With the his first feature Thank You for Smoking, director Jason Reitman looks well on the way to realizing his filmmaking ambitions–to make smart, subversive movies that he can be proud of.
Thank You for Smoking premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September and was also recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance experience was especially notable for the 28-year-old filmmaker.
When he was growing up, Reitman explains, he had the idea that all comedies were broad laugh fests until he saw three films that all played at Sundance during the 1990s: Bottle Rocket, Slacker and Clerks. “Those three films changed my opinion on what an independent comedy could be and got me thinking about what kind of filmmaker I wanted to be,” he relates. Though he had brought three short films to the festival before (In God We Trust, Gulp and Operation), when he introduced his feature at this year’s festival, he realized a life-long dream.
Thank You for Smoking, for which Reitman wrote the screenplay, is based on Christopher Buckley’s book of the same name. The plot is centered on Nick Naylor, played by Aaron Eckhart, who is a lobbyist for Big Tobacco. He spins his way across the country and ends up in Hollywood trying to get his message about cigarettes into a film. Along the way, Naylor is also getting to know his 12-year old son.
The film addresses personal responsibility and parenting, but Reitman clarifies, “This is a movie where the main character never sees the light, he doesn’t change roads because he doesn’t have to–this is not a film that vilifies his occupation.”
Reitman shares that he has had offers to direct films since the age of 21, but he waited for a story he could believe in like this one. A film that would establish him as the director he wants to be. Thank You for Smoking was the right story for his feature debut because it was smart, independently minded and didn’t apologize for itself, the director explains.
“It takes a very libertarian attitude on the subject of cigarettes, which I think is pretty unusual,” he says. “Most people when they think of a cigarette movie, they think of The Insider, and this is the exact opposite. This is a movie that says, ‘Relax, if you want to smoke, smoke, and perhaps we should stop telling each other how to live our lives.'”
He adds, however, that he is not a smoker and doesn’t advocate the habit. “The film is very clear about the dangers of cigarettes, but it’s a libertarian film. It’s a film that says governments should not parent people, people should parent their children.”
COMEDY, OF COURSE For the past five years Reitman has been directing spots with a humorous slant through Tate USA, Santa Monica, Calif, for clients like Heineken, Kyocera, Honda and Pacifico. With the time he had between the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals, he helmed work for Buick, GM and Wal-Mart.
In “Nerd” for Kyocera through Vitro Robertson, San Diego, Reitman introduces a college-aged guy wearing a tie, sweater vest and navy blue blazer who explains that he is “What you’d call, ‘Not cool.’ ” He continues to tell his story as he engages in his everyday activities like working at the library–where a pretty girl returning a book calls him a freak after he tells her she will owe late fees. “I’m not very well liked,” he continues.
Moments in this nerd’s life continue to play out, like when he keeps quiet on the bottom level of a bunk bed as his roommate engages in sexual activity above him. Eventually he proudly explains that he recently purchased a Slider phone from Kyocera and “it has really made quite a difference.”
Then we see football players chasing him, beating him up and taking his phone. The pretty girl from the library returns another book and has altered her previous comment to him, now saying, “Cool phone, freak.” As we continue to see examples of how he doesn’t fit in, the deluded student relates, “I’d say I’m pretty hot now, and I owe it all to this little beauty right here, the Slider by Kyocera.”
Reitman attributes his interest in comedy simply to having a decent sense of humor. But, he would also like to make scary films and dramatic commercials. “I’d love that opportunity one day,” he says of spotmaking, “But that’s not, I find, how the commercial world works. I find you have to create a name for doing something uniquely yours and you have to stick to that otherwise you won’t work.”
On the reasons why Tate USA is the right home for him, the director points to president/executive producer David Tate, whom he says understands his goals. Noting that executive producer Hugh Bacher was a groomsman in his wedding, he shares, “I truly feel like they’re my family.”
As for his future plans, Reitman is writing a screenplay for another feature and, along with producer Dan Dubiecki, creating an independent comedy company. The aim of that company will be to make independent films–shorts as well as features like Thank You for Smoking–that are subversive, unique, humorous, can be made on small budgets and stay true to themselves, Reitman relates.
He and Dubiecki also plan to host a film festival through their new company. Reitman says that one of his favorite parts of making his shorts was going to film festivals and meeting other independent directors. He would like to continue to work with them and provide more opportunities for fellow helmers. “I’m really excited about it. Hopefully it will be a brand like National Lampoon for the modern era that becomes a hub for young comedic directors and storytellers.”
