 One
of the hippest, edgiest and funniest indie teen comedies to come along in
years, Fifty Pills, released on DVD (£12.99) by Scanbox
Entertainment on 7th April 2008, is the outstanding debut feature
from director Theo Avgerinos and boasts a to-die-for cast of hot
up-and-coming talent that includes Lou Taylor Pucci (Fast Food Nation;
Southland Tales; The Chumscrubber), Kristen Bell (Heroes;
Veronica Mars), Monica Keena (Entourage; Orange County;
Dawson's Creek), Nora Zehetner (Heroes; Brick), Eddie
Kaye Thomas (the American Pie movies), John Hensley (Nip/Tuck),
along with established stars Jane Lynch (Talladega Nights; The
40-Year-Old Virgin; A Mighty Wind) and Michael Pena (Lions For
Lambs; World Trade Center; Babel; Million Dollar Baby;
Crash).
One wild, drug-fuelled dorm party too many at the start of his first term at NYU has cost Darren Gales (Lou Taylor Pucci) his college scholarship and left him unable to afford to pay his own way through to graduation by hitting the tuition payment deadline. That is until his uber-cool but slightly deviant roommate, Coleman (John Hensley), comes up with an illicit plan for scoring some serious cash in rapid time. All Darren has to do is shift fifty Ecstasy pills that have somehow come into Coleman's possession. Although it could help solve his financial problems, being a drug dealer, albeit a reluctant and temporary one, is unlikely to help Darren impress the girl of his dreams, Gracie (Kristen Bell), who he doesn't even have the courage to ask out. What Darren doesn't realize is that the next 24 hours are going to be nothing if not eventful. Not only does he have to sell the drugs, he will also have to survive run-ins with a teenage dominatrix, a manic 'Diff'rent Strokes' obsessive and two hot chicks looking for a threesome, escape three bungling thugs chasing the wrong guy and avoid instigating a turf war between two of the city's biggest drug dealers. Oh, and he also has to convince his parents he's not gay and complete a paper on Dante's Inferno! Part caper, part teen rom-com with brains, Fifty Pills is a laugh-out-loud romp through the New York night in the company of a cast of brilliantly sketched comic characters, one that recalls and combines the comic decadence of Roger Avary's 'The Rules Of Attraction' and the situation-based comedy of Martin Scorsese's 'After Hours'. |
