Friday night at the movies may be a little more versatile. Today, the first feature-length Hollywood movie—Girl Walks Into A Bar—made with notable stars debuted on the user-generated video sharing platform, YouTube.
The description of the 79-minute comedy is:
GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR connects a group of apparent strangers over one night across ten bars throughout Los Angeles. Zachary Quinto stars as a dentist who teams up with a feisty would-be assassin (Carla Gugino) to put the final touches on the plan to kill his wife. Once he makes a play for the assassin’s payment, he unknowingly sets off a chain of events that fuels a crosstown journey through the many lounges, bars, strip clubs and the occasional nudist ping pong clubs scattered across Los Angeles. By turns funny and heartbreaking, this sharp-witted comedy features ten interconnected vignettes that build to a revealing finish.
The project is supported by four ad breaks shown during the full-length playing of the film.
The movie stars a few familiar faces: Carla Gugino (Watchmen, Night At The Museum, Spy Kids), Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek), Rosario Dawson (Buffy, Sin City, Josie and the Pussycats), and Danny DeVito (too many to name). My personal connection to the movie is that John Colella—someone who was at DePaul when I was acting there—is in GWIAB. The movie was directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, writer of the cult movie Snakes on a Plane, itself a product of the Internet, albeit in a different way.
The first 23 votes on IMDB had it at 9.8 out of 10 stars. I presume that is the GWIAB marketing team at work, but it will be interesting to see how this method of delivery affects perception of quality.