Joe Matengna,
Sam Rockwell,
Charles Durning
and Maury
Chaykin star in
Jerry and Tom."

-

ly funny and disturbing. The film co-
stars Maury Chaykin and Charles
Durning.
"I was so sick of all the movies that
were made in this genre where the
killer was so good looking and well
dressed and intelligent and debonair,"
says Rubinek. "And somehow all those
qualities forgave him all the killings.
Somehow the audience forgave him.
"I wanted to make a movie that
was the antidote to that, and not
make a movie that exploited violence.
All the violence is off screen. I wanted
to do a film where there are conse-
quences to violence, the hit men aren't
so good looking and there is a moral
center. I wanted to do it with comedy
and not stand on a soapbox.
"I wanted people to realize you
can't separate yourself from what [you]
do. You can't separate a guy who kisses
his wife good-bye, goes out of the
house in the morning and does das-
tardly things, whether it's an agent, a
producer, a lawyer or a writer for a
Jewish newspaper."
A telephone conversation with
Rubinek from his home in Los Angeles
is one part interview and one part edu-
cation in show business. Rubinek
directed Jerry and Tom in its original
form during a festival of one-act plays.
He fell in love with the material,
optioned it and was able to secure a
distribution deal with Lions Gate films
that provided a $3 million budget.
Jerry and Tom was originally
screened at the Sundance Film Festival
in 1998, and was the immediate recip-
ient of good news and bad news. The
good news was that Miramax bought
American rights to the film from
Lions Gate for $2.75 million, which
"put the movie immediately into prof-
it." The bad news was that Miramax
bought the film, for, as Rubinek
reports, "it's well known that Miramax

had 40 films on the shelf."
Jerry and Tom had done well in
Lion's Gate release overseas, so
Rubinek is perplexed about why
Miramax decided not to release the
film domestically. "I wanted it
released," he says. "They owned it."
Rubinek prefers to look on the
bright side. "They could have left it
on the shelf.
"After they bought it, times
changed. Whatever the reason, I dis-
agree with them."
Still he is loath to speak negatively
about the company, because, ultimate-
ly, all's well that ends well. "I think
Showtime is a great network and
[Showtime President of Programming]
Jerry Offsay believes in this film."
Growing up in Montreal and then
Ottawa, Rubinek worked first in a fac-
tory and then went into the shmata
business. He had his bar mitzvah in
an Orthodox synagogue and remains
semi-kosher today, which he jokes, is
being in a family that "won't eat
Chinese food in the house. I can't
have milk with meat; it makes me
throw up. But is there any cheese-
cake?"
It is in that growing up that the
roots of this film were born.
"As Jews we're brought up to
believe that violence is not the
answer," says Rubinek. 'And there
were all the people murdered [during
the Holocaust] in my family. So to
explore what turns people into killers,
and to explore that in a comic way, is
part of my tradition. It was beshert
that I make a movie about violence
with a moral center." 1-1

. • •

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