'Stick it in Detroit'

I first saw "Stick it in Detroit" at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival in June 2008. I laughed so hard I almost cried.  Now, more than a year later, this blue collar made-in-Michigan-for-Michigan-about-Michigan film is finally having its big red carpet premiere at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

"Stick It In Detroit" is a true Rust Belt flick. The characters, all in their mid-twenties, are going through what can only be described as a mid-mid-life crisis. Faced with dead-end jobs in manufacturing, maintenance, customer service, and clerical work, these characters are metro Detroiters.

They are people we know, people we grew up with, our friends and neighbors, even ourselves. “In making Stick It In Detroit, we wanted to make a movie that Middle America could identify and relate with,” says director (and native Michigander) Robert Phelps. “We wanted our audience to feel like they actually know these characters or someone like them.”

The result is part late-blooming coming-of-age tale, part slapstick satire. Each character acts as a parody of some faction of metro Detroit, from an over-the-top send-up of wealthy “old money” Grosse Pointers to the obnoxious Hot Rod Johnson and his big-haired/foul-mouthed girlfriend cruising around in the IROC-Z (reminiscent of those Gratiot-cruising Eastsiders), there is no corner of metro Detroit left unscathed.

This film is pure fun from start to finish, using both intellectual humor (like those wink-wink parodies) as well as slapstick gross-out comedy and characters outlandish enough to rival the Broken Lizard team, all for the goal of making people laugh ‘til they pee a little.

“Having grown up in the Detroit metro area in a blue-collar family working in my grandfather’s machine shop since I was 10, I know the people of the Detroit metro area and I wanted to give them a film that they could relate to and be proud of, but most importantly one that would make them laugh their asses off,” Phelps proclaims.

Expect penis jokes, poop jokes, lots of spanking and wanking, boobs, erections, and people getting stoned. This is a film for former-auto-industry Middle-America Everymen; prudish types should probably hold off for the next Nora Ephron flick.

Detroitophiles will also be proud of this film. From the opening montage of Detroit hot spots like the Majestic and Northern Lights Lounge to the soundtrack blaring local indie darlings the Hard Lessons, as a proud Detroit booster I found it hard not to have a smile on my face (and a sudden craving for a PBR). Especially when this scene cuts to the next morning, when one of the guys is passed out on the living room floor, wakes up and asks, “Anyone trap that midget that crapped in my mouth?”  Yep -- been there.

Phelps’s approach to marketing and distributing this film has been a story in its own. The film was shot on a practically nonexistent budget and has since been marketed solely by Phelps himself and the strength of word of mouth. Slowly but surely, "Stick it in Detroit" is gaining a following that appeals to those who celebrate Detroit’s DIY spirit as well as the cult legions of "Animal House" and "Dazed & Confused" fans.

It’s a slapstick stoner homage to the city that we all know and love and just can’t seem to leave. “With 'Stick it in Detroit' I wanted to depart from the typical gang-banging drug-dealing ‘Detroit Movie’ but rather show the world the Detroit I know, that most Detroiters know, a region full of family, friends and, most importantly, laughter.”

Yes, world, we here in the D still know how to laugh. This is OUR movie.

Check out the red carpet premiere of "Stick It In Detroit" at the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are available at the box office prior to the screening. There will also be midnight screenings at the Main Art Theatre on Friday and Saturday October 16-17 and 23-24. Midnight screenings are also planned at the Emagine Theaters in Novi, Canton, and Woodhaven Oct. 23-24.

Also be sure to check out the Unemployment Tour, coming to a college campus near you! For more information on the film, check out http://www.stickitindetroit.com/.