A few years ago I took the train to Kansas and spent two weeks shooting a film that I am intensely proud of. It’s called The Good Things.
The Good Things, like Neverland and Jane White is one of the very few movies I’ve done in the last ten years that I can enthusiastically encourage everyone to go out and watch.
Hollywood Bitchslap says:
The Good Things (2001) – Sundance
Wil Wheaton stars as a lovelorn young man working in a toll booth of his small, middle of nowhere community. The love of his life is marrying someone else, and his best friend sends missives from far and exotic locations. He yearns for something beyond the isolation and loneliness of life in the booth, but he seems unwilling to reach out or make a choice toward something more. This short is very effective in creating a mood of loneliness and ennui which resonates. The whole thing hits a little close to home, as I look out the window at the same town I have known my whole life. Perhaps there is a difference between being content and being trapped, but the line is a fine one to walk. This well-made short deserves a look. The performances are good, and the writing and visuals are worth experiencing.
Much of my adult acting career is marked by movies that, quite frankly, suck. I mean, there are some that have good moments, and there are some where I’m happy with my performance, but the overall picture falls sort of flat . . . then there are the ones that I’d rather forget entirely.
As I worked on Just A Geek I looked for the answer to the question, “What the hell happened to my once-promising acting career?” Ultimately, it was pretty easy to answer: I made lots of bad choices, based partially on bad advice but based mostly on the arrogance of youth . . . I regret a lot of the choices I made, because I blew a lot of very good opportunities, and lost twice as many more when I didn’t respect the work. When I grew up (literally and otherwise) I knew that I had the acting ability to give good performances, but it was too late. I didn’t have the fame or Hollywood cachet that is so much more important than talent and ability when it comes to getting cast in just about anything (See: Affleck, Ben; Kutcher, Ashton and Simpson, Jessica). It was frustrating that nobody would take a chance on me, but it was doubly frustrating that putting me in a film was seen as “taking a chance” at all! Seth Wiley, who directed The Good Things, and David Latt, who directed Jane White Is Sick And Twisted both gave me an opportunity to perform for them, in very different types of roles, and their leaps of faith paid off for all of us. Jane White has won more awards than I can count (including a best actor award for me, thank you very much 🙂 and The Good Things won best short at Deauville in 2002.
Thanks to WWdN reader Greg, I just found out that The Good Things is airing on The Sundance Channel this Friday, May 21st. It’s only 26 minutes long, so if you hate it, it’s not like you lost almost three hours of your life in The Hulk . . . but I would be very surprised if you guys didn’t enjoy it — Matter of fact, I can hardly ever enjoy things that I’m in, but The Good Things is a notable exception to that rule.
I encourage everyone to record it, and share it with their friends. I think it’s a great movie and I’d like for it to be seen by as many people as possible.
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First post? That’s never happened before.
Anyhow…
I saw The Good Things when it was online and you were pointing people to it. I enjoyed it. Good work.
Doh! No Sundance Channel.
First post?
Saw The Good Things on one of the movie channels in Canada a while ago, must be close to a year by now, and I rather liked it.
Though, I think I walked into it half way, and I might have missed something, but that’s the way the movie could have been made.
Good Work though ^_^
Bill, which movie channel in Canada? I’m from Toronto and Bell doesn’t give me the Sundance channel.
Don’t have Sundance…I’ll just wait ’till it’s on DVD.
I’ve seen The Good Things–caught it by accident a few months ago and loved it. I was actually thinking about it a few days ago as I was going through a toolbooth. Great work!
one more reason to love the Sundance Channel
Don’t get annoyed because your arrogance of youth got you in some undesireable places. Just think where your arrogance could have taken you…drugs, alcohol, obscurity, living in a shack in Alaska. If your mistakes had been THAT bad, do you really think we’d be here reading your blog now? I do not think so Mr Wheaton…just put on a happy face
you could’ve been big star like ASHTON KUTCHER…but you’re a much bigger man right where you are…some people make all the right moves and find their place in the sun without all the frustration you’ve seen…but you have an experience and an outlook that someday they’ll envy…mistakes may have been made for the short term…but for the long term, you did all the right things to get you where you needed to be…not where HOLLYWOOD wanted to push you.
Someone should make a way for those of us who don’t have Sundance Channel to see this work.
Tell the producers/directors.
The Good Things is great. I saw it a couple years ago or whenever you posted a link to it :). I encourage everyone to watch it!
LOL, kudos to the Hulk comment. I couldn’t have possibly phrased that better…
🙂
Cheers
<grammar nazi>“Cachet”, not “cache”.</grammar nazi>
I look forward to it.
