Strangers with Candy Information

Strangers with Candy is a 2005 comedy film released by THINKFilm, first screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It serves as a prequel to the TV series of the same name. Among the executive producers was David Letterman.

Plot

Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris), a 46-year-old former high school dropout and self-described "junkie whore", is released from prison and returns to her childhood home. She discovers her mother has died, her father, Guy (Dan Hedaya), has remarried to the hateful Sara Blank (Deborah Rush), and she has an arrogant half-brother Derrick (Joseph Cross). To make matters worse, her father is in a "stress-induced coma". Taking the suggestion of the family doctor (Ian Holm) literally, Jerri decides to pick her life back up where she left it, beginning her high school all over again as a freshman at Flatpoint High.

Jerri joins Chuck Noblet's (Stephen Colbert) science fair team, the Fig Neutrons, along with her new friends, Megawatti Sucarnaputri (Carlo Alban) (a spoof on Megawati Sukarnoputri) and Tammi Littlenut (Maria Thayer). Noblet is not pleased to learn that Principal Onyx Blackman (Greg Hollimon) has hired a ringer for their team, Roger Beekman (Matthew Broderick), to ensure that Flatpoint wins, and so Noblet creates a second team. As she struggles to fit in and make her teammates proud, Jerri discovers that though the faces may have changed, the hassles of high school are just the same.

Cast

• Amy Sedaris as Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank
• Stephen Colbert as Chuck Noblet
• Paul Dinello as Geoffrey Jellineck
• Dan Hedaya as Guy Blank
• Joseph Cross as Derrick Blank
• Deborah Rush as Sara Blank
• Maria Thayer as Tammi Littlenut
• Carlo Alban as Megawatti Sukarnoputri
• Allison Janney as Alice
• Matthew Broderick as Roger Beekman
• Sarah Jessica Parker as Peggy Callas
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry
• Justin Theroux as Carlo Honklin
• Chris Pratt as Brason
• Kristen Johnston as Coach Divers
• Ian Holm as Dr. Putney
• Elisabeth Harnois as Monica
• Evelyn McGee as Clair Noblet
• Jonah Bobo as Seamus Noblet

Production

Sedaris admitted in an interview that they never intended on making a film after the series was cancelled, stating, "Paul, Steve, and I were working on our book Wigfield ... We kept coming up with funny Jerri Blank stuff to say, so it would go into a file, and by the end of the book, Paul opened the file and there was all this Blank stuff, and he said, 'Oh, it would be so funny to write a movie.' That's really how it happened."

Characters not returning

• Orlando Pabotoy looked too old to reprise his series role as Orlando Pinatubo. His character was then replaced by the similar Megawatti Sukarnoputri.
• Larc Spies did not return for the role of Derrick Blank because, according to Sedaris, "he looks like a longshoreman now." Several other characters were recast because the original actors looked too old to believably play high schoolers. The only original student to return was Maria Thayer as redhead Tammi Littlenut.
• Roberto Gari did not reprise the role of Guy Blank, who was instead portrayed by Dan Hedaya. Hedaya portrayed Guy's character differently than Gari; on the television show, A 'healthy' Guy is frozen in humorous, almost statuesque states, whereas in the film Hedaya's Guy is simply unconscious.

Reception

Strangers with Candy received mixed reviews, currently holding a 52% 'Rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus "Occasionally funny, but little more than a jumbled, overextended episode of the TV show. Still, Candy devotees won't be disappointed."

On a $3.5 million budget, the film managed to recoup $2,254,124 worldwide.