Archie's Final Project

Last updated
Archie's Final Project
My suicide.jpg
Promotional film poster, showing the original title My Suicide
Directed by David Lee Miller
Screenplay by
Story by
  • David Lee Miller
  • Jordan Miller
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by
  • Gabriel Sunday
  • Jordan J. Miller
Music by Tim Kasher
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Big Air Studios
  • Rocket Releasing
Release dates
  • February 7, 2009 (2009-02-07)(BIFF)
  • September 23, 2011 (2011-09-23)(United States)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Archie's Final Project (also known by its original title My Suicide) is a 2009 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by David Lee Miller and written by Miller, Eric J. Adams, and Gabriel Sunday, who also served as second unit director, additional camera operator, and music editor along with starring in, co-editing, and co-producing the film. It won the best feature film prize for the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival's youth film section Generation 14plus. [1] Music producers Jimmy Iovine and Polly Anthony and actor Harold Ramis served as executive producers, It received a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 23, 2011, and was released to home media on December 6, 2011.

Contents

Plot

Archibald Holden Buster "Archie" Williams (Gabriel Sunday) begins his film (rife with cutaway gags and Archie imitating famous movie quotes) by discussing his upbringing in a typical upper-middle-class suburb, and lamenting that he is a porn-addicted virgin. When asked by his film teacher Mr. Bedford (Kurtis Bedford) what the subject of his class final will be, Archie dryly tells him that he plans to commit suicide on camera. Per school policy, Archie is sent to the counselor Mrs. Ellis (Sandy Martin) and soon taken into police custody for giving sardonic answers to her questions. Most of Archie's peers witness him being handcuffed outside by a Ventura County Sheriff, including his crush Sierra Silver (Brooke Nevin). Archie's mother Gretchen (Nora Dunn), a lawyer and local activist, along with his father Daryl (Robert Kurcz), a football quarterback-turned-El Pollo Loco franchisee, also arrive at the scene and make a failed attempt to persuade the sheriff to let him go. Archie is placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, where he repeatedly calls his social worker a "cunt" until he is exasperated enough to approve Archie's return to school. Upon returning home, Archie gets in an argument with his parents about them and the police having searched his bedroom/film studio in the family's pool house.

Upon returning to school, Archie gets a wide array of questions and responses from his peers about his idea for the film, ranging from general concern to nihilistic support, outrage motivated by preventing suicide contagion, other peers opening up about their own mental health struggles, a prayer circle by a religious student club, two other students offering him drugs, and others telling Archie about rumors people spread regarding his arrest. When a group of bullies grab Archie's camera away, Sierra Silver recovers it for him and asks to interview him for the school paper, though Archie initially declines. Archie also strikes up a friendship with Corey (Zachary Ray Sherman), who strongly relates to Archie's feelings of angst and disillusionment. Archie is later brought back to the mental institution for psychiatry sessions, during which he bonds with his new therapist Gafur Chandrasakar (Joe Mantegna) over their shared love of cinema and morbid sense of humor.

As Sierra continues to ask him for an interview, Archie continues to demur out of shyness, but eventually gives her a videotape expressing that he wants to meet. Despite Sierra poking fun at Archie's video being a "psychotic love note" for its blatant sexual references, derisions of her as "cliché", surreptitious footage taken of her walking around school, and a bizarre Hentai sequence, Sierra proceeds to interview Archie about his project. Over the course of several interviews, they find out that they're both fans of indie filmmaker Jesse Gabriel Vargas (David Carradine), they discuss the platitude "it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem", and Sierra begins to open up about her brother Shane's death in a car crash one year ago, along with the intense pressure that her wealthy parents place on her to succeed academically and socially. They also visit each other's houses to conduct more interviews, but when Archie inadvertently notices razor cuts on the inside of Sierra's thighs and tries to get her to open up about her self-harm, she gets defensive and storms out of Archie's studio. However, Sierra later invites Archie to her bedroom to see her cutting razors, where she ritualistically cuts herself and Archie as well. They conduct several interviews with their peers about self-harm, and Archie later loses his virginity to Sierra in his bedroom/studio, after which Sierra coldly tells him "Now you can kill yourself". Archie later shows Sierra some camera obscura footage (the same camera style used for the movie's very first scene) of his father Daryl consoling his mother Gretchen over the death of Gretchen's father, which was the only time Archie saw his parents show each other affection.

