paul on spout.com

When I was getting the trailer up for Joe Swanberg’s Butterknife yesterday, I noticed our ad network had placed a banner for Dear Pillow (just released on DVD) on SpoutBlog. It felt serendipitous considering Dear Pillow and Swanberg’s Kissing on the Mouth were often cited together when they came out because of their frank treatment of sex. (Director Brian Poyser and Joe Swanberg are also friends who collaborated on Grammy’s, a short film included on the Dear Pillow DVD.)

I get excited to see a film, which two years ago I thought was too edgy to be seen outside a festival, getting a shot at an audience. However, my first reaction was disappointment to see the film’s marketers exploiting the T&A strategy. In a movie with no gratuitous sex scenes, Dear Pillow’s mock porn mag cover and “UNRATED” label heavily hint that it does. The “gratuitous sex” takes place in conversations between a teenage boy and two adults shockingly comfortable with talking about all things intercourse. Although they can get really, REALLY awkward, the conversations are kind of a relief for a kid whose dad won’t discuss the realities of sex with him. Although the “eroticism” is more raking than arousing, I believe the distributor in question, Heretic Films, knows this microbudget movie needs all the *pow* it can muster to get attention. And I agree.

Jonathan Hickman said in his 2004 Dear Pillow review, “For some, such content will be tough to stomach and difficult to tolerate. The thing is that viewers should be encouraged to tolerate this kind of smart and perceptive material precisely because it is challenging and thorny. Independent films this complex, self-aware, and well-acted are becoming more common. Films like this one get issues out to be publicly commented upon.”

But, of course, who ever heard the phrase, “Challenging sells.” If more people see the movie, why not hook them with soft porn even when it’s not? It’s a good film. But as I try to referee the purist versus the pragmatist within me, I think there has to be a way to sell challenging work as such. Maybe?