director Chris Ver Weil on location in Toronto

As for Ver Weil himself, he initially found himself torn between his two main protagonists but came out of the experience as changed as both of them. “I’m probably Critical Jim, but Finch is who I’d like to be,” he says. “I’d like to be this romantic guy who is just trying to get his foothold in the world and to find a girl to fall in love with - to have a life and a soul. But the reality is, I’m probably more like Critical Jim, who can only manage a life that’s two-dimensional. He functions with movies, with celluloid. On the other hand, towards the end of the film, he actually becomes a human being who can function in an extra dimension that’s humanity or life. I found, through the making of this film, that that’s actually happened to me.”

CLETIS TOUT Fireworks Entertainment and Peter Hoffman present a Fireworks Pictures/Itasca Pictures/ Nichol Moon Production. Prod: Dan Grodnik, Matt Grimaldi, Robert Snukal; Exec prod: Jay Firestone, Adam Haight; Dir/Scr: Chris Ver Weil; Ph: Jerzy Zielinski; Prod des: Charles Rosen; Cost des: Betsy Cox; Ed: Roger Bondelli. With Christian Slater (Trevor Finch, aka Cletis Tout), Richard Dreyfuss (Micah Tobias, aka Marcel Zavoya), Portia de Rossi (Tess Donnelly), RuPaul (Ginger Markum), Billy Connolly (Dr Michael Savian), Tim Allen (Critical Jim). International distribution: Fireworks Pictures.