See LA Sneak Preview of 'Ass Backwards' co-starring Vincent D'Onofrio

UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE THEATRE

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre has affordable, comedy shows seven nights a week in NYC and LA. Watch the best improv, sketch and standup in the country. Our original comedy video productions have garnered the national spotlight. We also run the first nationally accredited improv and sketch comedy school in the country. For information on our courses, visit the Training Center.

ASS BACKWARDS

Come and see a special sneak peek of the 2013 Sundance film ASS BACKWARDS before the final cut is locked.  Ass Backwards is an R-rated comedy co-written and co-starring June Diane Raphael and Casey Wilson. Directed by Chris Nelson.

With
Alicia Silverstone
Vincent D'Onofrio
Paul Scheer
Jon Cryer
Brian Geraghty
Sandy Martin
Paul Rust
Bob Odenkirk

Kate and Chloe are loveable losers with a not so firm grip on reality.
They are: ASS BACKWARDS.

Upcoming Performances

Tue May 21, 2013

Time

3:00pm PDT

Price

Free

Address

5919 Franklin Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Phone

(323) 908-8702

Reservations

This performance does not accept reservations.

Review: 'Ass Backwards' at Sundance Film Festival

HOLLYWOOD
 By Matt Patches , Hollywood.com Staff | Tuesday, January 22, 2013

People in the media continue to argue over whether "woman are funny" (OK, mostly Adam Carolla). But sift through the past decade of comedy and it's painfully obvious that when it comes to making us laugh, ladies can bring it. Hollywood is slowly latching onto this, pipelining more and more female-led projects with cross-gender appeal. The only problem is that most of them sideline what makes the actresses spark. A woman is either handed a generic romantic comedy in hopes they will elevate the material, or a high-concept vehicle with a meaty ensemble (Bridesmaids and 2013's Identity Thief fit in here). Can't a lady just be silly, stupid, and funny like their male counterparts?

Yes. Yes, they can. And yes, they should.

Sundance's midnight premiere slate is annually curated with the weirdest and wildest in independent film, and 2013 proved itself worthy with the Monday night premiere of Ass Backwards. Written by and starringHappy Endings star Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael (NTSF:SD:SUV), Ass Backwards tracks two happily delusional, life long friends in New York City — Chloe (Wilson) is a "rising star" dancing in a glass box at a club, while Kate (Raphael) is the CEO of her own egg donor company — as they hit the road to participate in a 50th anniversary beauty pageant. In their early days, Chloe and Kate were pageant losers, tying for last place after one particularly disastrous competition. Now they aim to redeem themselves — as long as they can actually drive themselves back home.

Ass Backwards is straightforward like a female-driven comedy is rarely allowed to be in big studio movies. The two friends are morons, and Wilson and Raphael never back down from acting like idiots in the name of landing a laugh. Like Dumb and Dumber, or even more appropriate, the last female-pairing to be this fearless in his desire for stupidity, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Ass Backwards pushes buttons and presents ridiculousness that's also familiar. These are the type of girls who sing along to a skipping CD recording of "Take on Me," swoon over the voice of their British GPS system, pay back the hospitality of a lesbian commune by handing out sexual favors, and get star struck when they meet a meth junkie from their favorite rehab reality show. Unbalanced, but relatable.

What makes Romy and Michele forever watchable, and why Ass Backwards could be a breakout hit when it eventually arrives in theaters, is that both sets of space case characters love their lives and love each other. Chloe and Kate face off in a sultry dancing competition at a local strip club and are routinely found squatting on the side of the road, but they're journey bubbles over with friendship. Everyone hates them — minus Chloe's Dad (Vincent D'Onofrio), who hands over every dime from his "backwards hat" store to his daughter — except for themselves. Making it impossible for us not to love them.

Wilson and Raphael have unique comedic voices, as crass as any male counterpart with strong female identity. They go big and physical with Ass Backwards, dressing their alter egos in over the top costumes (or "high fashion," as it's known in New York) and letting loose in a way that recalls the early days of Jim Carrey. It helps that Wilson and Raphael both come from sketch comedy (SNL and a handful of Adult Swim shows, respectively). They're well-versed in hyper-specific characters — and ones we want to spend more time with, just to see what trouble they weasel their ways into. Romy and Michele only returned for a subpar direct-to-DVD sequel. Let's hope Ass Backwards finds a big enough audience that we get a few more rounds with the lovable disasters Chloe and Kate.

[Photo Credit: Prominent Pictures]

'Ass Backwards' with Vincent D'Onofrio screening at Sundance Film Festival in January

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL SITE

'Ass Backwards' aka 'Sister Spirit' has been submitted and will screen at the Sundance Film Festival 2013. I couldn't find the exact date as the schedule is not finalized at this time. The festival runs from January 17 - 27, 2013 in Park City, Utah. The festival was founded by Robert Redford.

Vincent on location when the movie was filmed.

Left for dead, 'Sister Spirit' is revived...

TIMES UNION

After "difficult journey" of legal, financial issues, most bills paid in region 
By Paul Grondahl Published 8:10 p.m., Thursday, August 23, 2012 

ALBANY — The show will go on for Sister Spirit after a two-year dispute.

