''The Scenesters'' is a 2009

art-house An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

film written and directed by

Todd Berger Todd Berger (born April 5, 1979) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist most prominently known for writing and directing the feature films ''It's a Disaster'', ''Cover Versions'', ''The Scenesters'', and the documentary ' ...

. The film was made by Los Angeles-based comedy group The Vacationeers and stars Blaise Miller,

Suzanne May Suzanne May is an English actress, born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Early life She moved around with her family until settling in Reading, Berkshire where she spent most of her childhood. At the age of 16 she left ...

Jeff Grace Jeff Grace is a comedian, screenwriter, film producer, film director, and actor. Grace serves as the director of '' Folk Hero & Funny Guy'', an independent film starring Wyatt Russell, Alex Karpovsky, Hannah Simone, Heather Morris, Meredith Ha ...

, Kevin M. Brennan, Todd Berger and

Sherilyn Fenn Sherilyn Fenn (born Sheryl Ann Fenn; February 1, 1965) is an American actress and author. She came to attention for her performance as Audrey Horne on the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) for which she was nominated for a Go ...

. The film was shot in July 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA, and premiered on October 23, 2009, at the 16th Annual

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

Premise

A group of crime scene videographers go after a serial killer.

Cast

* Blaise Miller as Charlie Newton *

as Jewell Wright *

as Roger Graham * Kevin M. Brennan as Investigator Henry Muse *

as Wallace Cotten * Monika Jolly as Investigator Carlita Travers * James Jolly as Irving Shaw *

as A.D.A. Barbara Dietrichson *

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American comedy and fantasy filmmaker and actor. He is best known for the comedy films that he has directed – such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal ...

as Judge Paxton B. Johnson * Robert R. Shafer as George Porter

Festivals

''The Scenesters'' was selected to screen at the following film festivals: * 2009 NewFilmmakers LA (August 31, 2009) * 2009

Edmonton International Film Festival The Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) is a nine-day film festival in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, hosted at Landmark Cinemas at Edmonton City Centre. It is supported by and partnered with Telefilm Canada, Government of Alberta, Alberta Fo ...

(October 2, 2009) * 2009

New Orleans Film Festival The New Orleans Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the nonprofit organization New Orleans Film Society, a film society founded in 1989. The festival has been held since the society's inception. The festival takes place in mid-Oc ...

(October 10, 2009) * 2009

(October 23, 2009) * 2009

Hollywood Film Festival The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in Los Angeles, California, USA. History The Hollywood Film Festival was established in 1997 by author and producer Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington.Pete ...

(October 25, 2009) * 2009 Lone Star International Film Festival (November 11, 2009) * 2010

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which als ...

(January 22, 2010) * 2010 Oxford Film Festival (February 6, 2010) * 2010 Chicago International Movies and Music Festival (March 5, 2010) * 2010 Lake County Film Festival (March 6, 2010) * 2010

Phoenix Film Festival Phoenix Film Festival is a festival that celebrates feature films and their creators. Started in 2000, the annual celebration takes place in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. The festival is a showcase for feature and short films from all over the wo ...

(April 9, 2010) * 2010

Wisconsin Film Festival The Wisconsin Film Festival is an annual film festival, founded in 1999. The festival is held every April in Madison, Wisconsin, and has recently been expanded from five days to eights days. The Festival presents a broad range of independent Ameri ...

(April 16, 2010)

Awards

;

: 2010: won Most Interesting Film ;

: 2009: won Hollywood Award for Best Comedy ;

: 2010: won Best Screenplay ;

: 2009: won Rising Star Award for Best Director –

;Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival : 2010: won Best of Fest : 2010: won Best Screenplay : 2010: won Best Director : 2010: won Best Editor : 2010: won Best Production Designer - Eve McCarney : 2010: won Best Actor - Blaise Miller

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 43% based on reviews from 7 critics, with an average score of 4.67/10. Amy Handler from

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...

called ''The Scenesters'' "a film that is provocative, intelligent, hilarious - and that moves so swiftly, that you're left gasping for more." Scott Ross from

NBC New York WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

said "'The Scenesters' is a gutsy experiment that rewards the viewer's knowledge of Los Angeles, movies and TV with a funny and engaging hyper-meta crime story." Nick W. from ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''.com had wonderful things to say about the film saying "The Scenesters is the movie I keep telling my friends about. It's funny, inventive and unlike anything I've seen in long time". After the premier of ''The Scenesters'' at the

Sean O'Neal from

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

praised the film saying it was "A genuinely suspenseful whodunit about a team of wannabe filmmakers exploiting a rash of L.A. murders targeting hipsters...''The Scenesters'' is definitely, if dryly, funny in its satirical take on fame-seeking indie-rock types—boosted by a literally killer soundtrack". Todd Gilchrist from

Fearnet Fearnet was an American digital cable television network, website and video on demand service owned by Comcast. The network specialized in horror entertainment programming through a mix of acquired and original series, and feature films. Backgr ...

called the film "A compelling whodunit that manages to pack more of a punch than the latest retro-noir murder mystery, The Scenesters is a satisfying, successful look at predators and prey, hipsters and Hollywood dreamers, and films and filmmakers that doesn't purely chase its own tail - and better yet, doesn't make moviegoers chase it either... destined to become a cult classic."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scenesters, The 2009 films 2009 black comedy films American black comedy films Films directed by Todd Berger Films set in California Films shot in Los Angeles American independent films Self-reflexive films Films with screenplays by Todd Berger 2009 comedy films 2009 independent films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films