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Rubin & Ed

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Rubin & Ed
VHS cover
Directed byTrent Harris
Written byTrent Harris
Produced byPaul Webster
Starring
CinematographyBryan Duggan
Edited byBrent A. Schoenfeld
Music byFred Myrow
Production
company
Distributed byRank Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 1 August 1991 (1991-08-01) (WFF)
  • 15 May 1992 (1992-05-15) (United States)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.25 million[1]
Box office$15,675[2]

Rubin & Ed is a 1991 independent buddy comedy film written and directed by Trent Harris. It stars Crispin Glover and Howard Hesseman as an unlikely pairing on a road trip through the Utah desert.

Plot

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Rubin Farr is an eccentric, unsociable young man who lives in a motel run by his mother and mourns his cat, which is being stored in a refrigerator until he can find a proper spot to bury it. Ed Tuttle is a divorced, middle-aged yuppie who works for real estate pyramid schemer Mr. Busta as a recruiter for his $3,000 "seminars". As a condition of returning his stereo to him, Rubin's mother forces her son to go out and make at least one friend. Rubin befriends Ed and decides to go and bury his cat in the Utah desert. He and Ed take Ed's car, which is actually on loan from Mr. Busta. While Rubin sees in Ed the potential for the type of friend his mom wants him to make, Ed sees an opportunity to recruit Rubin for Busta's seminars. In the desert, the pair's car breaks down and Rubin and Ed have a disagreement about where the nearest town is located.

Ed gets attacked by ants and returns to the car, which he repairs and decides to drive back after learning that Busta has reported the car stolen. Rubin, meanwhile, knocks himself unconscious while exploring a cave and has a dream of being the "King of the Echo People". As king, Rubin owns the world's biggest platform shoes and enjoys an inner-tube float on a placid lake while his cat goes water-skiing behind him in a boat piloted by his dream girl. His fantasy is interrupted by Ed, who has returned to find him after a crisis of conscience.

Rubin and Ed drive to Busta's headquarters, where Rubin disrupt a seminar. Busta gives chase only to collide, literally, with police intent on arresting him for stealing his own car, leaving Rubin and Ed to wander down a dark alley and argue, as they have throughout the film, over which of them is the bigger failure.

Cast

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Production

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Peter Boyle was originally cast in the role of Ed, but two weeks into filming, he had a stroke and was replaced by Howard Hesseman.[1]

Rubin & Ed was filmed in Utah in Salt Lake City, Hanksville, Factory Butte and Goblin Valley State Park.[3]

Glover's appearance on Late Night

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Crispin Glover appeared on Late Night with David Letterman in 1987 to promote the film River's Edge. During the interview, Glover wore platform shoes and a wig, behaved erratically, and nearly kicked David Letterman in the face, causing Letterman to walk off the set.[4][5] After Rubin & Ed premiered four years later, some speculated that Glover appeared on the show in-character as Rubin Farr. Rubin Farr also appears in Glover's music videoclip for the song "Clowny Clown Clown" and is also cited as "Mr Farr".[4][5][6][7]

Release

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Rubin & Ed received a limited theatrical release on 15 May 1992 in the United States, playing in 18 theaters.[2]

On August 18, 2020, it received a Blu-ray release from Sony Pictures.[8]

Reception

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TV Guide called it "a warm, funny and well-crafted celebration of eccentricity with terrific performances from Glover and Hesseman, who could easily be the perfect comedy duo for the post-modern age" and praised director Trent Harris for "[maintaining] an easy mood of lunacy throughout".[9] The review added, "Many low-budget films strive to be genuinely offbeat with stories, characters and situations that just aren't ready for big-studio treatment. Perhaps because it doesn't strive, Rubin & Ed, a shaggy dog buddy-buddy comedy, singularly succeeds in being genuinely quirky fun."[9]

In The Austin Chronicle, Sidney Moody noted the film "is considered to be the essential Glover performance by hard-core Glover aficionados. Yet, however much the film is centered on Glover, it manages to work as a mechanism for the expansion of his unique talents instead of contracting them into a one-man shtick."[10] Moody concluded, "If you are up to making the search for this hard-to-find gem, it will be well worth your effort."[10] Chris Hicks of the Deseret News gave a more mixed review, writing "Harris can be very eccentric — the dream sequence, with Rubin's cat resurrected on water skis, is a comic highlight — and he comes up with some funny, if quirky moments in the context of his lightweight screenplay. But the film as a whole is somewhat disappointing. It often drags, lacking the narrative drive necessary to hold it all together. And it's weighted down by a less-than-satisfactory ending."[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b Hicks, Chris (5 June 1991). "'Rubin and Ed' Fulfills Dream for Filmmaker with Utah Roots". Deseret News. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Rubin and Ed". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  3. ^ D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood Came to Town: A History of Moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1423605874.
  4. ^ a b "Crispin Glover Goes Back to the Crazy – Top 10 Disastrous Letterman Interviews". Time. 13 February 2009. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  5. ^ a b Reed, Ryan (20 May 2021). "David Letterman's Most Memorable Late-Night Moments". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  6. ^ Smith, Lory (1999). Party in a Box: The Story of the Sundance Film Festival. Gibbs Smith. p. 3. ISBN 978-0879058616. The movie starred Crispin Glover as Rubin - he was actually in the Rubin character the infamous night he nearly karate-kicked off David Letterman's nose.
  7. ^ Yamato, Jen (20 January 2015). "Bill Hader To Narrate Cult Film Documentary 'Beaver Trilogy Part IV' – Sundance". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  8. ^ "Rubin and Ed (1991)". blu-ray.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Rubin & Ed Reviews". TV Guide. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  10. ^ a b Moody, Sidney (14 June 2002). "Review: Rubin and Ed". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  11. ^ Hicks, Chris (22 February 2007). "Film review: Rubin and Ed". Deseret News. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
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