Pitch (1997)

If you've ever wondered just how smart Roger Ebert is, you should watch this movie. Pitch is supposedly a documentary about two aspiring Canadian writers trying to get somebody, anybody to buy their screenplay. But Ebert's the only guy in the film who figures out that the two writers are making the documentary solely as a gimmick to get producers, stars and movie studio people to talk to them. It's a neat trick and using the camera as sort of a backstage pass to the film industry provides an interesting look at the difficult and frustrating slog that is trying to sell a script.Pitch starts out with the two writers, Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice, sitting in what appears to be their makeshift office in Hotz' mother's house. They sit around calling studios and production companies and imagining that they're going to get Al Pacino or Alec Baldwin to star in their movie. No one will really give them the time of day over the phone, so they head out to the 1996 Toronto Independent Film Festival where they push their script on literally every person they come in contact with. The process of trying to get someone to read and buy their screenplay has a definite adolescent mating aspect to it, with Hotz and Rice acting like horny, lonely guys who just can't figure out how to get past first base. The film then follows them, along with Hotz' girlfriend, on a two week trip to Los Angeles, where they talk with everyone from street performers to Hollywood greats like Samuel Z. Arkoff, Arthur Hiller and Neil Simon. The boys even finally manage to land themselves an agent and seemingly stumble out to the edge of success.Because the documentary started out as sort of a scam, it doesn't have the structure or well-defined viewpoint of most documentaries. It really looks and feels more like a mockumentary, but it's real so it's not nearly as funny. What Pitch does very well, however, is let you see how much fear and uncertainty permeates the movie industry. Hotz and Rice constantly run into a wall of noncommitment. People in the movie business are reluctant to even give them solid, helpful advice…let alone buy their script and turn it into a $40 million production. Pitch paints a picture of film-making where the only way any movie ever gets made is through heroic, individual efforts because no one is willing to risk themselves on someone else's project.It's an understandable attitude. A saying I once heard about Hollywood and making movies sums up why that is. It's "nobody knows anything". The weirdness of celebrity and the enormous money involved in film-making can sometimes obscure the reality that the folks who make movies are usually tremendously talented and have worked extremely hard to perfect their craft. Yet for all of that, they still don't have the slightest idea of what makes a good movie and what makes a bad one. The evidence for that is all around. The first Iron Man movie was a bigger hit than anyone expected. There probably wasn't a single person on Earth who thought Iron Man would make as much money on its opening weekend as Batman Begins and Superman Returns combined. And just a week after Iron Man, a movie based on the old Speed Racer cartoon came out with a huge budget, amazing special effects and the prestige of being directed by the Wachowski brothers (makers of The Matrix). Speed Racer, however, became a box office bomb of biblical proportions.The truth about movies is that not all good movies succeed and not all bad movies fail and not even the people who make them understand why. Pitch lets you feel how that mystery underlies every decision in Hollywood. It's why no one wants to take risks and why everyone always wants to make one more little change to the script.As for Hotz and Rice? Does anyone eventually buy their screenplay about a mafia don who accidentally gets a sex change? Did they ever become successful Hollywood screenwriters? I don't want to spoil it for you, so let me put it this way. About a decade after they made Pitch, Hotz and Rice ended up with their own show on Comedy Central. They lived in the same house and engaged in gross and ridiculous competitions, like "Who can eat the most meat?" and "Who can stay tied to a goat the longest?", where the winner got to inflict ritual humiliation on the loser, like farting on them or forcing them to make out with an old woman.That's show business.

I really enjoyed this documentary about Kenny and Spencer's attempt to pitch "The Dawn". Was a great look at how outsiders try to get to the inside to make it big. The story was put together well and organized in an interesting manner that made the film flow well. Certainly worth a watch. My only complaint is that their appeared to be no closure. Perhaps that is part of the point. We expect it but in reality that is not what happened (or usually happens).The film is also a great way to see the personality of Kenny and Spencer outside of their Canadian television show. You can see a bit of what is yet to come. I look forward to a chance to see The Papal Chase.

This is the worst documentary to come out of Canada ever!!!! I'm glad to see the guys haven't made another movie. All they want to do is get a movie made and it doesn't have to be the one they wrote. They keep changing the script to suite the person they're pitching. I could not get out of the theatre fast enough when I saw it at that year's Toronto Film Festival. Please never see this film.

Credited by Variety to be one of the greatest documentaries to ever come out of Canada. Al Pacino, Roger Ebert, Neil Simon, Matt Dillon as well as a constant slew of celebs make this film a Canadian classic. The film is really best described as "Roger & Me" meets "The Player". Watch as Kenny Hotz and Spenny PITCH their script to the big boys of Hollywood. Called the only American film to ever come out of Canada, This film opened the Toronto Film Festival in 1997, Winner of the 'Best Indie Film Award Toronto'. Europe premier was at the prestigious HOF film fest in Germany. U.S.A. premier U.S. Comedy Festival Aspen 1999. More information available at www.kennyhotz.com