Auteur Watch - Mark and Michael Polish

Crikey! How many of these identical twins are there in the movie game? The Pates, the Hughes, these guys... Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers, who else? Hennessy sisters, Meg and Jennifer Tilly... too many to count on one hand. They burst onto the proverbial scene in 1999 with Twin Falls Idaho. A critical favourite and... well, modestly budgeted enough to warrant a future career, the Polish boys brought about their own personal millennial doom and jumped feet first onto that one-film-every-two-years treadmill that most filmmakers eventually find themselves upon. First came Jackpot, the inevitable sophomore slump feature. But it did give Uncle Rico a chance to prepare for the Second Act of his career. And they got to work with 80s icon Daryl Hannah. Then there was Northfork, another chance to work with an 80s icon: James Woods.
Then came The Astronaut Farmer in 2006... and it was time for a three year break. 2009 was a busy year for the boys, and Michael ended up using aliases on Stay Cool and The Smell of Success, but not for the same reason that Stephen King writes under his Bachman alias. The 2010s will find the boys busy once again, and this time they're abandoning their own material for the sake of being at play in the field of icons. Their 2012 feature is called Big Sur, and if you're like me, you might at first think, oh great! Another Henry Miller biopic. Just what we don't need. No, it's based on the work of Jack Kerouac. Unfortunately, they're going to be competing with On the Road, also coming out in 2012 or so. Worse yet, On the Road's got none other than Bella Swan herself in it! That's right, Kristen Stewart has just GOT to show the world that she's more than just this role that's made her an international star. Harry Potter Syndrome all over again. Of course, they didn't exactly flock to The Runaways, did they? Maybe the Polishes will come out all right on this one. But get back to the quirkfest as soon as possible! Us film geeks need more quirk in our lives. We're getting no love from the multiplexes these days.