Sierra and Archie attend a drinking party with their peers; after becoming extremely intoxicated, Archie is lured into a group sex session where he accepts a blowjob from another girl, but Sierra reassures him that she is okay with him sleeping around for the evening. Archie later wanders away from the party with Corey and another small group to smoke marijuana and run around outside. The next morning, Archie's and Sierra's morning gym classes find Corey's dead body in the gym, having committed suicide by hanging himself from a basketball hoop. The gym teachers frantically direct their students back into the locker room (and scold Archie for pointing his camcorder at the scene), while a mutual friend of Archie and Corey cries out and tries in vain to lift Corey's body down, later blaming Archie for Corey's death and punching Archie in the stomach on school grounds. Sierra drives away from the school in her car, and Archie jumps in her passenger seat. While driving, she reveals that her brother Shane fatally crashed his car on purpose, that she kept Shane's suicide note to her while their parents burned theirs, and that their parents have been falsely telling her that his death was an accident ever since. She nearly crashes the car with both of them in it, but changes her mind at the last minute. However, Sierra dumps Archie for reneging on their suicide pact. When Archie returns home, he finds his parents searching his studio again and they interrogate him about Corey's suicide. In an attempt to level with him, they admit that Archie was an unplanned pregnancy. Once he has his studio to himself, Archie discovers that Corey borrowed Archie's camera on the night of the party to record a suicide note addressed to Archie.

Archie drives to Los Angeles to clear his head, and rings the doorbell of filmmaker Jesse Gabriel Vargas's modest house in Boyle Heights. Vargas himself returns from a walk and invites Archie in, reassuring him that he's not alone in feeling directionless and suicidal. They later walk through Skid Row together, where they see homeless people keeping each other company, listening to a street preacher, and helping each other forage for supplies. Vargas encourages Archie to find purpose in being considerate of other people, and metaphorically kill negative parts of his old self rather than commit suicide altogether. Once he is alone again, Archie still holds a gun to his head and considers suicide, but later throws the gun off a bridge. This is mixed with more footage from Corey's video suicide note, in which Corey encourages Archie to consider staying alive despite Corey himself losing his will to live. While he is still on the bridge, Archie gets a voicemail from Sierra in which she states that she is currently committing suicide by painkiller overdose. Archie calls 911 in hopes that they can reach Sierra in time, while also rushing over to Sierra's house in person. Archie rushes up to Sierra's room and cries over her body, believing her to be dead. Sierra's parents (Mariel Hemingway and Tim Halligan) run into her room and, at first glance, falsely assume Archie facilitated her suicide. Paramedics show up and narrowly manage to revive Sierra, thanks to Archie's early 911 call and knowledge of how many pills she took. Archie and Sierra later attend Corey's funeral, and Archie shares a freeform poem that Jesse Gabriel Vargas recorded about her during his visit. Contrary to a cliché happily-ever-after ending, Archie states that Sierra began dating someone else upon going to college, while Archie remains single and an avid filmmaker.

Cast

Co-editor Jordan J. Miller appears as "Jordan Jah! The Titty Twistah", and co-writer and director David Lee Miller portrays a garbage scrounger. Co-writer Eric J. Adams and executive producer Karen Dean Tritts are credited as background players.

I Am an Archie

I Am an Archie is a social media marketing campaign aiming to promote teen suicide awareness. After attending an early screening of Archie's Final Project, a Miami teenager created a video in which he identified as an Archie. Since then, thousands of teens have identified themselves as Archies. [2]

When asked why the campaign resonated so well with teens, Gabriel Sunday said "I think the reason this whole IAmAnArchie campaign started is because kids in the festival circuit would be like, “Oh, that’s me. Archie is me.” There are so many ways you can connect with that character and kids always connect with him, no matter what place or what country they’re in. They feel that sh** that he’s going through, and they’re living it. So they started giving that feedback and saying "I’m an Archie because I’m depressed and I hate my family, or I’m creative and I love making art but people don’t understand it." I’ve been connected to the issue of suicide for six or seven years, and I know that what kids need to hear more than anything is that they’re not alone. That ended up being our message with IAmAnArchie: “Yeah, I’m scared, I’m depressed, I’m obsessed, I’m whatever, but I’m also an Archie because there’s a million Archies and they’re all going through crazy s***.” [2]

