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STRANGERS WITH CANDY
Directed by: Paul Dinello.
Written by: Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello & Amy Sedaris.
Produced by: Mark Robers, Lorena David & Valerie Schaer Nathanson.
Director of Photography: Oliver Bokelberg.
Edited by: Michael R. Miller.
Music by: Marcelo Zarvos.
Released by: THINKFilm.
Country of Origin: US. 87 min. Rated: R.
With: Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Gregory Hollimon, Deborah Rush, Dan Hedaya & Maria Thayer.

As a prequel to the cult TV series, Strangers with Candy stars Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, a racist, sexist and deranged 47-year-old ex-junkie-whore who returns home fresh off the bus from prison only to learn her father is in a coma. (He’s played by veteran actor Dan Hedaya, beginning the film’s ceaseless stunt casting parade that ranges from Philip Seymour Hoffman to Sarah Jessica Parker). After the Blank family's physician tells Jerri her father's parental disappointment may have played a factor in his coma, Jerri becomes convinced that the only way to save her father from eternal slumber is to return to high school and become “the girl [she] never was and never wanted to be.” Unsurprising to any fan of the show, she fails. But it’s fun to see her try.

Several of the main characters from the show have survived the transfer to the big screen. Writers Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello reprise their characters as Chuck Noblet and Geoffrey Jellineck, teachers “secretly” in love. Also returning are Deborah Rush (Jerri’s hateful stepmother), Gregory Hollimon (the lugubrious Principal Onyx Blackman), and Maria Thayer, as the redheaded girl-next-door Tammi Littlenut, just so Jerri can continue her quest to discover if “the carpets match the drapes.”

With so much that’s familiar, it’s as if the film’s sole purpose was to recreate the show with movie-sized production values. (Even some of the dialogue is taken from the series). But it works. Sedaris’ fat suit, formerly an odd-looking misshapen pillowcase, has been replaced by a well-designed one that sags in all the appropriately wrong places. Instead of the same chipper music used in almost every scene and a simple camera-blocking philosophy to “film all the actors all in the same shot,” hilariously orchestrated musical numbers and actual reaction shots prevail. Although the movie is basically an extended recreation of the half-hour format, it hones the spirit of the series, being as caustic and irreverent as ever as Jerri imparts her closing wisdom to the camera, "You're a racist. Think about it. I haven't.” Zachary Jones
June 28, 2006