Inside Monkey Zetterland
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''Inside Monkey Zetterland'' is a 1992
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
film directed by
Jefery Levy Jefery Levy (born May 21, 1958) is an American film and television director, producer, and writer, based in Beverly Hills, California. Career In 1985, while a graduate student at UCLA, Levy wrote and produced the low-budget hit '' Ghoulies'', a ...
and written by
Steve Antin Steven Antin (born April 19, 1958) is an American actor, stunt performer, screenwriter, producer, and director. Early life Antin was born in Queens, New York City, the son of British Jews, British Jewish immigrants. He is the brother of fello ...
. The film follows Monkey Zetterland, a former child actor turned aspiring screenwriter and the goings-on with his eccentric family and friends. The story uses voiceover narration and is interspersed with fantasy sequences.


Plot

Monkey Zetterland is a struggling screenwriter and a former
child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in film, movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associa ...
who is working on a historical script based on the defunct Red Car subway of Los Angeles. He lives in a building owned by his neurotic mother Honor Zetterland, who is a famous
soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
star. While secretly hoping there is a future in acting for Monkey, she attempts to turn her other son, hairdresser Brent, into a film star. Honor shows up at Monkey's apartment to borrow his epsom salts at the same time that his disagreeable girlfriend, Daphne, arrives. His sister Grace arrives in tears to reveal that her
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
girlfriend, Cindy, has become pregnant from a
one-night stand A one-night stand is a single sexual encounter in which there is no expectation that there shall be any further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single night performanc ...
in an attempt to bring the two of them closer. Honor rents the basement apartment to Sasha and Sofie, a gay man and lesbian posing as husband and wife while publishing an underground newsletter that outs
closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for LGBTQ people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometime ...
gay people in the entertainment industry. As if this were not enough, a creepy woman, Bella, shows up with a fan letter for Honor, and another strange lady, Imogene, begins openly pursuing Monkey's attention. After a series of confrontations with Monkey, Daphne moves out. At around the same time, his estranged father Mike, who was absent for long periods of time throughout the Zetterlands’ lives, surfaces in time for
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. While everyone busies themselves with their personal issues, Grace discovers that Sasha and Sofie are in fact terrorists who intend to bomb a local insurance agency that is denying medical coverage to people with HIV and
AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
. Sofie comes up with a plan to send Grace into the agency with a bomb, which Grace and Sasha believe is set up to give Grace enough time to escape before it detonates. It is not, and Grace dies in the explosion. This event pulls everyone out of their own selfish interests and forces them to reexamine their lives and the people around them. The patriarch of the family disappears again, Cindy and her newborn baby are taken in by the family, and Monkey decides to let Imogene get closer to him. Then, just as things are starting to fall into place, Monkey comes home to find his apartment ransacked and his finally finished script, of which was his only copy, stolen. Later that evening, Bella, who left a fan letter for Honor, arrives with Monkey's stolen script and a gun. She tries to shoot Honor, but hits the family dog instead. She is taken down, but the ensuing drama pulls the remaining emotional conflicts of the family into place. Honor accepts that Monkey is never going to become a famous actor. Instead of pushing him into acting, she uses her industry connections to have his script produced into a film starring Brent.


Cast


Production

The inspiration from the script came from Steve Antin’s own background, as he himself started out as a child actor before getting into writing. The script originated as a book of short stories titled ''Campfire Stories''. While Antin was filming the 1988 movie '' The Accused'',
Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. Foster started her career as a child actor before establishing herself as leading actress in film. She has received List of awards and nominations re ...
asked to read some of Antin's stories, after which she suggested he turn the stories into a film script.


Release

The film had its world premiere at the 1992
Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is a film festival held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 1976. It usually takes place in late May and/or early June. It is one of the largest festivals in the world, and feature ...
on June 5, 1992. It went on to screen at the Toronto Festival of Festivals on September 12, 1992, and was given a limited release in the United States on August 25, 1993.


Home media

It was released in 1994 on VHS and in 1995 on
Laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
. The film was released on DVD on February 6, 2007.


Critical reception

On review aggregate website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...
, ''Inside Monkey Zetterland'' has an approval rating of 71% based on 7 reviews. Emanuel Levy of '' Variety'' said the film "is funny, sharp-tongued and devious, but never wicked or nasty. Its resonant comedy is so attuned to the Zeitgeist that any urban dweller will find something relevant in it." Marjorie Baumgarten of ''
The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...
'' gave it three stars, writing, "These actors all create riveting snapshots of oddballs in action," but also noting the film has a "rambling storyline". Negative reviews criticized the story and characterization. Desson Howe of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' wrote, "After the characters have taken up most of the movie airing their idiosyncrasies, they undergo melodramatic fates that reveal little more than Antin's recession of an imagination." ''
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'' gave a mixed review, praising the film for "inescapably apturingthe LA attitude", but noting "it has no real center, a point underlined by frequent scenes in which characters drift not only out of the frame, but into different rooms." The review commented that Levy "never gives a clue how he relates to his characters or story, which isn't much help to the viewer", but observed Coppola is given a chance to redeem herself after her much maligned performance in ''
The Godfather Part III ''The Godfather Part III'' is a 1990 American epic crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from the screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy García, Eli Wallach, Jo ...
''. Stephen Holden of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' praised the ensemble cast and said the film "flaunts a number of audacious cinematic tricks", but disliked the film's "mood of manic chaos".


Accolades

Tate Donovan was nominated for Best Supporting Male at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards. The film was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Feature at the 1993
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
.


References


External links

* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, inside_monkey_zetterland 1990s American films 1990s English-language films 1990s satirical films 1992 black comedy films 1992 films 1992 independent films 1992 LGBTQ-related films American black comedy films American independent films American LGBTQ-related films American satirical films English-language black comedy films English-language independent films Films about actors Films about screenwriters Films about stalking Films about terrorism Films directed by Jefery Levy Films set in Los Angeles Gay-related films Lesbian-related films LGBTQ-related comedy films