| | | Getting Fired by Woody Allen was Just the Beginning.
Features: DVD
When actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by Woody Allen, she wondered how she would cope with being fired by a cultural icon. Turning to her friends in show business, she was assured she wasn't alone. Once the subject had been broached, everyone she knew - from her rabbi, to her gynecologist - had stories of getting the boot. This set her off on a journey to answer the question: Was being fired going to be the best or worst thing that happened in her working life?
"Genuinely affecting...A free-wheeling, first-person documentary that recalls early efforts of Michael Moore." Joe Leydon, Variety
"A frank and funny look at job loss and downsizing." Madeleine Osberger, Associated Press
"The best kind of comedy - rooted in empathy but with a serious point." Patrick Beach, Cox News Service
Editor's Note
Writer Annabelle Gurwitch's book FIRED! is brought to the screen in this celebrity-packed testament to the benefits of losing your job. Gurwitch's impetus to look into the experience of getting fired came after Woody Allen gave her the boot from an off-Broadway play called WRITER'S BLOCK, and now she hands the baton to filmmakers Chris Bradley and Kyle LeBranche, who further her efforts by talking to a number of people about their dismissals. Stars such as David Cross (MR. SHOW), Sarah Silverman (JESUS IS MAGIC), Jeff Garlin (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM), Fred Willard (BEST IN SHOW), and Harry Shearer (THIS IS SPINAL TAP) provide amusing anecdotes as the directors flash back and forth between their reminiscences and scenes from the stage play Gurwitch developed on the same subject. Non-famous people provide equally illuminating thoughts, even inducing memories of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary ROGER AND ME, as workers at a General Motors plant expound on their fears about potential job loss. But the film never dwells on serious matters for too long, and it soon becomes apparent that its disparate subjects are united in the feeling that getting fired isn't so bad as long as you hold on to your sense of humor--actor Tate Donovan even turns his experiences into a masterly piece of puppet theater. A witty and enjoyable film about a subject that, for most people, is anything but funny, FIRED! could be just the tonic any newly unemployed person needs.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: SONY MUSIC |
| Release Date: 6/5/2007 |
| Running Time: 72 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 10366 | | UPC: 00826663103663 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew | Andy Dick - Featuring | | Annabelle Gurwitch - Producer | | Annabelle Gurwitch - Writer | | Ben Stein - Featuring | | Chris Bradley - Editor | | Chris Bradley - Director | | David Cross - Featuring | | Fred Willard - Featuring | | Gary Stockdale - Original Music By | | Harry Shearer - Featuring | | Illeana Douglas - Featuring | | Kyle LaBrache - Cinematographer | | Kyle LaBrache - Editor | | Kyle LaBrache - Director | | Richard Foos - Executive Producer | | Sarah Silverman - Featuring | | Tim Allen - Featuring |
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| | Professional Reviews | Salon.com 9 of 10
Meet the woman fired - and called "retarded" - by Woody Allen...It may just be the best thing that ever happened to Annabelle Gurwitch. The affable and very much not retarded comedic actress has turned the experience into a small empire of sorts - first a successful stage show, then a successful book..."I'm just glad he didn't call me a 'tardo,'" reflects Gurwitch, 45, a Los Angeles-based National Public Radio commentator who is currently working on a pilot for Lifetime...Initially sulking from the experience - a theater director called her to say they were "rethinking" her role in 2003's "Writer's Block" - Gurwitch started talking to colleagues from Fred Willard (booted from a sitcom when they thought he was another actor from "WKRP in Cincinnati") to Andy Borowitz (booted from writing for "The Facts of Life" because he "didn't get Tootie at all"), only to discover that some of the most hilarious and defining moments in life come from being fired. - Andrew O'Hehir
Eye Weekly 8 of 10
...a sincere if scattershot effort to exorcise its subjects' feelings of hurt and embarrassment through the healing power of comedy...Gurwitch's pals give Fired! considerable marquee value - Fred Willard, Tim Allen and Sarah Silverman all provide anecdotes and Tate Donovan's story about getting sacked from the film version of Torch Song Trilogy is the basis for an amusing piece of puppet theatre. Meanwhile, Andy Dick re-enters the food services industry with predictably disastrous results...Since the showbiz-oriented nature of her friends' stories becomes repetitive, Gurwitch and directors Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache are wise to widen the scope by analyzing the wider phenomenon of shrinkage in America's workforce. But the stab at cheeky, Michael Moore-like social critique is too mild to reveal much of value, with Fired! being more useful as a primer on how not to keep your day job. - Jason Anderson
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