''Box Elder'' is a 2008 American independent film. It was written and directed by

Todd Sklar Todd Sklar is an American film director, screenwriter and actor. His feature directorial debut, ''Box Elder'', gained national attention after being self-distributed around the country. Sklar's most recent film, ''Awful Nice'', premiered in com ...

, his first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

. The film stars Alex Rennie, Nick Renkoski, Chad Haas, as well as Sklar.

Plot

Box Elder follows best friends and roommates, John Scott (Sklar) Alex, Nick, and Chad (Haas) through their final years of college at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. The loose narrative structure is anchored by John's breakup with his girlfriend Laura (Hina Abdullah). The four dudes party, eat

sandwiches A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

, and repeatedly ignore their scholastic responsibilities.

Cast

Distribution

In the Spring of 2008, Sklar and a number of cast and crew from the film toured the film from city to city, mostly focusing on college campuses and art-house cinemas. Sklar, via his distribution company, Range Life Entertainment, entered into direct 50-50 revenue-sharing deals with the majority of the theaters at which ''Box Elder'' screened. According to the filmmaker at numerous post-screening Q&A sessions, Sklar will be bringing ''Box Elder'', along with a number of other films, back on the road and into theaters in the fall of 2008.

Critical reception

During the film's engagement at the

Gene Siskel Film Center The Gene Siskel Film Center, formerly The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and commonly referred to as The Film Center or The Gene Siskel, is the cinematheque attached to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Time Out Chicago ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition beca ...

gave the film 3 stars and said it, "plays like a cross between Richard Linklater’s ''

Slacker A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early t ...

'' and TV’s ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

''." The

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

gave a brief review, praising, "the dialogue has actual wit in addition to the usual ironic gloss and Sklar's vision of college is the fond fiction we all like to remember in adulthood."

Soundtrack

References

External links

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Vox Magazine - Box Elder and the Sundance kid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Box Elder 2008 films 2008 independent films 2008 comedy films 2000s sex comedy films Films set in Columbia, Missouri Films shot in Columbia, Missouri 2000s teen sex comedy films American independent films American sex comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films