of a movie - it's kind of like the movie version of a really hard sudoku problem, but really rewarding when it all comes together.

And unlike a lot of other films that are about themselves - it never sacrifices human emotion for the sake of it's cleverness. At it's very core is an honest love story, that is very well drawn.