Sweaty Robot

‘Happy Birthday Harris Malden’ played twice at the CineVegas 2008 Film Festival. Read some of the reactions to the film, and interviews done with Sweaty Robot.


Reviews

Don Lewis from FilmThreat.com writes…

“…the film is really funny as long as you realize there’s a kind of straight-faced silliness to the whole affair much like the films of the Zellner Brothers or even Charlie Kaufman. If you enjoy that kind of off-the-wall humor, “Happy Birthday, Harris Malden” can’t miss.” [Read Full FilmThreat review here]



Eric D. Snider from Cinematical…

But most of the jokes do work. As you might expect given the film’s premise, the Sweaty Robot guys are fond of absurd, surreal humor, though they’re careful not to let the movie become too bizarre. [Read the full Cinematical review here]



Cal Kemp at Collider…

Somehow, “Harris Malden” is both down to earth and over the top. It’s sweet, funny and real in a way that only fiction can be. [Read the full Collider review here]



David Cornelius with eFilmCritic…

I admire the way the filmmakers manage to have so much going on at once, with natural, overlapping dialogue filling each scene with an Altman-esque collage of story and character. [Read the full eFilmCritic review here]



Even the bloggers got into the fray…

LOVED this movie!! LOVED IT! this is the 2nd film that really made me happy to be at CineVegas. [Read full review here]



Interviews
[Collider Interview]
[ReelzChannel Interview]
[Fox Las Vegas Video Interview]
[eFilmCritic Interview]

We did an interview for the CineVegas Blog. Here’s a little taste…

What is a real Sweaty Robot? So many pictures come to mind.
Picture the group in our underwear after an All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Bonanza, each sitting on their own tiny, tiny mechanical horse on a hot summer day in the middle of the parking lot of a Pay-None convenience store. Is that what you were imagining?



You know you want to read the rest.

Andrea Bushee, correspondent for the Nashua Telegraph, wrote an article about Sweaty Robot and “Happy Birthday Harris Malden” with a focus on Eric, due to his New Hampshire-osity. Extra, extra, read all about it.

The article showed up as the front page of the Lifestyle section, with a big picture of the guys looming over the words beneath.

World renowned film critic, Michael Lau had this to say:

He saw the film and says he was entertained the whole way through.
“I loved it. I thought it was a great movie,” Lau said…
Lau thinks the movie will go over well in Las Vegas.
“I think they told the story in a unique way,” he said. “It wasn’t the typical storytelling platform.”

Mike Plante of the CineVegas Film Festival had some good things to say about Sweaty Robot in his interview with BACKSTAGE.

A few selections will be of particular interest to actors. Happy Birthday, Harris Malden, which screens in the fest’s Jackpot Premieres section, was made by a five-man group that goes by the name of SweatyRobot. “It’s five guys working together, and they’re all credited as the directors, and they wrote it together, and four of them act in it, and one of them actually did the cinematography,” says Plante. “It feels like a full story, and there are really rounded characters; it’s not just like a five-minute skit that’s stretched out. And since they worked on all aspects of the film, it’s low-budget, but it doesn’t feel like it’s trapped or limited; it feels like there’s a lot of work put into it.”

Thanks Mike, that means a lot to us.

Intrepid reporter Kaelin O’Connell paid a visit to SR Headquarters not too long ago, and wrote an article about us for The South Jersey News.

The home of Sweaty Robot falls somewhere between a bachelor pad and an editing studio. A mix of couches crowd around a TV in one room, fancy editing equipment sits in another, and random paraphernalia covers the walls in between — anything from funny photos to a 12-month horse calendar, all (presumably) hung in sarcasm.

[Link to the Whole Article]

February 3, 2006 - First Place, First Person Arts

March 16, 2006 - Philadelphia Metro

November 23, 2006 - Philadelphia Edge