Paulie

Last updated
Paulie
Paulie poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Roberts
Written byLaurie Craig
Produced by Mark Gordon
Gary Levinsohn
Allison Lyon Segan
Starring
Cinematography Tony Pierce-Roberts
Edited byBruce Cannon
Music by John Debney
Production
company
Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures
Release date
  • April 17, 1998 (1998-04-17)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$23 million
Box office$26.9 million [1]

Paulie is a 1998 American adventure comedy-drama film directed by John Roberts and written by Laurie Craig. The film follows the adventurous story of the eponymous Paulie, a talking parrot who is capable of communicating with humans. It stars Jay Mohr as the voice of the title character, alongside Gena Rowlands, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, and Bruce Davison.

Contents

It received mixed-to-positive reviews and was a box office disappointment, grossing $26.9 million domestically against a $23 million budget. However, in the years after its release, Paulie would find a larger audience on home media sales. The film marked Buddy Hackett's last feature film appearance before his death in 2003.

Plot

While working as a janitor at an American institute, Russian immigrant Misha Vilyenkov encounters Paulie, a wisecracking and loudmouthed blue-crowned conure who can speak as clearly as a human. Subsequently, he doesn't speak a word when Misha brings Dr. Reingold, the head of the institute, and other scientists to witness him.

Frustrated with Paulie at first, Misha relents and opens up about his homesickness. Paulie warms up to Misha, and he tells him his story about his original owner, a little girl named Marie Alweather who stutters. The story transitions to a flashback when he was gifted to her in his infancy. As Marie works on speech therapy, he begins to speak. Her father, Warren, a soldier, returns home from Vietnam and decides that Paulie is not helping her, believing their bond is disillusioning Marie's reality due to her claims of his ability to talk; Paulie never spoke to her parents out of fear towards them, and also refused to learn how to fly due to acrophobia. After a near-death experience in which she falls off the roof in an attempt to teach Paulie to fly, Warren sends him away, devastating Marie.

Paulie is passed down to various owners and eventually ends up in a pawn shop where he spends his time badmouthing the customers. One day, a shady customer named Benny shows interest in purchasing him, thinking he could profit from his speaking abilities, until widowed artist Ivy purchases him first with the intent of reforming his ill behavior after he insults her. She befriends Paulie and agrees to help him find Marie, who has moved to Los Angeles. They begin traveling using her mobile home, but when she becomes blind in the middle of their trip, Paulie decides to stay and take care of her. She eventually passes away, and Paulie, having finally learned to fly, continues his journey.

In East Los Angeles, Paulie joins a group of performing conures owned by migrant musician Ignacio, temporarily forgetting about Marie as he develops feelings for a female named Lupe. At one of his performances, Benny, having also moved to Los Angeles, recognizes him and attempts to purchase him from Ignacio. When Ignacio refuses, Benny makes a prank call to the police at one of his performances. As the police show up, Benny kidnaps Paulie amidst the chaos as Ignacio is arrested and presumably deported. Under Benny's influence, Paulie begins a life of crime. In a botched jewel theft, he flies down through the chimney of a house, where he gets caught by the grandson of its owner. Benny flees the scene, betraying and abandoning Paulie in the process.

Paulie is then brought to the institute, where Reingold, his employees and fellow scientists are stunned by his ability to speak to humans. They subject him to speech testing, and Reingold promises that he will be reunited with Marie once finished. Paulie overhears Reingold privately revealing that he and the institute have found Marie’s whereabouts, but concealed this information from him so that he would remain their property. Realizing he's been lied to all this time, a resentful Paulie humiliates Reingold in front of his scientific peers by acting like an ordinary parrot, disrespecting him and his assistants while refusing to cooperate with more tests. He then calls out Reingold's deception, and tries to make a break for it. As a result, his wings are clipped and he is eventually imprisoned in the basement when he starts pecking the researchers.

Moved by Paulie's story, Misha decides to release him and take him to Marie. They find Marie's contact information in Reingold's office, only to be caught by him. Misha stands up to Reingold for his cruelty to Paulie and gladly resigns. They narrowly escape the institute, just after releasing the other caged animals in the testing lab. The duo reach Marie's address, and find her as a beautiful young woman unrecognizable to Paulie. After singing a song her mother sang to her as a child, Paulie realizes that she is Marie and they happily reunite. He also realizes he can fly again as his feathers have regrown. Misha prepares to depart, but Paulie and Marie offer him to stay. Misha, evidently infatuated with Marie, decides to accept. The film ends with the trio happily entering her house.

