''Ass Backwards'' is a 2013 American female buddy

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to disc ...

film written by and starring June Diane Raphael and

Casey Wilson Cathryn Rose "Casey" Wilson (born October 24, 1980) is an American actress, comedienne, and screenwriter. She starred as Penny Hartz in the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings'' for which she was twice nominated to the Critics' Choice Television ...

. The film is directed by Chris Nelson and produced by

Heather Rae Heather Rae is an American film and television producer and director. She has worked on documentary and narrative film projects, and is best known for ''Frozen River'', ''Trudell'', and '' Tallulah''. Personal life Rae was raised in Idaho. In 19 ...

. The film premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

on January 21, 2013. The film was made available on iTunes and VOD on September 30, 2013, leading up to the film's theatrical release on November 8, 2013.

Plot

Loveable losers Kate and Chloe ( June Diane Raphael and

) are best friends with a not-so-firm grip on reality. The girls have been inseparable ever since tying for dead last at a kiddie beauty pageant as children. Now they are all grown up and living in New York City, where Chloe is a "rising star" dancing in a glass box at a nightclub and Kate is the "CEO" of her own one-woman egg-donor "corporation". Their past humiliations at the pageant remain long forgotten until they receive an invitation to the pageant's milestone anniversary celebration. With the unpleasant memories flooding back, Kate and Chloe decide to redeem themselves and take a road trip back to their hometown and win the elusive crown. On the road, they face some hard truths about themselves and each other as they encounter drug addicts, spring breakers, strip club hooligans, a feminist farming collective, and their favorite reality TV star, leading to the girls' homecoming and final reckoning with their past, present and future.

Cast

* June Diane Raphael as Kate Fenner *

as Chloe West *

Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller '' The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence at age 16 as a ...

as Laurel Kelly * Jon Cryer as Dean Morris *

Vincent D'Onofrio Vincent Philip D'Onofrio (; born June 30, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his supporting and leading roles in both film and television. He has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. His roles include Private Leonar ...

as Bruce West * Brian Geraghty as Brian Hickman *

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off '' Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has ...

as Pageant Emcee *

Paul Scheer Paul Christian Scheer (born January 31, 1976) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster. Scheer is a SAG award-winning actor known for his roles in Showtime's comedy series '' Black Monday'' and FX/ FXX's ''The ...

as Strip Club Owner *

Sandy Martin Sandy Martin is an American actress, playwright, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles in the film '' Napoleon Dynamite'' and the TV series '' Big Love'', ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', and '' Ray Donovan''. Career Mart ...

as Qwen * Marcia Jean Kurtz as Barb * Lea DeLaria as Deb *

Paul Rust Paul Robert Rust (born April 12, 1981) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred in the 2009 film ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' and in the Netflix series '' Love''. Early life Rust was born in Le Mars, Iowa, the son of Jeanne and Bob ...

as Seth *

Drew Droege Andrew Gerhardt Droege (pronounced ) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director best known for his online impressions of Chloë Sevigny. Early life and education Droege attended and graduated from Lincolnton High School in Lincolnto ...

as Homeless Norma * Debra Monk as Pawn Shop Owner

Release

The film premiered at the 2013

in Park City, Utah, on January 21, 2013. It made its

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

premiere at the Outfest Film Festival on July 13, 2013. Since its Sundance premiere, the film was acquired by Gravitas Ventures, who announced its VOD release for September 30, 2013 before its theatrical release on November 8, 2013.

Home media

''Ass Backwards'' was released on DVD on January 28, 2014.

Reception

The film has received mostly negative reactions from critics. The A.V. Club, Hollywood.com, FirstShowing.net,

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...

, and

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gave favorable reviews, but the film was panned by ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

''. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 37, based on 10 reviews. Film review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reports that 27% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 22 reviews, with an average score of 4.27/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "June Diane Raphael and Casey Wilson are sharp comedic performers, but their co-written script gives them little to work with in this meandering farce." Robert Abele of the ''

'' stated: One of the harsher reviews came from Dennis Harvey of ''

'' who called the film "a comedy built on the amusement value of stupid people that is itself too stupid to be funny". On the other hand, Chris Packham of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' wrote: A more positive reaction to the film came from

critic Christy Lemire: The A.V. Club gave the film a B rating: "Ass Backwards overcomes the obvious beats with clever, occasionally dark jokes that reveal the sharpness of its stars' writing." Ethan Anderton of FirstShowing.net said: Hollywood.com had one of the more favorable reviews:

Filming

Shot in various

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York (state), New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upsta ...

locations (including Albany, Tarrytown and Saratoga Springs) in summer 2010, production was initially halted due to an investor defaulting. In 2011, writers-stars Raphael and Wilson launched a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign to raise money to finish the film, as well as executive producer Dori Sperko also helping finance the remaining days of shooting in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in summer 2012 to complete the film.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ass Backwards 2013 films 2013 black comedy films 2013 independent films 2010s comedy road movies 2010s screwball comedy films American black comedy films American female buddy films American independent films American comedy road movies American screwball comedy films Films about beauty pageants 2010s English-language films Films set in Manhattan Films shot in New York (state) Kickstarter-funded films Lesbian-related films American slapstick comedy films Worldview Entertainment films 2010s female buddy films 2010s American films