By David Pountain
Writer/producer/director/actor Brian Petsos has bee
n making the rounds of American comedy for a few years now. Between appearances in Bridesmaids and SNL spin-off MacGruber, Petsos has produced and directed several shorts, received writing credits for two episodes of Funny or Die Presents… and written and starred in the 2012 feature Revenge for Jolly! alongside Oscar Isaac of Ex Machina and Inside Llewyn Davis fame.
His latest short, Ticky Tacky, is an irreverent, deadpan revenge comedy that stars Isaac as Lucien, a wealthy and vindictive individual who wreaks harsh vengeance on two of his closest companions. In its blending of the absurd with the self-consciously old-fashioned, Ticky Tacky humorously creates a knowingly self-serious aura of melodrama that the film consistently and intentionally undermines. Set entirely within Lucien’s vast and aesthetically oppressive office, Petsos’ style presents a bitter academic’s vision of vengeance and self-destruction, orchestrating these acts as a type of self-romanticising pageantry that looks silly and petty to any outside observer.
Speaking to FilmDoo, Brian Petsos shares his thoughts on this funny and offbeat work.
What was the original idea behind Ticky Tacky?
It’s difficult to pinpoint one single original idea that spawned the script for Ticky Tacky. But there are a lot of elements that share a commonality with other works of mine. I’m both fascinated and confounded by archetype, and base animal nature in each of us, and also the diametrically opposed points of view of childhood and adulthood. I suppose the idea is to mix some of that stuff in a bowl along with a dash of discomfort, a pinch of blood (or gasoline), and a few chuckles here or there, and hopefully you end up with something tasty. That’s the hope at least.
How did Oscar Isaac get involved in the short?
Oscar was involved from the very beginning. It was actually before I had finished the script, but I knew the financing was in place and the project was a go. I casually gave him a rundown of the story and he raised his hand with blind glee wanting to participate. I may have been a little tipsy on this occasion—I can’t speak for Oscar. But after reading the finished script a short time later, he reiterated his desire to bring Lucien to life…or death. Oscar is a very brave and very talented man; a good man. And quite handsome.
Do you regard Lucien to be a sympathetic character?
I regard all characters to be sympathetic. I tend toward the most literal or scientific definition of the word, and I don’t like to be bound by achieving a marked ‘likability’. And the idea of having to adhere to (or support) a universally accepted moral code is something I find tremendously unsettling, at the very least in artmaking.
The film has a very distinct, eccentric, somewhat retro look to it. What was the thinking behind this match-up of visual style and story?
Some people have described it as ‘dreamy’, and that makes me happy as well. The ‘look’ of the film—from the bones of the location itself, to the additional production design and wardrobe, to the cinematographic scheme, and even carrying into the performances—is all in aid of giving the piece a heightened sense of reality. It is, after all, a narrative film. And a film can be a dream. It should be a dream! I think that a lot of what the last 50 years of cinema has brought is a conscious eradication of much of what might have seemed plastic (or magical?) about cinema from the previous 50 years. But I love that energy, the ease of escape, and hopefully was able to inject some of that into Ticky Tacky along the way. Obviously this counteracts with the dark-comedic elements and the absurdity. But still! I have a strong penchant for that type of juxtaposition.
As someone who has been heavily involved in acting, writing, producing and directing, is there any particular area that you can see yourself committing to in the long run?
Well, truthfully, and this may sound odd, I would have to say that I began performing because I wanted to make movies. Performing is incredible in that all you need is your physical self. And that is a wonderful thing. Making movies, however, is an incredibly daunting task; one that requires significant financial investment and a large number of people working together in unison. Even though I studied film as part of my art school curriculum, I had no idea at the time how I would ever be able to actually make a ‘real’ movie.
Performing brought me into the realm. Being that I was writing even from my first days training as a performer, I suppose the idea was always to start wholeheartedly directing someday way down the line, when it all made sense to me and didn’t seem quite as daunting. Even as I was producing and performing simultaneously, and producing works that I had written, the step towards legitimately directing still seemed a bit distant. But a light shone very brightly recently. The time, surprisingly, was ‘now’. And so with great respect for the medium, I’m focusing all of my energies on writing/directing. (That is not to say that I won’t ever perform again.)
Do you have any other projects in the works?
I do. I don’t want to elaborate too much, so as to maintain the element of surprise (or feign mysteriousness). But there is a piece that is very-near-ready to be shared with others. And I anticipate that happening hopefully in the coming months. It should be worth a few chuckles, here or there.
Watch Ticky Tacky free on FilmDoo.com.
Find more shorts on FilmDoo here.
