I Thought I Told You to Shut Up!!
2015 · 13m · Canada
Directed by Charlie Tyrell
Genres: biography, documentary
A documentary about David Boswell's cult comic-book anti-hero Reid Fleming, the World's Toughest Milkman, and the decades-long failed effort to turn him into a Hollywood feature. Narrated by Jonathan Demme, it blends stop-motion animation with interviews from Boswell, his peers, and fans about the enduring appeal of the character.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a loving send-up of a thing nobody asked for, which would be boring except Demme's narration turns the whole enterprise into a meta-joke about why we even care about failed adaptation dreams in the first place—subversive by accident, almost.
A formally ingenious essay on cult persistence and the gap between underground canonicity and mainstream viability, where the stop-motion grammar itself becomes argument about how indie works survive in collective memory through unconventional channels rather than studio machinery.
Demme's deadpan narration over playful animation is the hinge that works—that tonal restraint over visual absurdity is the single choice that makes a niche-history documentary feel urgent rather than precious.
Reviews
Tyrell's film is far more compelling than your average 'talking head' piece.
Brimming with energy and a polished sense of craft.
Festivals
- South by Southwest 2015
- Brooklyn Film Festival 2015