Ten years ago, there was a modest and affecting teen drama released to theatres called WHATEVER, about two girls in 1981 New Jersey teetering on the edge of danger through their neglectful moral choices. Anna, the main girl (played by future "GILMORE GIRLS" regular Liza Weil), has a talent for art but is prone to lax behavior, while her best friend Brenda ("ROBOT CHICKEN" resident voice Chad Morgan) compensates for an abusive home life with careless sex. It was spare, honest, and had a terrific soundtrack, and should have been the first of an exciting body of work for its writer/director Susan Skoog.

Unfortunately, Sony Pictures Classics gave it a release barely above a contractual obligation, despite great reviews from Siskel & Ebert and other respected voices. To this day, the movie is only available on VHS, no DVD. And nothing has been seen or heard from Skoog since. Supposedly, someone on the imdb saw a documentary segment on "AMERICAN IDOL" buffoon William Hung that had her name in the credits.

Any East Coast folk know if she's still around, perhaps stacking pennies to self-fund her next movie?

This is one of about 20 or so VHS's and/or DVR's I'm in the process of doing for my blog (crossposting all here) that aren't on DVD yet. This one is by far the most recent of the films.

Amazing that it just sort of disappeared, along with its director. This one is one of the VHS tapes---I can't recall seeing WHATEVER on the cable schedule since 2000 or 2001.

HCH

I liked this, too. As hard as it is to make that the first movie, write that first novel, etc.., I imagine it's that much harder to make the second one, in the wake of only modest success especially. Hope she's in there pitching, like recent returnee Kimberly Peirce.

I actually saw this in New Jersey (Montclair) on its original release. As a Jersey native, I'm always interested in films based in, or filmed in, my home state. I haven't seen Whatever since its initial release--can't believe it's been ten years--but I don't remember being blown away by it. I seem to recall that some of its 1981 period details were compromised by some blatant 90s-era objects. Of course, this would be a consequence of the film's small budget, but it's always been a pet peeve of mine.

When Freaks and Geeks came out about a year later, I was struck by some of the similarities in narratives-- both share an early 80s high school setting and non-beautiful, "geeky" female protagonists.

Before Whatever, I was impressed by All Over Me written by Sylvia Sichel and directed by Alex Sichel. It also focused on two teenaged girls in between adolescence and adulthood, had a great mid-90s punk and riot grrl soundtrack, and was set in a convincingly seedy downtown New York milieu. I was disappointed to see that star Alison Folland's career seems to have fizzled out. Her co-star Tara Subkoff subsequently founded clothing line, Imitation of Christ. Subkoff also appeared in Matthew Bright's Freeway. Bright, sounding fried, amusingly flubs her name ("Sara Dubkoff" or something like that) on the laserdisc/DVD audio commentary.

Checking IMDb, I see that Whatever was filmed, in part, in Red Bank, NJ. This is Kevin Smith's hometown and I wouldn't be surprised if he had some idea of Ms. Skoog's whereabouts. It is very surprising that she could vanish from the cinema scene so rapidly. It reminds me of the case of Adam Abraham's Man of the Century (1998). His younger sister attended my college (University of Wisconsin) when the film was released and Abraham presented a well-received sneak preview screening of the film on campus. After a very limited release by Fine Line, the film and the filmmaker seem to have disappeared. Like Whatever, Man of the Century has yet to appear on DVD.

She's on my linkedin network, and her profile says she's an "Entertainment Consultant and Contractor" in NYC.

I thought WHATEVER was filmed entirely in West Virginia, I don't recall them doing any actual shooting in Red Bank, unless they were just pick-up shots.

I recall Kevin not being a fan of the film, so I doubt he has any idea of what Miss Skoog is up to.

Vincent

The Claridge or The Wellmont? I used to live in Montclair.

Good call. The Sichel sisters also seem to have dropped out of sight since working on HBO's IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK. I'd like to see them return.

Speaking of sister acts, have Jill and Karen Sprecher got something to follow up THIRTEEN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING? I really liked their debut CLOCKWATCHERS.

Jonathan Nossiter's SUNDAY was one I liked a lot... I guess he does documentaries mostly, but his film was an unusual romance (in this era anyway) between a couple aged 50 plus.
WHATEVER was good too... it's a shame no one knows what to do lately with lead actress Weil, who gave a realistic performance.

Shows what I know. :rolleyes: The Red Bank bit came from IMDb, so take it with a grain of salt. I recall that the film had a South Jersey setting, but West Virginia certainly seems feasible. I always sit through the end credits, in part, to see filming locations. Not actually being filmed in Jersey would be another reason I would be cool towards the film.

I also liked Clockwatchers quite a bit. Missed out on Thirteen Conversations, but I remember the Sprecher sisters getting some good press at the time. I was drawn to them because they are from Wisconsin and share a name with one of the better microbreweries in the country, Sprecher, located just outside Milwaukee.

This was a fine film and also one I have not seen since I programmed it in college when it first came out. I recall the lovely one-sheet artwork that I had hanging in my apartment for some time as well as the fine performances from David Suchet, Lisa Harrow, and Jared Harris. Certainly was unusual and not surprising that it has also faded away. Good to hear that Nossiter is still making films.

Another affecting indie drama that I saw at this time, at the dearly departed Lost Picture Show (Union, NJ), and which also seems to have faded from view, was Thom Fitzgerald's The Hanging Garden (the Cure song does not appear in the film). Fitzgerald has made several films since, but I haven't seen any of them and I don't believe any have been as well received as The Hanging Garden.

I used to live there too. This would have been the Screening Zone (named this way to avoid confusion with NYC's Screening Room) located in a space that previously housed Olympia Dukakis' Whole Theater Company. It was opened by a young couple as another showcase for independent film in the summer of 1996. I saw Trainspotting and Swingers there around that time. I don't believe the theater is still there. It's up the street from the Clairidge. I saw several films in '96-'99 there.

My favorite nickname for the Wellmont from its days playing trashy horror and action pics in the late 80s and early 90s was the "Hellmont." They started playing more indie fare in the mid to late 90s and had quite a good student rate, IIRC. I remember that you could see things like Dream With the Fishes and The Dreamlife of Angels, which would otherwise only be playing in the city. I think they've since discontinued this type of programming. That was the great thing about those Montclair theaters in the mid to late 90s. You could see most of the latest arthouse films for a fraction of the price of seeing them in New York and all within walking distance.

Yeah, I came in from 2002-2005. I'd kinda forgotten about The Screening Zone, which still had its space, but seemingly did nothing with it for most of the time I was there. Last I checked, just as I was packing up, the space was exhibiting some original John Lennon artwork(!).

The Wellmont is a damn shame - enclosing and splitting the balcony to make shoebox theaters ruined the whole space. They showed almost entirely quasi-first run, quasi-mainstream fare by the time I left.

The Claridge is a bit of a shame as well - considering it was originally a Cinerama theater.

They were both producers on the first season of HBO's BIG LOVE, but they're no longer involved with the show, it seems.

There's one short scene where the girls wait for the train on the Red Bank NJ Transit platform before going into the city. The rest (minus the NYC scenes, which were the only ones that screamed late-90's rather than early-80's to me) was shot in Wheeling. The end credits even list "New Jersey" in the character name column followed by "West Virginia" in the actors' column. I'd never heard of this film before this thread but I watched it last Friday. I liked it quite a bit, and I don't usually go for this type of movie. It reminded me of 13 and Holding, another excellent movie which I never would have seen had someone here not posted about it. I have to wonder if the music rights are keeping this off of DVD. And FWIW, a whitepages.com search for the director has a listing at Indiewire in NY with the job title Writer and Director.