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From YourSITE.com chunky monkey "A cult classic in the mould of Withnail and I" www.movie-gazette.com Reviewed by: Anton Bitel November 8th 2004 Chunky Monkey Certificate: 15 Starring: David Threlfall, Alison Steadman, Nicola Stapleton, David Schofield, Colin McFarlane, Danny Nussbaum, Stephen Mangan, Elizabeth Woodcock, Emily Morgan Director: Greg Cruttwell Running Time: 88min Genre: British, comedy Shot in just 14 days for a mere £160,000, 'Chunky Monkey' could quite easily have gone the way of so many small British productions and simply disappeared into anonymity, but something about this film attracted the attention of vast corporations and international luminaries, like Unilever (who currently own the Ben and Jerry's ice cream brand), the Rogers and Hammerstein estate, EMI (who control rights to the Rogers and Hammerstein catalogue), 'illustrious musical comedy actress' Julie Andrews, and the original creator of 'Chunky Monkey - the comic strip for kids'. Five separate litigation threats and all sorts of legal wrangling may have stalled the film's release for three years, but they have also brought it a buzz of media visibility way beyond what its budget could have afforded. Such controversy alone may have been enough to make this film, but it is writer/director Greg Cruttwell and his outstanding ensemble cast that make the film great. If you find the words 'British' and 'comedy' tainted by their association with 'Johnny English', 'Love, Actually' and the like, then here is your antidote. Like an Edward Hopper painting commissioned by Monty Python, 'Chunky Monkey' brings together an unlikely cast of off-kilter caricatures into a single setting, and allows an absurdist pantomime of miracles, murder and even song and dance to ensue. Cruttwell's note-perfect screenplay, lending each character their own insulated (and strangely recognisable) reality, is a miracle in its own right, and is brilliantly incarnated by the cast - especially by David Threlfall, whose Donald is the most banal and amiably, ahem, anal of killers seen in cinema since 'Man Bites Dog'. Although it deals hilariously with matters carnal and carnivalesque, 'Chunky Monkey' is a film very much concerned with the spirit - a studied dissection of the place of religion in our atomised, postmodern world. "There's many ways to follow the Lord", as the skinhead Mandy says, and 'Chunky Monkey' is, amongst other things, about one man's attempt to create heaven on earth. It will also have you dropping your jaw, pissing your pants and laughing till your head comes clean off. It's got: Murder, miracles and mayhem; cabaret and carnality; and a very peculiar sex act. It needs: Wide distribution - this is destined to be a cult classic (and not just because Julie Andrews tried to have it banned). Alternatively: 'Man Bites Dog', 'Monty Python's Life of Brian', 'Abigail's Party', 'Insignificance' Summary: Deadpan, deranged, and, like the ice cream after which it is named, an instant cult classic. Leeds International Film Festival review: October 2004 Donald Leek is a mundane bachelor who spends his time doing keep-fit, fantasising about Julie Andrews and killing people. One fateful day, as Donald is burying the proprietor of his local Curry house, he is beset by a number of unwanted visitors including some skinhead Christians, a porn star and the reincarnation of Jesus - now called Trevor. This jet-black comedy is buoyed by an incredibly witty script and some brilliant performances from the likes of David Threlfall (most recently seen as Frank Gallagher in TV's Shameless). A refreshingly dark debut movie from director and writer, Greg Cruttwell. Hotdog: October 2004
Film247.net Reviewed by Daniel Brightmore August 2005 Infamous for the legal battles that have kept it from the screen for nearly five years, Chunky Monkey follows a Burnley bachelor whose hobbies include keep-fit and indulging in "back passage sexual activity" with a Julie Andrews look-a-like and a tub of Chunky Monkey ice cream. The moral of this story? As a host of unwanted guests ?including an afro-ed Jesus, a porn star and some born-again skinheads - learn at their peril, never come between a man and his sexual perversion. David Threlfall (Shameless) is mesmerising as psychotic loner Donald. Alison Steadman (Abigail? Party) brings a touch of class to proceedings as an interfering neighbour. But Stephen Mangan (star of Channel 4? Green Wing) steals the show as Gallic singing sensation Pierre Dupont: "I want to stick my tongue in your mouth so our juices can mingle like flames in the fire". First-time director Greg Cruttwell should be applauded for delivering an enjoyably eccentric and surreal black comedy on a shoestring budget. ispitonyourmovie.com Review by Fi Wilson August 2005 What’s it all about then Fi? Donald Leek is a reclusive loner with psychopathic tendencies and a fetish for a sexual scenario involving Julie Andrews and the delicious Ben and Jerry’s dairy treat of the title. As Donald prepares for his routine sexual encounter at precisely 7.30pm with a lady willing to fulfill this fantasy on a regular basis, he is rudely interrupted by two skinheads who kick ass for the Lord. However, they may be the first but they certainly aren’t the