At a relatively young age for a director (he turned 36 in April) Arkansas-born David Gordon Green has turned out a number of diverse films in a career which is now over a decade old.

From his earlier, more consciously arty films with which he first made his name (his 2000 debut, George Washington, and the little-seen but much-praised follow-up, All the Real Girls) to the latter mainstream Hollywood fare like the Judd Apatow-produced stoner/action flick, Pineapple Express, he is seen as someone who likes to experiment with each film he makes and refuses to be tied to one genre.

His latest (the comedy fantasy, Your Highness) is released on DVD and Blu-ray next week, and we recently had the chance to chat with him about it.

Undervalued during its cinema release, the film should find a healthy audience via the small screen, where it’s quirky humour and sometimes weirdly off-kilter tone (it features the world’s first pederast puppet!) should satisfy fans of cult, left-field comedies.

We asked the director about his thoughts on the film’s future, and he also revealed his unique working methods and plans to continually play by his own rules when it comes to the film making process.

We talked a little with Danny McBride during the press junket about the film’s origins, but I was wondering how you got involved with it?

Danny and I have been talking about the idea since college (they both studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts) of making a medieval movie and homage to the fantasy films we loved as kids. Danny and [co-writer] Ben Best were guys I met at school and we had very diverse tastes in what we wanted to see and what we wanted to make so this was an idea we had been batting around for 10 years but back then we never imaged Danny would be an actor, much less a star of this movie because we were all just writers and directors in film school together. When people started looking at him as an actor and looking for us for ideas, this was just one where we felt like time had come and if they’re gonna allow us to make it, lets just give it a shot and see what happens. It was definitely the one where we talked about how we could play it safe or we go with Your Highness, and we wanted to take advantage of the doors which had been opened for us and make this film.

Danny also mentioned that there was some ad-libbing involved. What were the challenges for you doing that in a big studio film as opposed to the smaller, intimate work?

It’s hard. There’s quotes going around that the film is highly improvised but that’s not really the case. There’s a lot of stuff we made up on set but in my own process with improvisation, it doesn’t really count. There was definitely more of a script here than anything I’ve ever worked on because of what you’re saying, all the logistics involved in a big shoot. If you were to adlib the movie, it would be extremely hard because of all the stunt work, special effects and everything that has to go into the technical preparation. You’ve got to know what you’re doing to some degree, so you can’t just throw the script out of the window. That being said, I’m really open to letting the moments breathe and the ideas from actors happen, and I’m never one to say you must do what’s on the page, but in terms of my own work, it’s definitely the movie which took the most preparation and storyboarding and had the biggest crew. There were a lot of people asking tons of questions about how to get this thing made and a lot of money was being spent, so we tried to do everything as responsible as we could and we wanted to educate ourselves about this process.

The film didn’t really find that Pineapple Express-size audience at the cinema. Did you always envision that it may have been a tough sell?

It’s a lot weirder of a movie I think. I wasn’t really surprised by that but at the same time, I think there was a perception of the movie that came through the marketing and advertising to some degree, and also people’s expectations of what the guys behind Pineapple Express were gonna do and if it was going to be more of a spoof. Our inspirations were far more legitimate than comedies. We were thinking of movies like Beastmaster, Krull and even Barry Lyndon in the design of the movie. I don’t think I’m saying that with any sort of pretension about it because we knew we were making a very ridiculous, absurd and vulgar movie, but it was never designed to be the accessible and commercial vehicle that ‘Express’ was. It’s a very different movie.

I was hoping it would find a bigger audience because I really wanted the opportunity to make a sequel which would have been even better than this one, so I’m a little disappointed it didn’t find a bigger crowd but maybe it will on video, you never know. Opening weekends these days are so much about how many commercials you have on TV and critical responses, but there are movies like The Big Lebowski and Office Space and some of my favourite comedies, which took a while for people to adjust to what their specific, peculiar sense of humour was, and I think Your Highness may fall under that category.

I’m certain it will find a loving home on DVD.

Another thing, which I was talked to Danny about in hindsight, is this movie has a lot of things which make people uncomfortable, and maybe they’re less comfortable watching something that’s a little twisted amongst a big crowd of people. Maybe watching it at home may be more appropriate for them, so I don’t know, but I hope what you’re saying is right, I hope it finds a cult audience. It’s a movie in which people will stop me in the street and already quote from, so that’s really nice when you find fans of the film.

