As Macon Blair’s Idiots rides into US theaters this week, the director shares ten films that influenced his buddy road comedy starring Dave Franco, O'Shea Jackson Jr., and Mason Thames. Read more for Blair’s accompanying notes for each pick. The Last Detail Our pitch for The Shitheads/Idiots was “An asshole version of The Last Detail with hard drugs.” A very literal inspiration. Midnight Run Another big inspiration… another fun road movie with action and crime but mainly we just loved the central engine of two hilarious actors constantly bickering over each other the whole movie. Barfly Grime + self annihilation + tenderness. Repo Man A constant influence, to one degree or another, but in this case it was clusters of grizzled grumps arguing with each other in an oddly decaying world. Never gets old. The American Friend Love this movie but it bears little relation to Idiots in terms of tone except for the sloppy-crazed Dennis Hopper fist-fight-on-train scene. Mainly, it was that Guillermo (Garza, the DP) and I just loved how it looked. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Used as a reference for the first third of Idiots: anti-social maniacs on drugs, driving around, making poor choices and causing a mess. No visible hallucinations in our movie but they were probably there. The Night of the Hunter We suggested the crew watch this one if they hadn’t seen it already. Not sure why, honestly. Other than one scene where Mark and Davis get lost in the woods it doesn’t have much in common with Idiots. I think we just like this one a lot and wanted to watch it again? Wild at Heart Although Sailor and Lula are way more horny than Mark and Davis (and at least more likeable than Mark), the general vibe of outsiders in a car on a long journey meeting increasingly strange folks along the way was something we thought about a lot. The Hitch-Hiker Two more-or-less regular guys drive a third one who turns out to be a dangerous freak and that’s our whole thing. You can see a brief clip of the movie featuring William Talman on a TV screen towards the end of the movie. Ida Lupino rules. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Obviously this one is like “maybe 2% inspired by” but the last third of Idiots – characters captured by masked weirdos in a secluded rural house – had some Chain Saw DNA in it. There’s a shot of one of the kidnappers (Najah Bradley) dancing around with her hatchet that immediately reminded me of Leatherface at the end of TCSM and that’s why I put it in the movie.
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