Filmmaker David Gordon Green’s latest movie, “The Sitter,” starring Jonah Hill, was birthed — as countless ideas are — after one too many shots of tequila. Green had befriended Hill while the latter was filming “Superbad,” then reconnected with him in early 2010 at the Don Julio-sponsored premiere party for Hill’s film, “Cyrus,” at the Sundance Film Festival.
“We were drinking a lot of tequila and tequila gets me loose,” Green said in a recent phone interview. “We started talking and it went from the standard pat on the back to ‘We should work together’ to ‘I’ve read this great script! Should we do this?’ It got pretty specific over tequila and some Blood, Sweat and Tears on the dance floor.”
The resulting film does its slurry origins proud. “The Sitter” is a broad comedy about a foul-mouthed, horndog baby sitter, his unruly charges and a wild night of scoring coke, stealing diamonds and blowing up toilets. It’s a knowing homage to fast-paced, easy-to-watch ’80s movies like “Risky Business,” “After Hours” and especially “Adventures in Babysitting.” There are lots of car chases, an adorable little girl who curses like a sailor, and a ruthless gang of flamboyantly homosexual, drug-dealing bodybuilders.
“We were trying to disguise an ’80s movie in a contemporary shell,” Green said. “The goal was being broad without being dumb. You want to hit the beats of the genre — home in the nick of time before Mom and Dad open the door, the kids waving goodbye from the window — because without some of the broad notes and the clichés, it doesn’t come together as a proper homage to these movies.”
The film’s irreverent tone is of a piece with Green’s other recent work as a director — 2008’s marijuana-fueled buddy flick “Pineapple Express,” this year’s medieval stoner comedy “Your Highness” — but a million miles away from his early work. The first three movies Green wrote and directed — 2000’s “George Washington,” 2003’s “All the Real Girls” and 2004’s “Undertow” — were subtle, emotionally complex, Southern set pieces full of long, patient camera shots and, especially in the case of the first two films, not much action. All were critical successes but commercial flops. Green’s fourth film, “Snow Angels,” a slightly more commercial drama starring Kate Beckinsale, got middling reviews and also tanked at the box office.
“It’s heartbreaking when you spend a lot of time making something and then no one goes,” he said. “The cumulative box office of my first four movies wasn’t even a million dollars.”
Green’s career trajectory transformed drastically when bromance auteur Judd Apatow offered him the opportunity to direct “Pineapple Express,” a studio comedy that would rake in over $100 million.
“‘Pineapple Express’ made more money at its first midnight screening than all my other movies made combined,” Green said with a laugh.
Some fans of Green’s earlier independent work have been troubled by his turn toward lighthearted Hollywood romps, but he said the change has had as much to do with maintaining his mental health as his financial health.
“The experience of making four dramatic movies in a row puts you in a really exhausting emotional place. When you’re dealing with gritty, heartbreaking subject matter for a long time and putting very melancholy music to it, you kind of want to slit your wrists sometimes. I was in this headspace that — for therapy, if nothing else — I needed to escape. My friends were honest enough with me to say, ‘Listen, you’re a dorky dude who likes funny, f***ed-up movies, so why don’t you make a funny, f***ed-up movie?’ ”
“The Sitter” certainly fits that bill, but don’t expect Green to keep churning out such fare indefinitely.
“It’s only coincidence because of the lack of funding for making something outside the commercial comedic arena over the last couple of years,” he said. “Without Judd Apatow, I’d still probably be making $1 million crybaby Southern movies. I like a lot of different types of movies. I’m never going to be the go-to guy for such-and-such a genre. I’m always going to be kind of a wild card. I pride myself on that.”