The feature-length independent movie shot locally was halted after an investor defaulted and a lawsuit was filed by the production company, Sister Spirit, and hundreds of Capital Region residents received checks that bounced or nothing at all for their work.

Now, most of the bills have been paid, filming was completed and the production has the green light.

The offbeat comedy is described as a chick flick with overtones of "The Hangover." The writers and co-stars are June Raphael and Casey Wilson, a "Saturday Night Live" alumna. The cast includes Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer and Vincent D'Onofrio.

The buddy movie is about best friends who go on a cross-country road trip to win a beauty pageant that eluded them as girls. It was shot in and around Albany during more than three weeks of location work in the summer of 2010, including a large dance scene at a North Pearl Street nightclub.

The majority of local vendors and hundreds of extras owed money for their work on the film — its working title is "Ass Backwards" — have been paid, long after some had given up hope of ever receiving compensation.

An angel investor stepped in, paid long-overdue bills and financed the final days of shooting in New York City last month. The film is being edited and will be shown at film festivals in the hope of finding a distributor and reaching theater screens in 2013.

The film was rescued by Dori Sperko, who three years ago sold National Employers Co., a Florida employee leasing company. Sperko agreed to shoulder the remaining costs of the roughly $1 million "Ass Backwards" project as its executive producer.

"It's been a really long, difficult journey that caused a lot of pain for many people," said producer Heather Rae, who produced the Academy Award-winning movie "Frozen River." Another producer, Molly Conners, an Albany native who worked with Rae on "Frozen River," also invested heavily with her own money on the project. Conners lives in Brooklyn and is a daughter of Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners.

Rae said she invested her family's life savings of $200,000 in the project, had her car repossessed and lost her Boise, Idaho home to foreclosure after financing for the low-budget indie movie fell apart. She and her husband relocated to Los Angeles.

Rae filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in November 2010 against former IBM executive David M. Thomas, who lives in the Boston area, for defaulting on a contract for a $1 million line of credit with which he agreed to bankroll the production.

Rae's attorneys, who worked pro bono, won a judgment against a limited liability corporation, Better Late Than Never, that Thomas created for the film. It has no assets and Rae is doubtful she will ever recover monetary damages. Thomas could not be reached for comment.

"The good news is that it's a good movie and very funny," Rae said. "At the end of the day, everybody who had a part in it is going to be proud of this film."

"It had been so long, we had written it off," said James Pentaudi, who booked more than 100 local people as extras through his management firm, Albany Talent. "Now that people have been paid, it has a happy ending."

Non-union extras were owed $40 a day and members of the Screen Actors Guild were set to be paid the union minimum of $139 per day as extras. Pentaudi was supposed to receive a 10 percent commission from the extras, but those payments have only begun to trickle in.

"I've seen bankruptcies in this business and it's rare when they actually recover and make payments," Pentaudi said.

"The girls did the best they possibly could and made sure people got paid," said casting agent Rita Powers, based in New York City, who cast more than 200 extras. "They lost a lot of money themselves and it was a very rough ride."

The producers were able to negotiate a lower payment with most creditors. Not everyone was happy with those arrangements.

"I'm not going to take pennies on the dollar," said Steven Feldman, owner of Birch Hill Catering in Schodack, who is owed nearly $9,000 for feeding 150 members of the cast and crew during shooting. He also wants interest.

"I'm not going to write it off. I expect full payment before they show that movie," he said."

Jennie Glasser, of Tremont Rentals in Averill Park, said her firm has not been paid the $900 it was owed for tent rentals. "We gave up sending out invoices, but we'll re-send it now that we might get paid," she said.

Rae said about 95 percent of the people owed money negotiated a lower payment "because they understood the distressed nature of our business."

It was the first time in 20 movies she produced that Rae was burned. "We did the same procedure we normally do to make sure an investor is legitimate and we'd never faced this problem before," Rae said. "I learned a hard lesson. From now on, I make sure an investor funds every single dollar up front."

Rae hopes that once-disgruntled local folks have forgiven Sister Spirit now that most of its bills have been repaid.

"This was a very humbling experience, but if the Albany community wants us to come back, we'd do a premiere there," Rae said. "We appreciate Albany, it's Molly's hometown and we'd be thrilled to come back to show everyone the great movie they helped us make."

Maya closes 'Ass Backwards' deals

VARIETY

Maya International has closed multiple territory deals for comedy "Ass Backwards" during the Berlin market. The film's directed by Chris Nelson and stars Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer, Vincent D'Onofrio, Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael.

Territories sold included Australia (Starz), Canada (VVS), Latin America (Swen), Middle East (Eagle Films), China (DDdream Ent), CIS (Voxell Ent), Hungary (RTL), Israel (Shoval), and Former Yugo (MG Films).

"Ass Backwards" tracks two best friends in NY who run into their former pageant nemesis and embark on a cross-country road trip back to their hometown in an attempt to win a pageant that eluded them as children. Producers are Heather Rae and Molly Conners.

Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com