LINCOLN SQUARE — The Davis Theater is rolling out the purple carpet Tuesday for the Chicago premiere of a brand new comedy with a forged that features former Chicago Bears participant Israel Idonije.
“Oxy Morons” is the comedic story of harried logistics firm worker Wayne Poss (Jeremy Sumpter) as he and buddies steal, smuggle and promote opioids from the United State’s largest pharmaceutical firm.
Their chaotic, half-baked drug-smuggling scheme — at one level a selfmade submarine is launched into Lake Michigan — runs into growing issues because the cops shut in on the novice crew whereas they attempt to repay escalating money owed.
The movie’s first theatrical screening will likely be 7 p.m. Tuesday on the Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave. at a personal premiere occasion. It is going to be out there Tuesday on streaming platforms and on demand.
The indie movie was shot over 20 days in 2022 for lower than $1 million and it options Chicago expertise each in entrance of and behind the digital camera, stated director Sarah Cayce.
“That is some scrappy Chicago ingenuity,” Cayce stated. “This was: We knew some individuals, who knew some individuals, who knew some individuals. That’s what occurred with the casting, that’s what occurred with these places.”
Cayce has a background as a casting director and lives in Lincoln Sq.. Her community of Chicago connections helped recruit expertise, scout places and usually plan the tight-but-flexible filming schedule.
“Chicago is such an enormous metropolis, and we shot all through town. We went approach North Aspect and approach South Aspect,” Cayce stated.
Cayce moved to Chicago greater than a decade in the past from Oklahoma. When she’s not engaged on a manufacturing within the metropolis, she likes to discover Chicago’s culinary scene.
“I traveled round a ton once I first moved right here. With movie it’s a must to. You’re all over the place. And I used to be at all times determining one of the best neighborhoods,” she stated. “And being an enormous Vivian Maier fan, the photographer, I used to be at all times simply peeping areas. Really, I’ve simply at all times felt a bit like somewhat bizarre meals anthropologist as I’ve gone round city.”
That familiarity with town gave the forged and crew perception in to small particulars for the heist movie, like how a lot faux sweat to cowl Sumpter in if his character is frantically driving his bike between O’Hare and Bucktown.
“How out of breath does he should be by the point he will get to south Bucktown? And the way would he get there rapidly whereas utilizing a rental bike?” she stated. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, he might completely get there that quick.’ There’s so many alleys.”
Grant Troyer, the movie’s screenwriter, lives in Bucktown and his firsthand data of town — notably its historical past as a global transit hub — was one of many causes he determined to set his comedic heist within the Windy Metropolis.
“Let’s take a employee that works for a grasping, logistics company and have him begin pilfering drugs from a grasping pharmaceutical firm. The place else are we going to do this?” Troyer stated. “Chicago is among the epicenters of transportation. You couldn’t actually set this story wherever however Chicago to make it work.”
The movie satirizes company greed through the heist that Sumpter’s character comes up with.
“So let’s provide you with with an absurd rip-off to spotlight simply how grasping and simply reckless Huge Pharma really is,” Troyer stated. In between the heist’s hijinks, the movie takes viewers on a broad, comedic overview of how logistics and pharmaceutical firms function, he stated.
Sara Sharp, a producer pal who Cayce had labored with earlier than, prompt she pitch to direct the movie due to the script’s satirical bent, Cayce stated.
“I really like punk rock. And I really like sticking it to the person,” Cayce stated. “And my favourite stand-up comics are speaking about actual stuff, however they’re doing it by way of large laughs.
“[So] this manufacturing was a grungy, punk rock story. As a result of we labored our butt off,” she continued. “We really put a sensible submarine — dude, they’d electrical in it — and we kicked it into the lake.”
At one level, the movie includes a “coaching tutorial” that apes the kind of worker onboarding that occurs at precise logistics firms use, Troyer stated.
“It simply exhibits how damaged the system might be, generally. And on the whole what number of arms are within the cookie jar. How one thing like this might occur,” he stated.
The 2023 labor disputes throughout the movie and tv industries contributed to a delay within the movie’s launch. When a launch date was lastly set, Cayce stated she advocated for having its premiere in Chicago, given the movie’s many ties to town.
“It is a Chicago story. That’s why we premiered it on the Davis. It might be very tough to face on enterprise if I used to be like, ‘Yeah, after which we premiered it in Los Angeles with a bunch of individuals we didn’t know and our crew couldn’t go,’” Cayce stated.
You possibly can watch “Oxy Morons” beginning Tuesday on main streaming providers like AppleTV, Tubi, Redbox and Fandango.
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