Getting To Know You

Released: 1999
Running time: 96 minutes

Director: Lisanne Skyler

Production Company: ShadowCatcher Entertainment, Search Party Films
Producers: George LaVoo, Laura Gabbert
Executive Producers: Scott Rosenfelt, Larry Estes, David Skinner
Co-Producer: Roger Baerwolf
Line Producer: Per Melita

Screenplay: Lisanne Skyler, Tristine Skyler
Cinematographer: Jim Denault
Editors: Julie Janata, Anthony Sherin
Music: Michael Brook
Casting: Jordan Beswick
Production Design: Jody Asnes
Art Direction: Katherine L. Spencer
Set Decoration: Brian Elwell
Costume Design: Astrid Brucker
Sound: Antonio L. Arroyo
Choreographer: Luis Perez
Assistant Director: Michael Lerman

Cast

Judith: Heather Matarazzo
Wesley: Zach Braff
Jimmy: Michael Weston
Trix: Bebe Neuwirth
Darrell: Mark Blum
Officer Caminetto: Bo Hopkins
Irene: Sonja Sogn
Lynn: Tristine Skyler
Sonny: Chris Noth
Brady: Kevin Black
Leila Lee: Mary McCormack
Lamar Pike Jr.: Jacob Reynolds
Lamar Pike Sr.: Leo Burmester
Bottle Lady: Celia Weston
Ticket Clerk: Craig Anthony Grant

Adapted from the short stories "Leila Lee," "Craps," and "Getting to Know All About You" collected in Heat and Other Stories

Takes the JCO story "Getting to Know All About You" as its central story, and weaves in material from "Leila Lee" and "Craps" all tied together with original material set in a bus depot.

In spite of this unusual combination, the film stays true to the original stories, while emphasizing their thematic relationships.

The actors are excellent, in particular Heather Matarazzo, Zach Braff, Michael Weston, and Bebe Neuwirth. As in Foxfire, JCO's blondes inexplicably turn brunette, but it is less crucial in this film.

The film has a lovely sense of color, splashing bright reds and orange over the predominant aquas and blues that saturate everything from the walls of the bus depot, to the clothes the characters wear, down even to their eyes.

At last report, this film is still looking for a distributor. Let's hope it finds one, as it is by far the best, along with Smooth Talk, of all the JCO-adapted films.

Page address:
http://jco.usfca.edu/works/film/gettingtoknow.html