Friday 24 May
 
 

The Burning

It speaks to the strength of The Burning’s reputation among cult-film fans that what’s most memorable about the 1981 slasher is not that it was written by the Weinstein brothers, nor that it represents early appearances of the likes of Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens. It’s that its Cropsy is just a damned good villain.
05/24/2013 | Comments 0

Dexter: The Seventh Season

There's no way to discuss the seventh and penultimate season of Showtime's hit Dexter without acknowledging how the previous year ended. Therefore, if you haven't finished the sixth season, stop reading now. You've got work to do.
05/21/2013 | Comments 0

Nightfall

As Simon Lam gets older, he gets better. The veteran actor has appeared in such in seminal HK action films of the 1990s as Once Upon a Time in China (opposite Jet Li) and Bullet in the Head (directed by John Woo); in the aughts, he graced audience and critical favorites Election and Ip Man.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

Grand Duel

Lee Van Cleef enjoyed a secondary career in Italy cranking out spaghetti Westerns, with little regard to quality. However, 1972’s Grand Duel — aka The Big Showdown — is deserving of its Grand label. No wonder Quentin Tarantino borrowed its sweeping theme song by Luis Bacalov for Kill Bill; you'll recognize it in two notes.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Comedy · Wolf Head
Comedy

Wolf Head


With his first feature, ‘Wolf Head,’ Yukon filmmaker Ryan Scott hopes audiences have a howling good time.

Rod Lott January 18th, 2012  

Wolf Head
7 p.m. Thursday
Harkins Bricktown Cinemas 16
150 E. Reno
$7

Ryan “Staples” Scott just wanted to “do something funny, with guns.”

“The image of a gun has so much more weight to it,” said the Yukon resident. “I wanted to create a plot to push that.”

The end result is his directorial debut in feature filmmaking, “Wolf Head,” shot entirely in the Oklahoma City metro area with an all-local cast and crew. The crime comedy premieres with a special screening tomorrow night at Harkins Bricktown Cinemas.

For Scott, the public showing represents quite an accomplishment, considering he almost gave up on the five-month shoot. Previously, he had lensed nothing longer than 45 minutes, 2009’s dramedy short, “Dale and the Laughing Turtle,” so tackling something twice as long proved infinitely more complicated.

“I did not realize even remotely what I was getting into,” said Scott, who makes advertisements and animation as RYIT Creative. “But I kept going, even though I was so sick of it. But I learned a ridiculous amount.”

And if you don’t like it, blame Steely Dan.

Two years ago, the kernel that eventually popped into “Wolf Head” was planted in Scott’s head via the legendary jazz rockers’ “Do It Again.” The 1972 single’s dark lyrics begin, “In the morning you go gunning / For the man who stole your water.”

“I immediately thought, ‘There’s a story in there,’” said Scott, “and this is what grew out of it.”

Centering on two not-so-bright brothers (played by Tyler Roberds and Jonathan Grant), “Wolf Head” follows in the tennis-shoed footsteps of cinema’s recent socially awkward manchildren of “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Step Brothers.”

Living with their mother (Michaela Bishop), the boys discover she has “like, $10” in the bank, so they decide to “become men” — con men, to be more specific. Unfortunately, they have no idea what they’re doing — one mistakes tampons for confetti poppers, after all — until they enlist the help of a beautiful woman (Jen Ehrlich) they meet on the streets.

Featured in supporting roles are a few familiar names, including 2 Movie Guys’ Lucas Ross, radio personality Jack Elliott and Miss Oklahoma 2010, Emoly West.

“A lot of talented people were involved,” Scott said. “Nobody did just one thing. Everybody had a 10-person job.”

With assistance like that, “Wolf Head” surpassed so many obstacles in its journey from the random folds of Scott’s brain to the polished effort on the silver screen.

“I did not expect it to look as good as it did,” he said. “In film, you can never get what you see in your head, but somehow, we did it.”


 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
 
 

 

 
 
 
Close
Close
Close