only ones to descend uninvited onto Donald’s evening, threatening to unleash his more macabre side in Greg Cruttwell’s low budget Brit black comedy. Cruttwell’s offering has been compared, somewhat eagerly, with Mike Leigh’s 1977 Suburban satire, Abigail’s Party. Certainly there are similarities, not in the least that they both star the wonderful British talent that is Alison Steadman and are set in a living room, but the characters in Chunky Monkey are far more colourful and aggressive than Mike Leigh’s concoctions . Chunky Monkey certainly has its own brand of charm and isn’t afraid to show it. David Threlfall was quoted as saying that it’s “one of the best scripts he’s ever read” and that’s believable. The dialogue, along with performances, are where this film shines, giving plenty of genuine, laugh out loud moments, with Stephen Mangan’s performance one of the highlights. The claustrophobia of the setting means, unfortunately, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea for a cinematic viewing but Chunky Monkey should garner a nice cult following for it’s dark homour, violence, great script and performances and looks like a dead cert for a Channel 4 showing, if you know what I mean. Deliciously, darkly humorous, Chunky Monkey refreshes the parts other Brit comedies couldn’t reach. Hotdog Review by Rhianna Pratchett September 2005 Relating Chunky Monkey is like trying to relate dreams you have after you've eaten too much cheese. "Well this guy cuts up the owner of his local curry house for not sending him a Christmas card. Then he's beaten up by some Christian skinheads who introduce him to the reincarnation of Jesus, who's called Trevor and walks on water in the bath. Then it all gets a bit strange." Threlfall (Shameless) however makes it all compellingly weird and watchable in a Royle Family meets American Psycho way. Evening Standard Londoners Diary October 27th 2004
Leeds Guide October 20th-Nov 4th 2004
Leeds International Film Festival Catalogue October/November 2004
What's On In London November 17th 2004
Time Out November 10th 2004
Camden New Journal November 18th 2004
Alison Steadman has taken a pay cut to appear in a new independent film which premiers at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead on Saturday. She explains the film? lure to Jane Wright WHATEVER brought Highgate actress Alison Steadman and Dartmouth Park film producer Phil Hunt together to make cult independent movie Chunky Monkey, both are quite clear it wasn? the glamour. Or the money. After shooting to fame at Hampstead Theatre in 1977 as cringe-making social climber Beverly in her ex-husband Mike Leigh? ground-breaking play Abigail? Party, which was later shown to great acclaim on television, Alison is set to star next year in her fourth series of another TV comedy drama hit, Fat Friends. She admits: ? could earn ten times as much for a shoot as I did on Chunky Monkey. And one night we didn? finish working till 3am. Where else would people do that, except on an independent film?? She continues: ?ut I remember, at midnight, Phil served us starving actors a £40 Chinese dinner. We all pulled together on the set and it was one of my happiest times.? The actress, who lives five minutes from her beloved Highgate Woods, the Tube and the Village, adds: ? know how much it means if a talented actor does an independent film every now and again, so it gets made. My son Leo is a would-be film maker just starting out. He? got no money, but he? written a script for a ten-minute short and the other day he was skipping round our kitchen because a particular actor had said, if he was free, he? be in it.?Underlining the difficulties of bringing an indie film to the screen, Chunky Monkey can now finally be seen ?four long years after its bargain basement £160,000 shoot on a two-room set ?at four special screenings at the Everyman Cinema Club, in Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead, over this weekend and next, beginning on Saturday. The screenings form part of the cinema? support for emerging filmmakers. Phil Hunt confirms: ?he struggle to get an independent film made is not so much uphill as vertical. I don? make any money out of it. In fact, I sacrifice my producer? fee. And without a star, you can? get any money for a film at all.? Chunky Monkey writer and director Greg Cruttwell, whose father Hugh was a former principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Gower Street, Bloomsbury, adds: ? was certainly skipping round my south London kitchen when Alison said she? be in the film.? Yet Alison insists: ? wouldn? just do it out of the goodness of my heart. But as soon as I read the script, I loved it. My character is the upstairs neighbour, Beryl. She? so warm and open and chatty, with a little red rinse on her hair and her lipstick and pearls. So I told Greg ? assume you?e seeing plenty of other people, but don? let anyone else do it? I think he was surprised. But I? have done it for nothing, rather than be miserable in a big film but a bad part. And all the actors in Chunky Monkey felt the same.? Indeed, Greg? script managed to attract a host of names, including Shameless star David Threlfall in the main role, Stephen Mangan, the Primrose Hill actor who played Adrian Mole on television and starred