The weekends on All Things Considered series Movies I've Seen A Million Times features filmmakers, actors, writers and directors talking about the movies that they never get tired of watching.
For writer-director Jay Chandrasekhar, whose credits include Super Troopers, Beerfest and The Babymakers, which opened in theaters this weekend, the movie he could watch a million times is Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap. "The accents are flawless, the music is really good," Chandrasekhar says.
Interview Highlights
On why he loves Fred Willard in the film
"Fred Willard goes on the most amazing riff, he lays out six or seven deadpan jokes in a row. He could have stopped anywhere in that string of jokes and you'd say, 'Yeah, that's the joke,' but he ends with, "I'm joking of course," and it's just, I don't know, I just love it."
On how This Is Spinal Tap influenced him
"Spinal Tap influenced me I think specifically in making me really pay attention to tone. A lot of comedy films, there's the opinion, "Well, if it's funny, put it in." But I think you have to be more disciplined than that. I think in a film that's supposed to last an hour and a half, I think you have to really pay attention to what kind of movie you're making, what is the audience experiencing, and does this joke fit with this joke? So it requires that you monitor what jokes go in the movie and I think Rob Reiner and those guys really, really paid attention to it."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.