For the fine folks over at Moving Pictures, I interviewed Barry Munday director Chris D’Arienzo and stars Patrick Wilson and Judy Greer.
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| “Barry Munday” opens with the eponymous title character, as portrayed by Patrick Wilson, lying dazed in a hospital bed shortly after losing his testicles. Earlier that day, while sitting in a theater with a young woman of questionable legal age, a strange man, whom she identifies as Dad, viciously attacks Barry with a trumpet, ultimately leading to the opening event. Shortly afterward, Barry receives notice of a paternity suit. A one-night-stand that Barry fails to remember, Ginger, played by Judy Greer, at first wants little to do with him beyond acknowledgement of responsibility. But Barry, affected by his recent physical alteration, desires to be involved with Ginger and their unborn child. He soon meets her high-brow, dysfunctional parents (Cybill Shepherd and Malcolm McDowell) and her younger, temptress sister Jennifer (Chloë Sevigny). Barry’s clinging mother (Jean Smart), psychotic ex-girlfriend (Missy Pyle), and cooler-than-thou boss (Billy Dee Williams) further enhance the excellent ensemble. |
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| Basing “Barry Munday” on Frank Turner Holon’s novel “Life Is a Strange Place,” director and screenwriter Chris D’Arienzo first encountered the little-known book when his agent, who also represents Holon, sent him a copy. “He thought I would dig it and said that if it was something I wanted to write that I could go off and try to tackle it. It was incredibly generous and I loved the novel immediately … the characters were so rich.” |
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| “[Barry’s] style is stuck around 1990,” expounds Wilson, “It was a very specific time when The Limited Express, which is a very popular women’s clothing store, started [the men’s store] Structure. Why do I know this? Because I hung out in the mall. Barry should have had stock in Structure. He bought a lot of paisley polo and rugby shirts there. And that’s kind of when he rocked.” |
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| The veteran actors often awed Greer. “We’re all together hanging out in this apartment complex in the Valley. Everyone’s sitting around the pool chilling out in their director’s chairs. Patrick Wilson. Chloë Sevigny. Malcolm McDowell. Jean Smart. Cybill Shepherd. It was all too much. And Billy Dee Williams. Are you kidding me?”
At the pool, Greer, who experimented with blurry photography, snapped several pictures. “My eyesight is really bad. I wear contact lenses. I had this phase of wanting to photograph things the way I saw them when I didn’t have my contacts in. Now I look back on them: ‘Really, Judy, you couldn’t take one that was in focus?’” |
Read more of my discussion with D’Arienzo, Wilson, and Greer at Moving Pictures.