in the hit off-the-wall comedy The Green Wing; and former EastEnders star Nicola Stapleton. But lining up the talent was simply the beginning of the challenge for the makers of Chunky Monkey. Admittedly the movie hailed in the national press as ? cult classic in the mould of Withnail and I?has its controversial elements. For a start, the title refers to the sexual fantasy of David Threlfall? character, Donald, which involves Julie Andrews and some messy goings on with the eponymous banana ice cream. Then there? the small matter of a body to cut up. Alison Steadman confesses: ?here is a very dark side to the film, as you gradually realise you?e seeing into the world of a very disturbed man. But Greg writes with such warmth and surreal humour that it? acceptable. And you don? see any of the sex. I? squeamish about these things, but people won? come out of the film saying ?ow disgusting??Still, a lot of Phil? work as producer over the past four years has been fending off threatened multi-million dollar law suits, as the big boys saw the chance to bully the small film. He insists: ?ur lawyers looked over every line of script before we shot anything.?Nevertheless, food and washing powder giant Unilever, which had just bought the Chunky Monkey ice cream brand, threatened legal action after their product was used in the film. Julie Andrews?manager in Los Angeles got heavy and music multinational EMI succeeded in having the title track from the Julie Andrews?musical The Sound of Music removed from the final version of Phil and Greg? film. Luckily, 37-year-old Phil started in the business young, and could draw on 20 years of film experience to hold his nerve and fend them off. He explains: ? started as an on-set dogsbody known as a runner and worked my way up. But that? the best way, because it gave me a complete overview of the film business. I?e worked on everything from music videos to commercials for British Gas.? He describes his role as producer as ?irst in and last out of any project? ?ou have to find a story, develop a screenplay, or get someone else to do it for you.?he says. ?hen you package that up with the talent and the money, which can fall out of place at the last minute, meaning you have to re-cast from scratch for a later shoot. ?nd after the film is made, you have to place it in the market and find an agent for worldwide distribution. In fact, you could say, it? the producer rather than the director who? the real film-maker.? But, despite an impending trip to Los Angeles to sell Rabbit on the Moon, an Anglo-Mexican political thriller also made by his and Greg? company, Headgear Films, he insists: ?here? no glamour in my job. Except perhaps for the first class train ticket to the Leeds Film Festival, where Chunky Monkey premiered earlier this month, and the audience loved it. ?therwise, I? away from home one week in six, and wherever I am, it? very hard, long hours and late nights, especially with the time difference between London and Los Angeles, just constantly in screening rooms pitching projects.?Then, reflecting Alison? love of the small, quality production, he adds ?till, you can get lost in the big, Hollywood stuff. It? like the difference between being employed or working for yourself. On an independent film, you may end up with a very limited audience, but you keep the control.?Alison has starred in blockbusters a-plenty, including the films A Private Function (1985) and Shirley Valentine (1989), the ultimate BBC costume drama Pride and Prejudice, alongside Colin Firth, and even this month? Hollywood hit The Life and Death of Peter Sellars. But her next job will bring her right back close to home. In January, she is set to return to Hampstead Theatre to star in Simon Mendes da Costa? new play, Losing Louis. She describes the comedy as a family piece which shuttles between past and present and examines, among other things, the phenomenon of being half Jewish, as more and more people marry outside the faith. She concludes: ? don? know anything about people with a lot of money. If there? a script I want to do, I don? hesitate for a second. That? how it was with Chunky Monkey.?And I?very proud of it.? the dude abides.com review: November 1st 2004 Chunky Monkey Well, it said the words 'low budget' 'jet-black comedy' and 'uk film' so i had to go and good job really, cos it wer good. It has the dad out of shameless (David Threlfall) in it (and other familiar faces that i dont know the names of), its shot on digital (i think - looks like it), it has the reincarnation of jesus in it (now called Trevor), and its f?ng funny. Low budget=talky script is a shaky formula i adhere to, and it is proved right in this case. Normally though, the talky script in question is ripe with navel-gazing pretentious bollocks... in probably 9 out 10 cases, which easily places chunky monkey in that top ten percent. Another limitation of the low budget film is the variety and affordability of locations. This film embraces that shackle like a blunkett to a labrador. It is set in a flat and is, for the most part, filmed in real time; it's what happens when unexpected visitors force themselves upon a burnley-born bloke (who isnt adverse to a spot of murder) and then severely out stay their already tenuous welcome. The range of