Cast

Production

Directed by John Roberts and written by Laurie Craig, the film's production budget was $23 million. [2]

Craig mentioned in an interview, "Paulie was an original story of mine.  I was inspired by seeing a lone parrot in a cage and I wondered what it would be like if he could actually tell me his life story.  Then I read about the amazing African Grey parrot named Alex who had a large vocabulary and was very bonded with his researcher." [3]

During the production of the film, 14 trained blue-crowned conures were used to portray the titular character, with other conure species such as nanday, jenday and cherry-headed conures appearing in supporting roles. [4]

Exterior shots of young Marie's house were filmed in Azusa, CA, on the corner of N. Soldano Ave. and Sixth St. Unfortunately, the house was demolished a couple of years after production, and the lot was split up for smaller homes. The production team mailed thank you letters to the residents along the street for the inconvenience.

Reception

Box office

Box office receipts grossed $5,369,800 on the opening weekend, and $26,875,268 total. [5] It was released in 1,812 North American theaters. [2]

Critical response

The film scored a 62% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. [6] It was distributed in 24 countries and 10 different languages between 1998 and 1999.[ citation needed ]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Times gave the film two stars out of four and said, "Dogs and cats, horses and monkeys and even bears make charismatic movie stars, but "Paulie", I think, suggests that birds are more decorative than dramatic." [7] Tracey Moore of Common Sense Media gave the film a four stars out of five and said, "Talking bird on a coming-of-age journey with some peril." [8]

Awards and nominations

AwardCategoryResult
ALMA AwardOutstanding Actor in a Feature Film - Cheech MarinNominated
ALMA AwardOutstanding Actress in a Feature Film - Trini AlvaradoNominated
British Academy Children's Awards Best Children's Feature Film Won
Bronze GryphonEarly Screens - John RobertsWon
Young Artist Award Best family feature - ComedyNominated
Young Artist AwardBest performance in a feature film - Young Actress aged ten or under - Hallie Kate EisenbergNominated
Young Artist AwardBest performance by a young actress in a comedy film - Hallie Kate EisenbergNominated

Related Research Articles

<i>A Night at the Roxbury</i> 1998 film by John Fortenberry

A Night at the Roxbury is a 1998 American comedy film based on a recurring sketch on television's long-running Saturday Night Live called "The Roxbury Guys". Saturday Night Live regulars Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Mark McKinney, and Colin Quinn star. This film expands on the original Saturday Night Live sketches where the Roxbury Guys were joined by that week's host, and bobbed their heads to Haddaway's hit song "What Is Love" while being comically rejected by women at various clubs.

<i>Rocky V</i> 1990 film by John G. Avildsen

Rocky V is a 1990 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the sequel to Rocky IV (1985) and the fifth installment in the Rocky film series. It also stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Sage Stallone in his film debut, Tommy Morrison, and Burgess Meredith. In the film, a financially struggling Rocky Balboa (Stallone) agrees to train protégé Tommy Gunn (Morrison) at the gym once owned by Balboa's trainer, Mickey Goldmill (Meredith).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conure</span> Group of small to medium-sized parrots

Conures are a diverse, loosely defined group of small to medium-sized parrots. They belong to several genera within a long-tailed group of the New World parrot subfamily Arinae. Most conures belong to the tribe Arini, though Myiopsitta is an exception. The term "conure" is used primarily in bird keeping, though it has appeared in some scientific journals. The American Ornithologists' Union uses the generic term parakeet for all species elsewhere called conure, though Joseph Forshaw, a prominent Australian ornithologist, uses conure.

<i>Confidentially Yours</i> 1983 film

Confidentially Yours is a 1983 French comedy mystery film directed by François Truffaut. Based on the 1962 novel The Long Saturday Night by American author Charles Williams, it tells the story of Julien Vercel, an estate agent who is suspected of murdering his wife and her lover. As Vercel is hidden in his office, his secretary Barbara Becker investigates these suspicious murders. It was the last film directed by Truffaut before his death in October of the following year. The film had a total of 1,176,425 admissions in France and was the 39th highest-grossing film of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Shalhoub</span> American actor (born 1953)

Anthony Marc Shalhoub is an American actor. His breakout role was as Antonio Scarpacci on the sitcom Wings from 1991 to 1997. He later starred as Adrian Monk in the USA Network series Monk from 2002 to 2009, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. For his supporting role as Abe Weissman on Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

<i>Bad Education</i> (2004 film) 2004 Spanish film directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Bad Education is a 2004 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Starring Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar and Francisco Boira, the film focuses on two reunited childhood friends and lovers caught up in a stylized murder mystery. The metafictional film uses a deeply-nested narrative plot structure to explore themes of transsexuality, drug use, rape, and sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The film received an NC-17 rating in the United States for its depiction of homosexual sex.

<i>Cheech and Chongs Next Movie</i> 1980 film by Cheech and Chong

Cheech and Chong's Next Movie is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Tommy Chong and the second feature-length project by Cheech & Chong, following Up in Smoke, released by Universal Pictures.