By the way, I saw Stand By Me for the first time over the weekend. It was really good. Good work Wil.
I JUST got Sundance channel back in my lineup!! How cool is that!! I am definitely looking that up and setting up the ol VCR!
I have to agree with Annie too, if you hadn’t made the choices you made, you wouldnt be a great writer, you’d be too busy acting. All of us who are big fans of you as a writer, might not care about you as much. I like your acting, don’t get me wrong. But the way you really touch me and affect me and move me is through your writing.
Wil, Hope you get more projects like this one.
You talked about making bad choices well:
I have this nasty little habit of setting up theater auditions with independent theater companies and then calling them off. More recently, I decided to go to auditions for shows or companies that I definitely want to participate in, rather than ‘just to do an audition’, but I worry that these actions have given me a bad name. I’m also very paranoid.
I saw it when it was online as part of that contest and I agree with the reviewer. It’s a great little film and Wil does a great job with it. The filmmaker conveys a sense of isolation with the location of the film and it’s cinematography. Wil conveys a sense of ennui and malcontent in his performance. From his past postings, it’s clear he and his character were in similar situations with respect to his career and it shows.
I highly recommend checking it out, but then I guess I’m preaching to the choir here. Unfortunately, I don’t have Sundance, so I can’t record it. If only I had some stream capture software back then…Wait, if only I had a time machine to go back and use some stream capture software…Wait
wow….thanks for the heads up. I will definitely watch this movie Friday. In my own life, I feel as if I am on the cusp of making an important life choice. I hope I finally take a leap of faith and try something new versus my old habits of staying where it is safe.
You’ve probably read The Road Not Taken:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
Unca Willie… you’ll always be a STAR in our book!!! I’ve been reading for a couple of months now, and I’ve gotta say, your writting is outstanding, and touches more folks then any role you can play.
It took me forever to check, but I don’t get Sundance (332). It is available for immediate upgrade without a phone call though…so I may just have to do that just to see Wil at 12:35pm on Friday. (missed him at 9:30am this morning)
I had many friends who worked on that and then drank beer at William S. Burroughs house with you.
Sigh. I wish I’d been there too.
I caught The Good Things last week on the Sundance Channel by accident & was so happy to see you in it, Wil. I thought it was poignant and funny (especially the end!). Your performance was impressive, not to mention you were looking good! Nice work & I hope it gets all the credit it deserves.
/me kicks hollywood in the ass for not making Wil Wheaton movies by the dozen. =)
Awesome, and we just got the sundance channel recently too.
I am looking forward to seeing it as I missed it last time you posted to it online.
Wil, you obviously know more about the ends and outs of Hollywood than I do, but it seems premature to think it’s too late for you to be a big star. Your good friend Sean A. seemed to go through career issues and then he landed Samwise. He’s working on all kinds of projects now and getting more press, etc. than he has in a long time. I remain positive that this will happen for you too, Wil.
I know you’re getting all sorts of the same comments, but I also was one that saw it online back when you were talking about it and really thought it was a wonderful piece of work. I hope this gets it out there to people even more!
Bleh. I don’t have the Sundance channel. I’ll hopefully see it somewhere else.
I saw it the first time round, and it’s a lovely piece of work. All WWDN readers should see it!
Oddly enough I was watching the Sundance channel today and “The Good Things” was on. And it was a really great movie. When I saw you on the screen I quickly went “Is that Wil Wheaton from TechTV?” I’m a geek.
Dude, Where’s My Car? rocks. And Punk’d is mostly pretty hilarious. There’s nothing wrong with being Mr. Ashton Kutcher! Don’t hate on him because he’s pretty and rich!
Sometimes it surprises me that something good can come out of Kansas. I was born and raised here, and have only felt like it was the black hole of death, that no one can ever get out once they’ve been sucked in. I’m glad you were able to do something productive here, and enjoy it at that.
I’m finally getting out, after 30 some years to the state of opportunity. Ok, so it’s a state 1400 miles away, but who’s counting!
My mantra… “NY State or Bust!”
Wil, realizing that you have screwed up puts you in the majority. I don’t know many people who have NOT screwed up. To me, it’s what you do AFTER you screw up- do you sit, and pout, and crawl in a bottle, and make infomercials(I don’t see you doing this), or do you look objectively at your actions, decide what went wrong, where, and why, and determine to rock on wit’ yo bad self? I think you know. If you never ever do anything else on screen, at least you will know that you pursued writing to it’s Nth degree. At least you will know you have a family that loves you(which is all that really matters), and some wierdos out in cyberspace that read your missives, and are happy to THINK about what you have to say.