characters they make up is genius; their dialogue unshakeably british and 'normal' in content but twisted back on itself to the perfect degree - youll probably know these people in real life. The acting is all round mint, though i wanted more Threlfall action. The actors all know the priceless nature of little gestures and nuances, gor bless 'em! This film ought to be the sort of film that's massively cult in about ten years time, so if yer in london or london again around the back end of this month, go see it so you can be smug in years to come by saying that you saw it when it first came out. Or, if youre not that type of c..t, go see it cos yer like good uk films that are what they are and you wont be disappointed. As a side note(?), writer/director Greg Cruttwell started this film back in 2000... the delay was in part due to huge corporations (as well as Julie Andrews) not wanting it to be made... got yer interest now ant i? See it and work out why... Time Out London Reviewed by Jessica Cargill-Thompson November 24-December 1 2004 The title refers to protagonist Donald?(David Threlfall) ice-cream of choice, used as a sexual lubricant during monthly liaisons with a Julie Andrews lookalike while she sings ?he Sound Of Music? It? an intriguing hook, but one that has delayed the film for four years, while the numerous offended parties were placated by lawyers. The film, shot for £160,000, opens with a lengthy monologue from Donald who has just chopped up the owner of his local Indian restaurant for not sending him a Christmas card. While he waits for ?ulie? a succession of unexpected guests arrive. The monologues are a joy to listen to, evoking shades of Alan Bennett and Threlfall? performance is strong enough to hold the piece together, it? worth seeking out for him alone. Saturday Express Magazine November 13th 2004
Bizarre Magazine: September 2005
Angel Magazine: August 2005
North Magazine: August 2005
Leeds Guide: September 2005
Nuts: August 2005
THE INDEPENDENT -The strange case of Julie Andrews, the ice cream and the movie no one dares release 7 August 2001 Robert Chalmers There are some people, Greg Cruttwell told me, “who will walk out of Chunky Monkey after five minutes. I respect that, and I understand it. There are some people who might find my film highly offensive.” “Like my mother,” I said. Cruttwell nodded. “Yes. But there again,” he added, “you never know…” “Believe me, Greg.” I told him, “I know.” Cruttwell is a modest, engaging man in his late thirties. His distinguished CV as a film actor includes such varied productions as Disney’s George of the Jungle and Mike Leigh’s Naked, but that 20 year career is about to be eclipsed by his latest project, Chunky Monkey. The film, written and directed by Cruttwell, has a formidable cast that includes Alison Steadman, David Threlfall and Stephen Mangan, who recently played Adrian Mole on BBC1. So far screened only to the industry, and at a couple of festivals, it has already been described as “Abigail’s Party on acid”. Remarkably for a movie that has not yet been released, and that only a handful of people have seen, Chunky Monkey has already provoked a furious response: the diverse posse of potential litigants includes such improbable fellow travellers as the multinational Unilever, music publishers Rodgers & Hammerstein, an elderly American artist who used to draw Popeye, EMI and Julie Andrews. Chunky Monkey’s troubled and controversial history recalls those scenes in Mel Brook's film The Producers, where Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder are preparing the musical comedy “Springtime for Hitler”, a production whose record -in terms of distasteful scenario, and the horror-struck expressions on the faces of its first-night audience- Chunky Monkey threatens to equal, if not exceed. Greg Cruttwell told me that his ambition had been to create a film that was “totally unlike anything else” – an aim in which, even his critics agree, he has amply succeeded. Chunky Monkey, billed as “the first comedy about a serial killer”, begins with a close up of the main character, Donald Leek –a middle-aged jogger and gun-enthusiast played by Threlfall –sitting in his own living room delivering a monologue, face to face with the severed head of the owner of the Maharani, his local Indian restaurant. Leek fantasises about an indecent sexual act involving Julie Andrews and a There are some people, Greg Cruttwell told me, “who will walk out of Chunky Monkey after five minutes. I respect that, and I understand it. There are some people who might find my film highly offensive.” “Like my mother,” I said. Cruttwell nodded. “Yes. But there again,” he added, “you never know…” “Believe me, Greg.” I told him, “I know.” Cruttwell is a modest, engaging man in his late thirties. His distinguished CV as a film actor includes such varied productions as Disney’s George of the Jungle and Mike Leigh’s Naked, but that 20 year career is about to be eclipsed by his latest project, Chunky Monkey. The film, written and directed by Cruttwell, has a formidable cast that includes Alison Steadman, David Threlfall and Stephen Mangan, who recently played Adrian Mole on BBC1. So far screened only to the industry, and at a couple of festivals, it has already been described as “Abigail’s Party