Actor/director Adrian Grenier also has identified himself as being an Archie. [3]

Critical reception

Archie's Final Project currently holds a 57% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes from 7 critic reviews. [4]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veronica Lodge</span> Archie Comics character

Veronica Cecilia Lodge is one of the main characters in the Archie Comics franchise, and is the keyboardist and one of the three vocalists of rock band The Archies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archy and Mehitabel</span> Fictional characters created by Don Marquis

Archy and Mehitabel are fictional characters created in 1916 by Don Marquis, a columnist for The Evening Sun newspaper in New York City. Archy, a cockroach, and Mehitabel, an alley cat, appeared in hundreds of humorous verses and short stories in Marquis's daily column, "The Sun Dial". Their exploits were first collected in the 1927 book archy and mehitabel, which remains in print today, and in two later volumes, archys life of mehitabel (1933) and archy does his part (1935). Many editions are recognized by their distinctive illustrations by George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat.

<i>Born into Brothels</i> 2004 film by Zana Briski

Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids is a 2004 Indian-American documentary film about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, won a string of accolades including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005.

<i>A Time for Drunken Horses</i> 2000 Iranian film

A Time for Drunken Horses is a 2000 Kurdish language drama film directed by Bahman Ghobadi and produced in Iran. It was a co-winner of the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000. Leonard Maltin notes that the film was "written by the director and shot in his native village, with a cast of extraordinary non-professionals."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kishan Shrikanth</span> Indian actor and director

Kishan Shrikanth, professionally known as Kishan SS or Master Kishan, is a film actor and director from Bangalore, Karnataka. As of January 2006, having acted in 24 films and in many popular Indian soap opera, he directed a feature film, C/o Footpath, about an orphaned boy who wants to go to school. The film is adapted from a short story written by himself, and the cast includes prominent Indian actors Jackie Shroff, Saurabh Shukla, B. Jayashree, Sudeep and Tara. Kishan himself plays the lead. The film has been dubbed into five major Indian languages and it has also been released in English. It was first shot in Kannada and the original version was released on 26 November 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Márta Mészáros</span> Hungarian screenwriter and film director (born 1931)

Márta Mészáros is a Hungarian screenwriter and film director. The daughter of László Mészáros, a sculptor, Mészáros began her career working in documentary film, having made 25 documentary shorts over the span of ten years. Her full-length directorial debut, Eltavozott nap/The Girl (1968), was the first Hungarian film to have been directed by a woman, and won the Special Prize of the Jury at the Valladolid International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archie Gips</span> American filmmaker and producer

Archie Gips is an American filmmaker and producer raised in New Rochelle, New York, who resides in Los Angeles. He is a cofounder and partner/president of Unrealistic Ideas, a production company that specializes in nonscripted formats. His partners are Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson.

<i>Set Me Free</i> (1999 film) 1999 film by Léa Pool

Set Me Free is a 1999 Canadian coming-of-age drama film by Léa Pool and starring Karine Vanasse. It tells the story of Hanna, a girl struggling with her sexuality and the depression of both her parents as she goes through puberty in Quebec in 1963. The film heavily references the French new-wave film Vivre sa vie by Jean-Luc Godard.

<i>Persepolis</i> (film) 2007 film by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud

Persepolis is a 2007 adult animated biographical drama film written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, based on Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The title references the historical city of Persepolis.

<i>Skin</i> (2008 film) 2008 "`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000004-QINU`" film

Skin is a 2008 biographical drama film directed by Anthony Fabian. It is based on the book When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone, and the life of Sandra Laing, a South African woman born to white parents, who was classified as "Coloured" during the apartheid era, presumably due to a genetic case of atavism.

<i>Toyland</i> (film) 2007 German film

Toyland is a German 2007 short film directed and co-written by Jochen Alexander Freydank. It won the 2009 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

<i>Broken Hill</i> (film) 2009 American film

Broken Hill is a 2009 drama film directed and written by Dagen Merrill, and stars Luke Arnold, Alexa Vega, and, in a supporting role, Timothy Hutton.