I’ve actually seen it. It plays every now and then on Movie Pix. I really enjoyed it. Joey Jeremiah from Degrassi was in it!
Hey Wil, This was on Sundance just like 2 weeks ago. My wife and I just happened to be watching and we both enjoyed it quite a bit. I especially liked the bit when you’re practicing your golf shot and that guy comes up and gives you some lip about it. I was wondering if that was really shot in Kansas too. I guess you learn something new every day. Oh and my wife says you were “hot” ,for what it’s worth.
It’s on at 9:30am.. wah! I’m at work and no vcr and no dvr and no tivo. If anyone tapes this and is willing to send it to me let me know.
Mie
May I suggest a post about an NGO in Brazil? Kepos Group is an NGO that acknowledges and supports local knowledge, rather than ‘ready-to-use’ development
formulae prescribed by outsiders. Could you help us? Making us known would be of great help already!
The poor says thank you!!!
http://www.geocities.com/keposgroup
Y’kno I love ya Wil, you’re like the bro I never had. Most of the time I even vibe with what you have to say in your blog but the digs at other celebs… It stinks of sour grapes and for someone as successful and accomplished as you are, is it even necessary to knock others?
“The Good Things” can be seen on the web…I stumbled across it on the Chrysler MDFF site here: http://www.chryslermdff.com/finalist2002_wiley.asp?ShowFinalists2002=true
Registration rqeuired…
hey wil… ill definetly check out the good things… im a big fan of jane white though… its an awesome movie and you crack me up in it… i encourage everyone to see it if you havent already…
Too bad we don’t get Sundance up here. I’ll have to watch for the DVD I guess. And I have to agree with Sumdum, bashing someone that is currently popular really didn’t help get the message across…
Hey wil is it on vhs or dvd? If it is I want to rent it, since I don’t have the sundance channel. *pouts* Wil, don’t say that your movies suck, cause I saw most of them. I have been a fan of yours since Stand By Me. Ok maybe the movie “THE CURSE” was kinda cheesy, but…….
A fan always,
Morgan
Hey, there, Wil.
I’ve only been reading your journal for a short while, having been introduced to it through LJ, but I love your writings!
I work for a closed captioning company and had the good fortune to caption The Good Things for Sundance about a year ago. I absolutely loved it. Your performance was excellent. I have always been a big fan of Stand By Me, and always wondered what became of you. (Not a big Star Trek fan, although I was aware you were on the show.) Thanks be to the internet for letting me know. I look forward to your upcoming book!
Consider it done, fearless leader.
You can watch ‘The Good Things’ here : http://www.chryslermdff.com/qualifying2002.asp Scroll down a little and you will see Wil holding a traffic sign, that’s it. Great piece of work Wil, I was so happy to see that it was still online, and free!
I have cable, but The Sundance Channel is not included with it in my area, dammit to hell. 🙁
Ok, sorry I’m commenting again, but after someone put the link to your “Good Things” movie I had to watch it. It was really good. I wish I could of gotten screencaps off of it, but I tried and it didn’t work. I thought it was very well written. So I just wanted to say. “wil, never knock down whatever you do in your life. Like someone said, you grew up wonderfully and even though you don’t do much acting now I still think of you as an actor and writer. I’ll probably be getting your book soon. Oh yeah I love watching you on TechTV,because you have a really cool sense of humor.
a fan always,
Morgan
Well I dont even have cable, but I will ask the neighbor if they have the sundance channel. That way I can give them a video tape and ask them to please tape that for me. Cant wait to see it!
Wil, you can measure life and happiness by what you dont or do have. There are lots of people in this world that have made really bad mistakes and realized it sooner or later. But some of the happiest people ive ever met have never even seen or done the things within their lives that you have accomplished. Be happy for what you have. Be happy for family, friends etc.. But most of all be happy that you have turned out to be a wonderful person with a wonderful family and people that care enough about you to come here and give you the type of support they give you. It seems to me that you have more fans that are more like friends than most celebs. Keep your head up and make all the days count whether or not your decisions turn out to be mistakes or the best thing that ever happened to you. =)
~*~Lotus~*~
All the way from Australia, Im a new recruit here sending a big helloo, for ages I had wanted to know what had become of you as I have been an “admirer” for a long time so for me I’m happy to have found your site (which I read your journals) and updated on whats happening… unfortunatly I havent seen The Good Things which, I will hopefully get on dvd soon.
Hope your cats well I know what it’s like when you need to spend close attention to a beloved pet…
p.s dont get a stitch exercising to much!!