on acid”. Remarkably for a movie that has not yet been released, and that only a handful of people have seen, Chunky Monkey has already provoked a furious response: the diverse posse of potential litigants includes such improbable fellow travellers as the multinational Unilever, music publishers Rodgers & Hammerstein, an elderly American artist who used to draw Popeye, EMI and Julie Andrews. Chunky Monkey’s troubled and controversial history recalls those scenes in Mel Brook's film The Producers, where Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder are preparing the musical comedy “Springtime for Hitler”, a production whose record -in terms of distasteful scenario, and the horror-struck expressions on the faces of its first-night audience- Chunky Monkey threatens to equal, if not exceed. Greg Cruttwell told me that his ambition had been to create a film that was “totally unlike anything else” – an aim in which, even his critics agree, he has amply succeeded. Chunky Monkey, billed as “the first comedy about a serial killer”, begins with a close up of the main character, Donald Leek –a middle-aged jogger and gun-enthusiast played by Threlfall –sitting in his own living room delivering a monologue, face to face with the severed head of the owner of the Maharani, his local Indian restaurant. Leek fantasises about an indecent sexual act involving Julie Andrews and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream: a bizarre scenario that, with the help of a woman friend who dresses to resemble the star of The Sound of Music, he acts out, off-camera. It is this plot point that has prompted such widespread disapproval. Had it waited for industry finance, and the green light from studio lawyers, Chunky Monkey would never have been made at all. In the absence of orthodox backers, Cruttwell and his producer Phil Hunt, decided to shoot the picture on a tiny budget in a Fulham kindergarten. The whole production, from casting to final edit, took just three months. In keeping with this mood of swift decisiveness, the first lawyer’s letter arrived promptly, last October. It was on behalf of Unilever, the company that recently bought Ben & Jerry’s. “We consider that any association of our client’s mark with anal sex, violent murder, blasphemy and dismembered bodies,” the letter said, “would be extremely detrimental to the reputation of the brand.” Unilever (no doubt fearing that Cruttwell’s film might do for their banana and walnut ice-cream what the camp menswear sketches from the Fast Show have done for the store name “Suits You”; or, more catastrophically, what the emergence of Aids did for the slimming supplement of a similar name) threatened an injunction unless the producers removed al reference to Chunky Monkey. Cruttwell and Hunt hired the leading British lawyer, David Price, who promised to defend the film. “They wanted me to change the title,” Greg Cruttwell explained, “and to use another brand. But I couldn’t ever call it anything else. I just couldn’t match Chunky Monkey.” It is almost 18 months since Unilever bought control of the company from its founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, two ageing hippies from Vermont. The Ben & Jerry’s website still displays the motto “Luxury Ice-Cream with a Chunk of Humour”, but, where Chunky Monkey is concerned, a sense of irony seems to have deserted the two right-on entrepreneurs (who are still on the board of the company), and they have refused to comment on the affair. Sadly, the English courts are now unlikely to have to decide whether it is possible to defame a dessert: Unilever gradually lost its appetite for the case, and recently said it has no plans to proceed. And there the producers difficulties might have ended, like some mischievous prank, had their film had no artistic merit or commercial potential, but Chunky Monkey – despite the undeniably gross and gratuitous tone of its closing scene – has moments of memorably surreal humour, and even poignancy. Its impressive cast delivers a number of outstanding performances, especially considering the constraints of time and budget. Cruttwell’s dialogue has a nice understated wit. “There are many ways of spreading the word of the Lord, Donald,” a born again skinhead tells Leek, whom he has just beaten up. “We choose to spread it through intimidation and extreme violence.” “I get offered so many bland roles for middle-aged women”, says Allison Steadman, star of Mike Leigh’s Life is Sweet and Abigail’s Party, “that I’m up for anything out of the ordinary. I read Chunky Monkey and I absolutely adored it.” And David Threlfall, who played Smike in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Nicholas Nickleby, and starred with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer in the Tom Stoppard scripted movie The Russia House, calls Chunky Monkey “one of the best screenplays that I have ever read”. The production has been less ecstatically received at EMI, who are responsible for UK licensing of the Rodgers & Hammerstein catalogue. After granting conditional agreement, EMI’s London office wrote to insist that material from The Sound of Music must not be included in Chunky Monkey. “We protect and cherish these songs,” explained Bert Fink of Rodgers © Copyright 2003 by YourSITE.com |
