This Apatow-esque comedy's existence as an indie points to some interesting possibilities regarding the independent film market today.



If the Judd Apatow-endorsed school of outrageous, quippy, irreverent humor has become the ruling mode of Hollywood comedies at the moment, it only makes sense that this style would find its way into independent filmmaking as well. With a top-down correction in the independent film marketplace over the past few years making $30 million films become $15 million films, $15 million films become $8 million ones, and so on, there are more and more indies being made that, on paper, sound like they belong in the Hollywood pipeline.

Such is the case with A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, the debut feature from co-writers and directors Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck. Gregory and Huyck, who began their careers writing for The Late Show with David Letterman and went on to add a few other TV comedies to their resumes (Larry Sanders Show, King of the Hill), have made a film that combines the kind of breezy, easy-flowing plot found in so many contemporary comedies with the joke-a-minute speed found in those same, quip-heavy films.

Orgy, which had its North American premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, features a party-centric storyline that recalls absurd ‘80s teen comedies like Better Off Dead as much as it does the current Apatow/Rogen climate. The film revolves around a group of friends who gather every summer at the Hamptons house of Eric’s (Jason Sudeikis) father; when Eric’s father (an uncredited Don Johnson, appearing in, sadly, just one scene) decides to sell the house, Eric decides they have to send their summer out with a bang—in the guise of an orgy to be attended by everyone in the close-knit social circle. That circle features a veritable who’s who of up-and-coming comic actors, including Nick Kroll, Martin Starr, Lucy Punch, Will Forte, Tyler Labine, Leslie Bibb, and Lake Bell. Labine, who can’t help but call to mind comparisons to the young Jack Black, has been singled out so far by critics as the funniest of the bunch, but everyone in the film’s cast gets their moment to shine. One of the commendable aspects of the film’s writing is how it manages to so adroitly manage a 95-minute film while adequately dealing with each of the eight or nine main characters’ individual storylines.



How Orgy fares at the box office should be interesting as an indicator for the future indie-market climate; the film was acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films a few months before it made its debut at Tribeca, so larger distributors either passed on it or didn’t have the chance to make a bid. Considering that, between the film’s commercially mainstream subject matter and easily recognizable cast, it’s not a far cry from being presentable as a genuine Hollywood product, one wouldn’t be surprised if the film turns a tidy profit for its indie distributor.

If it does, look out for these sorts of mid-budget films to start being made by studios again—or at least, getting snatched up by bigger distributors like Fox Searchlight, The Weinstein Company and Paramount Vantage. Either scenario is a win for the independent film world.

A Good Old Fashioned Orgy opens Friday, September 2. Find tickets.

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