It’s not the kind of film which people were jumping in line to see, but I think it’s a film which people saw as having a unique vision and it’s helped build their curiosity with what we have got coming next. We’ve kept really busy in trying to crank out some stuff, and not necessarily always comedic. We’re developing a lot of dramatic stuff. I’m working on a horror film now (a remake of Dario Argento’s supernatural giallo classic, Susperia) so for us, this movie was just a great experience to be able to accomplished what we did in trying new things and taking risks. We could have played it safe and made a Pineapple Express sequel and gotten rich off it but then there’s the inner nerd in us that wants to try everything and leave no stone unturned, and this is really an industry where that is accessible if you want it, work at it and have the right partners in crime to try and get stuff down, then you can.

You’re a busy guy at the moment. You have all the Eastbound & Down stuff on the go and your new comedy, The Sitter. How do you find the time to develop other stuff? Is it much better when you’re working with someone like Danny? Are you able to get things made faster or more efficiently?

Yeah. We’ve got a great group of people and a lot of our crew from film school we still work with – the same cameraman, sound mixer, production designer. You do have shorthand having worked with these people for 15 years, and that also enables us to find time to delegate and discover new voices to help motivate us in keeping things fresh. I’m up in North Carolina doing ‘Eastbound’ season three right now, and there are probably 20 people within a mile from where we’re filming who we’ve been working together with for that period of time. It’s inspiring and helps us to be that much more ambition because we’re not sitting there knocking on Hollywood’s door asking to be given an opportunity. We’ve here with our buddies trying to do exactly what we want.

I can’t imagine you get much interference from the studios. Are they pretty happy for you to get on with things?

We use it for what it’s value is and sometimes there are some smart executives and creative people that we’ve worked with and we’re really fortunate that they have supported us, and we’ll collaborative with them when it works for what we’re trying to do, but if nobody wants to give us 40 million dollars to make a movie, we’ll put 40 thousand together. Not only that, we also have other interests outside the movies, so sometimes if we don’t want to film anything, we’ll just grab a six pack of beer and an inner tube and float down the river. That’s the nature of us all being friends. You’ve got a group of guys who like to work hard and play hard, and hopefully if that can continue and you can keep ego out of the way, then you’ve got a real solid army of people that can accomplish a lot of things. We look to each other and say, are we pushing ourselves enough, or are we playing it safe?

Can I ask you about The Sitter? Are you finished on that now or are you still in post-production?

We haven’t sound mixed it yet but we just finished the edit a couple of days ago, so we’re in good shape. It comes out in the States in December

I’ve heard it compared to an R-Rated version of Adventures in Babysitting. Can you elaborate?

It’s more like an After Hours type of movie. It’s a dark comedy and it basically has Jonah Hill taking three kids on a cocaine run. It’s a very weird and surreal life that they have trying to get drugs (laughs). It’s different from the other things I’ve made and I made it as a kind of homage to something like Risky Business and a lot of the John Hughes movies that I loved. It’s a very eighties movie.

David, it’s been a real pleasure talking to you. Thanks for taking time out today to do this.

Thank you. Hopefully speak to you again sometime soon.

Your Highness is released on DVD and Blu-ray on the 8th August.

Horrible Bosses centres on Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day): three best friends who want nothing more than to be free of their intolerable bosses. When every permissible route has been attempted, the trio devise a dastardly and seemingly foolproof plan to rid themselves of their respective employers… permanently. But, as they soon find out, plans are easier devised than followed through.

While the premise starts off as a simplistic and mundane everyday comedy, it quickly (and welcomely) develops into something far more devilish and sinister. Screenwriters Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein may not bring a whole lot of plausibility or realism to the table, and you may find yourself scratching your head at the film’s outlandish ideas, but their zealous efforts go towards creating something bold, eccentric and ahead of the game.

The central trio of Bateman, Day and Sudeikis is what really bolsters this comedy. Their characters are vastly different but gel so well together, bouncing off one another with an incredible charm and quick wit. Bateman has sharpened his skill to deliver a raw comedic performance, and Sudeikis is solidly on-from. Out of the three though, it’s Day who truly stands out, doing so at every available opportunity. His rapport with Aniston in particular is expertly acted.

