Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Victor Goodview’

Review Fix chats with director Vincent Turturro, who discusses his new film, “Victor Goodview.” Breaking down his creative process and what it’s like to be a part of Troma, Turturro Let’s us know why this film is a special one for him.

Synopsis

In the Yonkers ghetto – on the outskirts of New York City – aimless white-boy-millennial Victor finds himself without a job and short on the utility bill. To make matters more… uncomfortable, he hasn’t had a bowel movement in longer than he can remember.

Victor seeks solace by making friends of dubious character, smoking crack of dubious quality, and pursuing women of dubious intent. As Victor readies himself for his desperately needed dead-end job interview, the consequences of his lifestyle catch up with him.

Review Fix: How was this film born?

Vincent Turturro: Victor Goodview was born, literally – and I try not to use that word lightly or figuratively – in the basement apartment we used as our primary set for the film; yes we hired a talented art director to beshit the place a bit but you can’t dream up a space more finite than that.

I lived there for a time, beginning in 2007, and though I was rarely lucid during that period, I was blessed with the friendship of my eventual partner on the film, Jerome Raim. Jerome, always a heartening force, helped realize the very tactile source material we had our fingertips. Victor, titular face of our story, was invented initially as a mere excuse to use the space and to explore the South Yonkers terrain, untapped save for being faked for Brooklyn in Law & Order or numerous other “NYC” based productions; we wanted to tell a contemporary Yonkers-specific story; plunking a character like Victor (whom we lovingly refer to as a tofu) at the hub of it all enabled us to then dream up a whole body of whimsical characters who came bearing baggage, thus a story emerged, a story without a plot, but a story nevertheless

Review Fix: What inspires you to create?

Turturro: What inspires me to create is an absolute dearth of know-how in any other field.

Review Fix: Why do you think horror films are still so beloved?

Turturro: Horror films will always be beloved because they constitute the most unpretentious genre; unless we all turn into prudish priggish hard-ons overnight, horror movies are here to stay; even bad horror movies are better than your average bad movie that’s not a horror movie because they are true to themselves, they SELDOM pretend to be something they are not.

That’s not to say some of the best films of all time are not horror films and incredibly intellectual, sophisticated, poetic (the Exorcist, Don’t Look Now, Jacob’s Ladder, more recently Martyrs); but they are no bullshit, tooth-n-nail depictions of whatever universal themes make them classics.

Now, I don’t consider Victor a horror film, but perhaps in some unconscious emulation of certain films, that are not horror per se but which are downright uncanny and creepy, unnerving (Cronenberg, Lynch, Gilliam), we availed ourselves of an esthetic that certainly did favor distortion, claustrophobia, shock at times, guts, grimaces, a pervading feeling of inherent apprehension, dread, defeat (at least I hope we accomplished some of those things).

Review Fix: What makes Troma special to you?

Turturro: I’ve been watching Troma movies since I was a little snot-nosed kid in Brooklyn, wailing on the sidewalk for Haagen Dazs; Monster in the Closet was the one; then amid my pot-smoke choked adolescence in Upstate New York, my friends and I discovered the Toxic Avenger in which we reveled more times than would be believable should I hazard a number

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this film?

Turturro: That I want to make a Victor Goodview sequel, for which I’ve just recently completed a first draft, 227 page-fold, no shit.

Review Fix: How did you feel the first time you saw it post editing?

Turturro: I was proud of Victor from the first; it’s not perfect, I’m partial to the pacing we achieved with the second half, but I sincerely like the film and I’m damn proud of Jerome and the entire cast and crew.

Review Fix: You need a special cast to pull this off. How did they?

Turturro: Special indeed; Winston doesn’t have to do much more than stand still and his talent scintillates; he’s wonderful on stage and in front of the camera; all we had to do was bottle his vivaciousness into the very taciturn Victor which I can imagine was occasionally painful for Winston.

Review Fix: What was the feeling like on-set?

Turturro: It was a dogged crew; we did most everything by the books but often had to assume a guerrilla resourcefulness because of time constraints, extreme heat, the unpredictability of location shooting.

Review Fix: Bottom line-why must someone see this film?

Turturro: To either reconcile the most squalid, abject, insignificant time in their life (past or present); or to rise to the occasion and empathize with somebody that much worse off than they are (which even without the empathy will provide a healthy dose of perspective – so, Rise to the Occasion and Behold! the Suffering!);

Victor Goodview – Trailer from Jerome Raim on Vimeo.

Review Fix: How do you want this film to ultimately be remembered?

Turturro: Do I want this film to be remembered as featuring the most impressive bowel movement (outside of South Park)? Well, it’s definitely a possibility but ultimately I’d be happy if Victor elicits a feeling like a coat of filth that might not be so easy to shake, again, depending on either past personal experience of the viewer or their willingness to step into the friendless microcosm of another lost soul (their soul not necessarily having come to terms with being lost, making their transport that much more challenging).

Review Fix: What’s next?

Turturro: Larkin-Stanhope has begun early pre-production on its next feature Arbor Day; a dynamite core cast & crew have already been assembled and have met regularly to produce self-contained offshoots of the script to stay sharp before we begin production in earnest.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*