Brian Hecker’s period at the AFI yielded the short Family Attraction (1998), which reportedly became one of the AFI’s most popular shorts – unsurprising that it would be the first of six films in Vanguard’s DVD 2003 collection, Celebrating AFI.Hecker eventually wrote and directed his first feature, Bart Got a Room (Anchor Bay/Starz) ten years later, wherein he mined his uncomfortable teen years for a refreshing take on guy-getting-girl-for-prom plot.
At under 80 mins., it’s a short gem that hopefully won’t disappear amid the banal star-studded comedies cranked out by the major studios every month. Hecker’s sense of humour is sly, subtle, and never condescending towards his characters, and Bart Got a Room also showcases Hollywood, Florida as a colourful suburban seniors haven.
Oh, and William H. Macy sports the worst hairdo in filmdom.
- MRH
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