In terms of the bosses, and in that respect the main supporting cast, Kevin Spacey owns his role. Obviously in performance euphoria, he rabidly shoots off abuse like he’s been waiting his whole career to play this slave-driving psycho. Though shamefully kept in the background, Colin Farrell entirely embraces his less than flattering physical transformation, along with a daft vocabulary and racist sensibilities. As for Jennifer Aniston, she has finally been cast against type as the nymphomaniac Dr. Harris, dropping one hysterical vulgarity after another. Rachel Green is no more, and Aniston has a whole lot more to offer as an actress than most cinemagoers have been led to believe. She has, for better or worse, well and truly shed her good girl image.

As a director, Gordon fares very well. On the back of his outstanding documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Four Christmases was a clear career misstep. To Horrible Bosses, however, he has brought unabashed zany humour, immersive interspersed drama and an offbeat directing style: techniques clearly built up during his time spent making documentaries and working on veteran television comedies, such as 30 Rock. In short: a perfect mix for welcomely off-kilter comedy film.

The two most noticeable flaws of Horrible Bosses, however, are that it never fully measures up to its outrageously dark premise, and that it ends up feeling borderline offensive at times. The film does provide elements of dark comedy, finding humour in scenes of death, mutilation and drug use, but it’s played all too cosily and light-hearted, never evoking the desired reaction. Also, however fun it is to watch Dr. Harris sexually harass Dale and hear how much Kurt wants to sleep with every living female, it often comes across as crass and degrading, and can be uncomfortable to watch.

That said, Horrible Bosses is still frequently hilarious, with laughs arriving both hard and often once the film finds its feet, thanks in no part to the sharply written script and enthusiasm evident in the well selected cast. There are even times when it sets itself up as a new favourite for the workplace comedy genre in the vein of Office Space or Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, but it ultimately falls short and feels miles away from its courageously crazy premise. Nevertheless, it’s a well-intended and laugh-out-loud comedy worth a chance.

***½~ (3.5/5)

Mike Judges’s previous work hangs heavy over Extract. Mike Judge is probably most loved for creating Beavis and Butthead but his 1999 film Office Space also has a lot of fans. Office Space is a much loved comedy that since it’s release has garnered a slow burning cult following. In addition to Beavis and Butthead and Office Space, Mike Judge also executive produced the somewhat uneven King of the Hill, the incredibly disappointing The Goode Family and directed the feature film Idiocracy. Although there were elements of Idiocracy that were enjoyable it failed in more places than it succeeded. Released in America last year but in the UK on Friday comes his latest project, the feature film Extract.

Extract stars Jason Bateman as Joel Reynolds, the owner of an extract factory, who is married to Suzie, played by Kristen Wiig. Despite having achieved what could be described as the American Dream, Joel is a self made wealthy business owner with a large house and a wife, Joel is unhappy with his life. The main source of this unhappiness appears to be the unavailability of his wife for sex. There is a running joke throughout the film about his wife’s sweatpants which she wears around the house and ties up tight, effectively signalling that she is not interested in an amorous evening. Joel rushes home from work in an effort to get there in time before the sweatpants are tied. Although slightly amusing the concept would probably sit more at home in a TV comedy or as a sketch than an important plot point in a feature film.

Into Joel’s sexually frustrated life walks Cindy, played by the pretty but bland Mila Kunis, who picks Joel out of the slump he is in. Joel lusts after Cindy as a sexual object rather than as a potential new partner; he even describes her at one point as a bit slutty looking. He sees her as everything his wife isn’t, young, exciting and sexually available. Unbeknownst to Joel though Cindy is a con artist and is working on a long con involving an ex-employee of Joel’s, Step (Clifton Collins Jr), who lost a testicle in a factory accident. Joel is desperate to sleep with Cindy but feels bad about cheating on his wife. His long term friend Dean (Ben Affleck) suggests to him that he should hire a gigolo to try and seduce his wife and if he succeeds then Joel can pursue Cindy guilt free. After accidentally taking some Ketamine, thinking it was Xanax, Joel is talked into this ridiculous idea by Dean and they contact dim-witted gigolo Brad (Dustin Milligan). The film then plays out these various plot strands before wrapping them all up in the third act.

