Hey, Mildred. Mildred! We didn’t forget your name. You never told us, so we figured we’d just guess. Anyway, if you thought last night’s Wet Hot American Summer screening was the last film we’d be showing this summer, you were dead wrong, Mildred.
For the third year in a row, Avalon Theater is allowing us to officially say goodbye to the season by screening a movie of our choosing on the last night of summer. This time around, we picked none other than Dirty Work to screen on Thursday, September 21. What does this movie have to do with summer? Uh…nothing. The raunchy 1998 movie finds financially desperate friends Mitch Weaver (played by comic treasure Norm Macdonald) and Sam McKenna (Artie Lange) opening a revenge-for-hire business in an effort to raise money for a black market heart. Hilarity ensures.
The film grossed just over $10M, well shy of its $13M budget, during its laughably brief theatrical run. It was decimated by critics and largely ignored by audiences. Still, the crude Bob Saget-directed buddy comedy has managed to fashion a small-but-devoted cult following since its release, due to Macdonald’s dry genius, its dozens of memorable lines, and cameos from the likes of Don Rickles, Chevy Chase, John Goodman, Gary Coleman, Adam Sandler, and Rebecca Romijn. Dirty Work is also the last film in Chris Farley’s credits.
Tickets to the 9 p.m. screening cost $6. You should make a note to yourself to attend this because we can safely say this will be your one and only chance to see Dirty Work in theaters. After all these years, this picture still makes us horny. We mean wistful! It…it makes us wistful!