<i>Mississippi Damned</i> 2009 film by Tina Mabry

Mississippi Damned is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Tina Mabry and starring Tessa Thompson, D. B. Woodside, Malcolm Goodwin, Malcolm David Kelley and Michael Hyatt. The film was based on Mabry's life growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi. It was filmed in and around Ahoskie, North Carolina.

Gogol Bordello Non-Stop is a 2008 music documentary film, written and directed by Margarita Jimeno and starring Gogol Bordello and Eugene Hütz.

International Festival of Independent Cinema <i>Off Camera</i> Polish film festival

International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera is a film festival held in Kraków, Poland, with up to 400 screenings annually, seminars, international stars, guests and jury. It is the first event of its kind in the country based on creative dialog between world experts representing other independent film competitions such as the Sundance Film Festival and CineVegas, as well as festivals in Bangkok, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Busan, Dubai, Kolkata, Los Angeles, Reykjavík, Rotterdam, Toronto, and Venice. It is a festival of festivals with official backing from the City of Kraków with dozens of international sponsors and prominent partners including Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Lufthansa, Mercedes-Benz and Sony. In 2008–2014 the official name was "Off Plus Camera", since 2015 it is "PKO Off Camera".

David Lee Miller is an American film director, screenwriter, composer and producer. He is best known for writing, producing and directing the award-winning teen comedy-drama film Archie's Final Project, also known as My Suicide.

<i>Exhibit A</i> (film) 2007 film

Exhibit A is a 2007 British independent psychological thriller film directed by Dom Rotheroe and produced by Darren Bender for Warp Films. The film is an example of the found footage genre and stars Bradley Cole, Brittany Ashworth, Angela Forrest and Oliver Lee. It was filmed on location in Yorkshire and Suffolk and released on 1 October 2007 at the Raindance Film Festival. It was the last film that prolific stuntman Roy Alon worked on.

<i>Ilo Ilo</i> 2013 film

Ilo Ilo is a 2013 Singaporean drama film. The debut feature of director Anthony Chen, the film features an international cast, including Singaporean actor Chen Tianwen, Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann, Filipino actress Angeli Bayani, and debut of child actor Koh Jia Ler.

<i>The Light Shines Only There</i> 2014 film

The Light Shines Only There is a 2014 Japanese drama film directed by Mipo O. It was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Komasa</span> Polish film director and screenwriter

Jan Tadeusz Komasa is a Polish film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for directing Suicide Room (2011), Warsaw 44 (2014), and Corpus Christi (2019), which was nominated for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. His previous works premiered and won awards at Tribeca Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Cannes, and Venice.

References

  1. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (February 13, 2009). "My Suicide a standout in Berlin's Generation". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
  2. 1 2 "Gabriel Sunday: 'Archie's Final Project' Star Talks Teen Suicide". Huffingtonpost.com. 2011-10-06. Retrieved 2012-09-03.
  3. ↑ "Adrian Grenier #IAmAnArchie". YouTube.com. 2011-10-06. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2012-09-03.
  4. ↑ "My Suicide - Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  5. ↑ "| Berlinale | Archive | Annual Archives | 2009 | Prize Winners". Berlinale.de. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  6. ↑ [ dead link ]
  7. ↑ [ dead link ]
  8. ↑ Vivarelli, Nick (2009-07-27). "'My Suicide' wins at Giffoni festival". Variety.
  9. ↑ "Newport Beach Film Festival 2009 Awards". Newportbeachfilmfest.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  10. ↑ "The 35th Seattle International Film Festival Announces Audience and Jury Award Winners < News < Seattle International Film Festival". Archived from the original on 2009-07-26. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  11. ↑ Wall, Carmen (2009-09-18). "Film festival goes retro | Metro". Metronews.ca. Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  12. ↑ "Raindance 17th Film Festival 2009". Raindance.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  13. ↑ "Festival international de Cinéma Jeunesse de Rimouski". Festivalcinemarimouski.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  14. ↑ "exground.com". exground.com. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  15. ↑ "2009 Downtown Film Festival-L.A Wraps With West Coast Premiere of 'Jackson 5 In Africa'". SHOOTonline. 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.