That last sentence probably best exemplifies the problems with this film, it is all a little too neat. The plot never goes anywhere too interesting or unexpected and the comedic moments in the film are too often vaguely amusing rather than funny. Like Office Space in many ways Extract feels low key and has a calm casual pace but Extract doesn’t have the stand out comedic moments that Office Space had. Extract also has a collection of characters that I found pretty uninteresting and they often seemed conceited and self absorbed to such an extent that they were hard to care about. Joel, for instance, is clearly wealthy and has a job that for the most part appears quite easy so when obstacles present themselves and he complains it just seems like he’s whining.

The film also doesn’t benefit from the current economic climate. In a time where so many people are being made redundant do we really want to see a film in which the protagonist is a factory owner whose main problem in life is that his wife won’t have sex with him enough. I also couldn’t help but feel that the film would have worked better as a series or even, considering Judge’s background, an animated series where the characters could have been further developed.

The look of the film is also very uncinematic with a style that although one could argue complements the subject matter it is very bland and does little to distance the film from television comedy. One thing that is worth complimenting the film for though is the mostly excellent cast who despite the often simplistic characterisation are enjoyable to watch and bring something to their small roles. Although Bateman is not stretching himself much in the role of Joel he does a good job in the part. Kristen Wiig and Clifton Collins Jr., despite minor roles, do good work and particularly enjoyable, although again only in a small role, is JK Simmons who plays Joels right hand man in the factory, Brian. Brian is anxious to get rid of the factory and collect on the sale so that he can stop worrying about the mostly inept staff who he refuses to learn the names of, referring to everyone as dinkus. Unfortunately the cast are not enough to elevate the lacklustre writing and direction and the addition of Ben Affleck in the role of the stoner friend is something Extract could definitely have done without.

The film’s overriding theme appears to be about the treatment of good looking people in society. Joel at one point comments, “What is it with women? Y’know, they say they say they don’t care about looks – they just want a guy who’s smart and funny – but they always just end up laughing at whatever the good-looking stupid guy says.” There is the obvious hypocrisy in this statement as Joel desires the pretty Cindy, who is perhaps not stupid but has no discernible character traits except that she cannot be trusted. The film’s ending also does little to counter the argument that good looking people will get what they want, although the non-pretty people may feel sorry for them, which you could say is a valid point but one that feels too simplistic and underdeveloped to hang the film’s ending on.

Extract exists somewhere between Judge’s Office Space and Idiocracy; It is not as funny as Office Space but probably funnier than Idiocracy, it is not high concept comedy in the vein of Idoicracy but it is closer on a sliding scale to this than it is to the slacker comedy genre Office Space inhabits and perhaps most significantly it is not as good as Office Space but it is definitely a better film than Idiocracy. If you’re fan of Judge’s work then this is probably required viewing but otherwise it is probably not a film that I would recommend you check out at the cinema.

Extract opens in the UK on March 26^th and a trailer for the film is embedded below.

I’ve seen Office Space loads of times. I may even go as far as to say that it’s one of my favourite comedy movies of all time. I know a lot of people out there think it’s rubbish but just so we’re clear, you’re all wrong! It’s a work of genius!

Mike Judge directed the legendary Office Space and his latest movie is called Extract which stars Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Ben Affleck. We’ve got the new trailer for you which I’ve embedded below. Extract is released March 26th and we’ll hopefully get a screening soon to bring you a review.

Synopsis: Joel, the owner of an extract manufacturing plant, constantly finds himself in precarious situations that steadily worsen by the minute. First, his soon-to-be floor manager acquires a serious injury in a machine malfunctioning accident that subsequently endangers the wellbeing of his company. Second, his personal life doesn’t fair much better when he takes the advice of his bartending friend Dean during a drug-induced brainstorming session on how to test his wife’s faithfulness. Finally, compounding these catastrophes is new employee Cindy, who happens to be a scam artist intent on milking the company for all its worth. Now, Joel must attempt to piece his company and his marriage back together all while trying to figure out what he’s really after in life.

Remember Ron Livingston? He’s the actor who you may know from Band of Brothers, Swingers and one of my favourite films of all time, Office Space. He’s completely underrated as an actor which can be seen in the diversity of characters in Office Space and Band of Brothers.

Variety have given us information today stating that Livingston has joined the new Jay Roach comedy also set to star Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, “Dinner for Schmuck”.

Pic is an adaptation of the Francis Veber-helmed French film “Le dinner de cons,” in which a group of bourgeois friends regularly invite the biggest schmucks to dinner to ridicule them. Livingston’s recent credits include New Line’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and the indie “Holly.”