Hallie Kate Eisenberg is an American former child actress, best known for being "The Pepsi Girl" in a series of Pepsi commercials, as Marie Alweather in Paulie, and her role as Erika "Erk" Tansy in How to Eat Fried Worms.

<i>Keeping the Faith</i> 2000 film directed by Edward Norton

Keeping the Faith is a 2000 American romantic comedy film written by Stuart Blumberg, and starring Ben Stiller, Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman, Eli Wallach, and Anne Bancroft. This film was released by Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment, in association with Triple Threat Talent, on April 14, 2000.

<i>The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill</i> 2003 American film

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a 2003 documentary film directed, produced, and edited by Judy Irving. It chronicles the relationship between Mark Bittner, an unemployed musician who lives rent-free in a cabin in the Telegraph Hill-neighborhood of San Francisco, and a flock of feral parrots that he feeds and looks after. Bittner also wrote a memoir about his experiences with the parrots, which shares the title of the documentary, but has the added subtitle: A Love Story...with Wings.

<i>8 Heads in a Duffel Bag</i> 1997 black comedy film by Tom Schulman

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag is a 1997 black comedy film starring Joe Pesci, Kristy Swanson and David Spade. It was the directorial debut of screenwriter Tom Schulman. The film was a box office disappointment and received negative reviews from critics.

"Two Tonys" is the 53rd episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the first of the show's fifth season. Written by David Chase and Terence Winter, it was directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on March 7, 2004.

"Mayham" is the 68th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the third of the show's sixth season. Written by Matthew Weiner and directed by Jack Bender, it originally aired on March 26, 2006.

"Live Free or Die" is the 71st episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the sixth of the show's sixth season. Written by David Chase, Terence Winter, Robin Green, and Mitchell Burgess, and directed by Tim Van Patten, it originally aired on April 16, 2006.

<i>Spy Kids</i> (film) 2001 film by Robert Rodriguez

Spy Kids is a 2001 American spy action comedy film co-produced, written, edited, co-composed, and directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film stars Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Danny Trejo, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alan Cumming, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, Robert Patrick, and Tony Shalhoub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sun conure</span> Species of bird

The sun conure, also known as the sun parakeet, is a medium-sized, vibrantly colored parrot native to northeastern South America. The adult male and female are similar in appearance, with black beaks, predominantly golden-yellow plumage, orange-flushed underparts and face, and green and blue-tipped wings and tails. Sun conures are very social birds, typically living in flocks. They form monogamous pairs for reproduction, and nest in palm cavities in the tropics. Sun conures mainly feed on fruits, flowers, berries, blossoms, seeds, nuts, and insects. Conures are commonly bred and kept in aviculture and may live up to 30 years. This species is currently threatened by loss of habitat and trapping for plumage or the pet trade. Sun conures are now listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

<i>Halloween II</i> (2009 film) Film by Rob Zombie

Halloween II is a 2009 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is the sequel to Zombie's 2007 remake of 1978's Halloween and the tenth installment in the Halloween franchise. The story follows Laurie Strode as she deals with the aftermath of the events of the previous film, Dr. Loomis trying to capitalize on those events with a new book, and Michael Myers as he seeks to reunite with his sister. The film sees the return of lead cast members from the 2007 film; Tyler Mane as Michael Myers, Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode, and Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis, respectively. Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Douriff, and Danielle Harris also return from the 2007 film.

<i>Fugget About It</i> Animated sitcom

Fugget About It is an adult animated sitcom created by Nicholas Tabarrok and Willem Wennekers for Teletoon's late night block, Teletoon at Night. The show is rated 14A for sexuality, violence, and profanity, which makes it the first and so far only adult-oriented project by 9 Story Media Group. The show was created from the Pilot Project contest on Teletoon. The show premiered in the United States exclusively on Hulu on October 13, 2013.

<i>Champions</i> (2023 film) 2023 film directed by Bobby Farrelly

Champions is a 2023 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Bobby Farrelly in his solo directorial debut, from a screenplay written by Mark Rizzo. It is an English-language remake of the 2018 Spanish film of the same name. The film stars Woody Harrelson as a temperamental minor-league basketball coach who, after an arrest, must coach a team of players with intellectual disabilities as community service. Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, and Cheech Marin also star.

References

  1. ↑ "Box Office Mojo". IMDB.com. 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  2. 1 2 "PAULIE". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  3. ↑ Rodrz, Gaby (2015-06-26). "Interview with Laurie Craig; scriptwriter for Paulie (1998)". SoundCinemas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  4. ↑ "Paulie (1998)". Humane Hollywood. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  5. ↑ "Angels Stays Aloft in Top Spot". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  6. ↑ "Paulie". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (April 17, 1998). "Paulie movie review (1998)" . Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Paulie - Movie Review". June 20, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
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.