What a waste of my time!!!

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I laughed harder at this movie (bust out loud laughter that just flew out of me) than I have in ages. I'm so tired of movies that try to force humor by creating absurd situations or having everyone act over the top. The humor in this film completely came out of the characters and the events they were dealing with. It is a fascinating group of people who are thrown together in what first seems to be simple and then turns out to be an extraordinarily layered and challenging experience.There aren't many movies that I want to see again, but this is one of them. Is it going to get distribution?

I saw this film at the Santa Cruz Film Festival and it was interesting. Within the first fifteen minutes of the film, I was annoyed, almost angered at the content, found myself actually sort of wanting to leave. Fortunately, I didn't because the way things came together was actually heart-warming in the most unexpected of ways. It gave me similar sensations as the first time I was watching Festen/Celebration and Big Lebowski. It's a different movie, but there are similar qualities. Watch the film if you get a chance, it's worth reaching out for, and be patient through the beginning, and you won't be disappointed.Here is a story about the film: Christopher Jaymes wrote In Memory of My Father, the opening night feature at this year's Santa Cruz Film Festival, in five days and shot it in four. That nearly impossible schedule was a consequence of his friend David Austin (who plays the dying Hollywood mogul in the film's title) asking if James, who had just returned from a three-month trip to Southeast Asia, could write a screenplay for a film they could shoot on location at a mansion once owned by Samuel Goldwyn, which Austin was about to sell. The resulting dark comedy has since gone on to win awards at a slew of festivals across the country.So how did Jaymes manage to produce Miramax-quality results on an Ed Wood schedule?"Well, some people might still think it is Ed Wood," says Jaymes of the famously failed B- movie director, "but hopefully not too many. Yeah, it was definitely out of necessity, not out of trying to prove something. But the payback came in post-production. It was a real challenge to cut the film together because we weren't able to scope every single shot perfectly, and we couldn't go back to re-shoot. So hence, it kind of gives it a little more of that 'Ooh, indie hand-held, let's go and be arty!' kind of thing. But you know, I think it sort of works with the film."Working both sides of the camera, Jaymes plays the brashly impudent youngest of three sons, whose father bribes him into filming his death and the effect it has on his family, who are by and large too self-absorbed to pay much attention to their beloved corpse ex ma-china.Jaymes' skewering of Hollywood industry scions draws upon years of living in Southern California, where he got his start playing guest roles in sitcoms and the odd "enjoyably awful TV movie."Unlike many other young writer/directors, Jaymes has no family connections (he was raised by his mother, a doctor's office manager, in Huntington Beach) and opted to study music at Berklee instead of going to film school.A musician, as well? "Yeah, that's subjective too," he laughs. "I did study and I was kind of obsessive about it for a period of time. And I toured for a little while as a piano player."As it turns out, Jaymes toured backing rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson, who for all intents and purposes is the closest thing this world has to a female Elvis Presley. "Yeah, one night after she decided that she liked me, she took me aside, we hung out and she put Elvis's ring on my hand," he enthuses. But unlike the pink Cadillacs Elvis used to hand out, this gesture wasn't for keeps. "No, she took it back," he admits. "I thought I was special for a minute."Self-deprecating as he may appear, Jaymes' star is clearly rising. He recently signed a distribution deal that will allow him to retain the Belle & Sebastian tracks in the film, and no less an indie film heavyweight than Allison Anders has compared Jaymes' debut to the films of Cassavetes and Altman (although Jaymes claims to be more of a Bunuel fan himself).When two other cinematic examples of men behaving badly--Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men and David Rabe's Hurlyburly--are offered up, Jaymes says that while he enjoyed both films, he feels more of a kinship with the latter."With Hurlyburly, I think you actually can care about some of these people by the end," says Jaymes. "I think with the Neil LaBute film, it was more like, 'Look how awful people are to each other.' But with In Memory of My Father, it's like, 'Look how self-absorbed we are. Jesus Christ, how come we don't know better?'

"Memory" is an ensemble work that explores the lives of three sons as they host a wake for their father. Daddy dearest, an absentee father who put his Hollywood career ahead of his family, lies in state in the master bedroom and the lives of his sons are dissected as they intersect with each other throughout the manor. Writer, producer and director Christopher Jaymes was given the opportunity to shoot a film in a Hollywood mansion that had once belonged to Samuel Goldwyn. He turned out a script in a whirlwind five days. A film that started as a place-specific opportunity turned into a people- oriented investigation into basic human themes of love, lust and loss. It helped that Jaymes had friends in mind for the cast — including Jeremy Sisto (HBO's "Six Feet Under"), Judy Greer ("The Village," Fox's "Arrested Development") and Matt Keeslar ("Waiting for Guffman", "Scream 3"). Like a more manic version of "American Beauty," "Memory" is alternately hysterical and heartbreaking, as the audience watches these men make life-altering decisions under the worst possible circumstances. Suppressing their feelings of inadequacy and emotional abandonment, they show no grief at the loss of their father, but instead turn on themselves, openly acknowledging their inability to have healthy relationships. Jaymes turns the distinctive look of digital video and hand-held camera shots to his favor as he conjures up feelings of surreal imbalance and real intoxication that come with a bacchanalian wake. The audience experiences the claustrophobic feelings of having one something too many and staying up far too late, becoming a prisoner on one's own home waiting for people to realize it's time to go home. In the spirit of a Robert Altman slice of life, however, the finale is not tied up neatly. After the party is over, the hosts are left alone to clean up various messes, mostly those they themselves have created.

With 'In Memory of My Father', relatively new auteur Christopher Jaymes has created the perfect depiction of loss, depression, selfishness, love, and jealousy as applied to one family.How do we deal with loss? We drink. We get high. We have sex. We escape from loss, but the characters in 'In Memory…' get no such escape. Even with sex, drugs, and alcohol none can escape the hell dad's death has created. It takes the length of the film for the brothers to discover what has actually happened: that they are alone, that their father is exactly the man they remember, and that they always knew it. They can't escape their past, they can't escape their present, and they're damned to a future that resembles that of their father's life. Surrounded by family, but dying alone. The aesthetic style of 'In Memory…' evokes a slight documentary feel, much like 'The Office' and 'Arrested Development'. Characters address the cameras, but as the story progresses, we leave the device behind and focus on the drama, comedy, and the bitingly funny stirring of the soul that develops. Witty, poignant, brilliant, filled with squeamishly uncomfortable moments and mouth-agape situations, 'In Memory…' is most honest movie to come along this year, and I only hope Jaymes is able to continue making films of this caliber.