Stuck like Chuck

Plot

Charlie, played by Joe Moran, is a shy and geeky college student who is studying film production at an unnamed college. His roommate is the much more outgoing Rob, played by Patrick McColley. Their dorm room features walls covered with posters for horror and porn movies, as well as Christmas lights and cut out pictures of women’s breasts, which is dubbed Rob’s “wall of tits.” The room also features an unseen closet that is the home to all of Rob’s drug paraphernalia.

The film opens with a conversation about independent movies, which leads directly to the film’s title. We then see Charlie and Rob in their film-201 classroom where Charlie fantasizes about Juliet, the girl who sits across from him. Juliet, played by Jocelyn DeBoer, seems to be a mixture of Charlie and Rob. She shares Charlie’s main interests of horror movies and Kevin Smith, while being outgoing and a bit more vulgar like Rob. She also harbors feelings for Charlie, which is obvious the first time they interact on screen. Unfortunately, Charlie can’t take a hint (or several dozen hints) and Rob develops a plan to get the two of them together. The next time Charlie helps Juliet in the editing bay, Rob convinces their bumbling Professor to end class early locking Charlie and Juliet in the classroom. Stuck spending the night together, Charlie and Juliet finally open up to each other. The film develops through a series of witty conversations and is filled with sharp dialogue, obscure movie references and indie film clichés.

Cast

Production

The film was made during the director’s winter break and production continued after he started his Spring term. The movie was filmed almost entirely in two locations; the director’s school and his grandma’s house, which doubled as a dorm. He edited the film while still in school and actually finished the entire movie before the term ended. The film was made for a little under $4,000, all of which came from the director’s pocket.

Festivals

Stuck Like Chuck had its world premiere on June 6, 2009 as part of the SINY Film Festival. It had its second public screening on June 7, 2009. The Staten Island Advance picked Stuck Like Chuck as their second most anticipated film of the festival and their first most anticipated feature. On June 7, 2009 the film won the Audience Choice Comedy award at the SINY Film Festival Awards Ceremony.

Distribution

The film is still searching for distribution although the first trailer hinted that if they prove unsuccessful at finding a distributor, they will self-release the film online. This was said in a joking manner and should not be taken seriously. It is more likely that the film will take the usual route of playing at film festivals until a distributor picks it up.

Advertising

The advertising for Stuck Like Chuck has consisted mostly of promotional videos posted on YouTube, Myspace, Funny Or Die and Facebook. The videos usually contain no actual footage from the film and each has some kind of a theme. One trailer speaks of a celebrity cameo appearing in the film but the name of the celebrity is not revealed. It has been joked about a few more times but the celebrity has not yet been revealed. On March 7, 2009, the first official trailer for the film was released.

Stuck Like Chuck: The Trailer Trilogy

The first trailer on YouTube for Stuck Like Chuck was created in the style of an infomercial with the actors playing exaggerated versions of themselves pitching the film to the viewers. A second trailer on YouTube was released a few weeks later, which was a follow up to the first trailer. This time, the actors still addressing the viewers apologize for the lack of clips from the actual film in the first trailer and invite the viewers to watch a compilation of behind the scenes footage and outtakes from the film set to a song from the movie. A third trailer on YouTube, concludes the infomercial-like trailer trilogy, with Joe getting upset that people don’t “get” the concept for the trailers.

Netflix Movie Watching World Championship

In an effort to promote Stuck Like Chuck, Jerry Cavallaro was a contestant in the Netflix Movie Watching World Championship, which took place in October 2008. Jerry lasted almost 3 days straight watching movies in a glass enclosure set up in the middle of Time Square. He came in third place and was labeled "New York's Top Couch Potato" by local news.

We Are Movie Geeks

After the Netflix competition, Jerry became a contributing editor on the movie info site, wearemoviegeeks.com. He premieres all of his new videos through the site.

Soundtrack

The movie features songs from several independent and unsigned rock bands, as well as comedy songs from the duo Stuckey & Murray. The film, and more importantly the music featured in it, has been written about several times on the popular music blog, The Daily Chorus.

Track listing

by Hush Hush, Commotion

by Goot

Ice Nine Kills

by Greenbrier Lane

Danger Is My Middle Name

Raining & OK

by Gone Baby Gone

by Stuckey and Murray

by Stuckey and Murray

by Sail By The Stars

Stuck Like Chuck: The TV Show

A pilot for a live action TV series was created alongside the film. It was done more for fun and to be used as a bonus feature on the eventual DVD. It takes place mostly in the dorm room and features the characters in an extended conversation about what they hate about TV shows. It has yet to be shown publicly.