Arts & Entertainment

Local Filmmaker's New Movie Premiers at Marcus Theater Thursday

Robert Alaniz, director of the award-winning comedy "D.I.N.K.S," talks with Patch about his new film "You Don't Say," a movie about a woman who is forced to be honest with everyone.

Frankfort resident Robert Alaniz doesn’t consider himself funny.

Yet when the filmmaker won awards for his first foray into comedy called "D.I.N.K.S," a film about a married couple without children and the social criticism they face, he decided to pursue the style further.

The result is “You Don’t Say,” a film that takes a social commentary swipe on honesty, or the lack thereof, in modern times. The story focuses on Bobby, a corporate climber placed in charge of a large company merger, who suddenly finds herself only able to say exactly what she thinks to people around her, in a very politically correct environment.

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Alaniz filmed scenes for the movie in several places throughout the south suburbs and Chicago, including Blissful Banana Café in Orland Park. The film, which also features an original title-track song by “Undercover Angel” singer Alan O’Day, premiers Thursday at Marcus Theaters, with showings at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. A meet and greet will be held before the 7 p.m. showing with cast members, including Larry Thomas, who played the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld.

Alaniz spoke with Patch about being chastised for giving honest opinions, how his personal experiences shaped the story and finding an unlikely niche in filmmaking.

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“D.I.N.K.S” was drawn from your experiences as a married man without kids. What of your experiences helped shape “You Don’t Say”?

“D.I.N.K.S” is about a couple that’s discriminated against because they don’t want children. That doesn’t mean they are selfish or greedy, and my wife and I were branded that for years because we didn’t have kids. I also found myself getting irked about how we treat people’s opinions. After watching the great film “Gran Turino” and while I was writing “D.I.N.K.S 2,” I was watching the news and it just seemed to be chock full of this “someone said something that made someone mad and now he or she is apologizing.” Kirk Cameron was on Piers Morgan and he asked him what he thought about gay marriage. All Cameron did was express his opinion. I can’t remember the exact quote, but he wasn’t for gay marriage that’s for sure, and suddenly there’s this uproar. Different groups and organizations are making fun of him and claiming he’s gay.

Growing up in the 1970s, I just don’t think we let words bother us quite as much. I laughed at the whole thing, and stated searching for these types of things, and found a lot. I was amazed at how many stories there were about this. How stupid and moronic. I thought of how Bill Clinton clearly was lying through his teeth about his intern and he got away with it. OJ Simpson too.

I also have a fondness for movies like “Liar, Liar” where an ordinary person encounters something magical and it turns their life upside down.

I wanted to make a film anyone can appreciate. We really can’t say what we want to say without getting attacked and reprimanded for doing so.

Can you describe one of the situations in the film where the main character has to be honest with people around her?

Bobby, the main character, is me when I was in corporate America working for a bank in Chicago. She gets this magical necklace, though it’s not defined as for sure that the necklace is causing all of it, and she has to be honest. This movie is about a woman finding her voice. She always did everything politically correct, but now she can finally be herself, speak her mind and be what she wants to be.

One scene, which there’s a piece of in the trailer, she’s in this big meeting. She’s head of a merger between two communications companies, one in Mexico City and one in Chicago, and she’s meeting with the team for the merger. When she starts pitching to them what they have to do, what the business wants them to do and their goals, she finds herself truthfully telling the people what the goals really are. When she starts complimenting the individuals, she also points out their shortcomings too in a very bold, straightforward way.

I always thought how great it would be if I could tell a co-worker how I can’t stand her perfume, or tell the loud mouth who’s always talking to shut up. Then there are the people you think how did they even get this job? There are always people that fit that in every workplace.

But you can’t say anything. Sure it’s wrong in some ways to say these things, but what would happen if you did just say it? That’s a particular scene I think everyone could identify with. I’m going to stick with comedies. I think I found my niche. Characters can do things your audience can’t do, and the audience can cheer them on, while they are doing things that can’t be done in real life. That’s a scene where I hope the audience roots for Bobby and I think they will.

What is it about comedy that is leading you to stick with it?

I never thought I was funny. I don’t see myself as being a funny guy. I think that’s one of the reasons why I never did a comedy. I did one satire called “Saturday Night Disaster” making fun of “Saturday Night Fever.” Maybe it was too soon after the movie came out. Some people laughed, but others got really mad. They still thought disco was cool. I showed it to people recently and they laughed their butts off. I was making fun of something not funny at the time, but I saw silliness and stupidity. What I enjoy now about comedy, even though I’m not funny, is I can find stupidity and silliness and contradictions, things in life in general that are ridiculous, and sometimes they are funny. People are trapped in their worlds. They are afraid to laugh, but in movies you can laugh at anything.

How did you get in touch with Larry Thomas?

An ongoing stumbling block we hit with “D.I.N.K.S” when searching for distribution was we didn’t have a star name attached. I had a part I left open of Mr. Melindez, the CEO of the company in Mexico City. I thought being Hispanic myself, I wanted to make some commentary about my heritage and how we are treated in corporate America. I knew another director on the north side of Chicago, John Wesley Norton, who does horror films. He had Larry in two of his movies, and one day someone asked about him. I checked him out on YouTube, and I noticed that he could easily pass for Hispanic with the mustache, and he had this scary look on his face. That’s Mr. Melindez. That’s how he’s written in the script. He walks in a room and you can hear everyone breathing. He wanted to see the script. I sent him the treatment and he loved it. He was perfect for the part in every way. We added an extra scene in the movie based on a conversation we had when I picked him up at the airport. A little nod to Seinfeld fans. A lot of people know him. He’s really a TV icon. He does a great job in the film.

What else should people know about the film?

I think I ended up making a feel-good movie. I’ve showed it to a few people, and when movie ends they have a big smile on their face, they said that’s a great, a fun movie. “D.I.N.K.S” the humor was a little more biting. This comedy is a feel-good movie. I think people will be able to escape and come out with a smile. It ends on a positive note, and most of my films don’t this is a first for me.

I have to give recognition to the guy who wrote the song “You Don’t Say.” Alan O’Day is an accomplished songwriter. I wanted a song like “9 to 5,” like what that did for that movie. You’d come out humming it and it’s interlaced throughout. That was a tall order to find a song like that. Everyone who’s seen it said they couldn’t get the song out of their head. I think Alan’s song is a tremendous contribution to the movie.

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