by James Fletcher
With so much content streaming in the current marketplace, it can be a frustrating exercise for filmmakers to find an audience for their work. Especially with the pandemic saturating the market like never before, forcing distributors to offload a number of productions in a bundle sale, and the streaming services taking a ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ mentality.
And while many of the films wouldn’t be out of place under the straight-to-DVD banner, the occasional gem does emerge to gain some recognition, while a dozen more seemingly get lost in the content swamp. One such gem that is finding its way to the surface is the charmingly droll Growing Up Smith, a coming-of-age comedy rich in nostalgia and heart, and which offers a much needed shot of feel-good entertainment during these stressful times.
Written and directed by Australia’s own Frank Lotito (currently directing the next edition of Nick Giannopoulos’ Wog Boy franchise), Growing Up Smith follows a teenage immigrant of Indian descent whose family is looking to live the small-town American dream during the late seventies.
While the film leans heavily into certain tropes, it delivers a refreshingly sincere and somewhat humble take on timely themes, largely thanks to performances from Jason Lee (My Name is Earl), Brighton Sharbino (The Walking Dead) and the film’s stand out lead Roni Akurati (American Vandal), whose onscreen candour and charm offers a perfect remedy to the cynicism of today’s tween antics. In fact, the authenticity of the film as a whole is something of a revelation considering it originates from a self-proclaimed Wog Boy from the Melbourne suburbs.
“I grew up with Happy Days, Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy, M*A*S*H, The Wonder Years, all those shows that were very prominent on our TV screens,” reveals Lotito as the conversation touches on the film’s cultural nostalgia. “I mean yeah, we have Australian television, but it wasn’t as big as the America thing. And you know, I think it’s also the music.
“A lot of music came out of America that we embraced as Australians. Saturday Night Fever was a big influence on me, as you can obviously see in the film. I was that kid, running around in a white suit dancing to the music of the Bee Gees.”
While Lotito effectively tapped into his childhood influences to deliver the film its narrative voice and thematic foundations, the stand-up-comic-come-actor-come-director does acknowledge that getting Growing Up Smith greenlit wasn’t as reliant on his previous experiences, with the production eventually finding its legs under the guise of an indie film, and bringing with it all the inherent challenges.
“Back in 2011, I produced a local film called Big Momma’s Boy and look, it’s not the best film in the world but it did reasonably well. We ended up having a screening in LA in 2012. And to my surprise, it went down really well. American audiences really loved it. There happened to be a guy that I invited along, who I’d worked with 20 years prior named Anjul Nigam. We worked together as actors on an American film called Silver Strand that was filmed in Melbourne around Point Cook. Terrible film. But we formed a friendship.
“He came to the screening and really loved the movie. We spoke later and he said to me, ‘Man I’ve got this script, I’d love you to read it. If you’re interested, let’s see if we can do something’. I read Growing Up Smith and loved it.
“I think it took us about three years to raise the money, most of which was private investment. One of the deals we did for the movie was in Las Vegas. We had to fly to Vegas to meet a potential investor and we did the deal in a restaurant on a napkin. I know it sounds cliché, but it happened just like that. For $1,000,000… on a napkin. He signed it, we signed it and we ended up making the film. We raised more money after that, but that napkin kind of kick-started everything.
“It’s hard making indie films and there’s always a process. The key to Growing Up Smith was always about finding that star name that would trigger the finance and distribution and all that, and for us, that was Jason Lee.
“Jason was a big star back then. He was doing a lot of stuff. He was just coming off the third instalment of the Chipmunks movies. And he was getting paid a lot of money at the time, and we were offering him peanuts, but he really loved the script and when we met, we got along really well, and so he decided to do the film.”
Usually, this would be where most stories would claim that the rest, as they say, is history. However, with times being what they are, and the Hollywood distribution system in a state of disruptive flux, Growing Up Smith isn’t likely a film that most readers would have heard of, even as the film’s credentials not only lend it a sense of timelessness, but its central themes of immigration, community and connection are more relevant and engaging than ever before.
“It’s interesting, but when it started playing festivals back in 2017, it was around the time Trump was inaugurated, and I remember one critic said, ‘President Trump should really watch this film and learn a little something about immigration.’
“But look,” continues Lotito. “It’s hard to speak honestly in the industry without bagging certain aspects of the industry. Growing Up Smith, when we originally made the film, it was called Good Old Boy, and when we started shopping around for distribution, the film really took off in the film festival circuit.
“Although we didn’t do Sundance or South by Southwest (SXSW), because it’s a very family-oriented film, they were still very interested.
“But we did, I think, in excess of 20 film festivals across America including opening for the Seattle International Film Festival, which is the biggest festival as far as audience numbers in North America. It was so popular that they decided to add four more screenings during the festival. It just took off from there. We ended up winning a bunch of awards and it became a real audience pleaser.
“It was just such a huge buzz and so when a distributor came onboard, we felt we had a good match. Unfortunately, they shelved the film for a year, and then changed the name of the film to Growing Up Smith.”
But while release date delays and name changes can be a common hurdle for films, COVID-19’s unprecedented decimation of cinema attendance and forced restructuring of distribution channels regrettably cut short the festival momentum that Growing Up Smith had been enjoying under the moniker Good Old Boy, effectively putting the film to bed and leaving the production team with no choice but to move on with new projects.
“It’s one of those films we’re very proud of, and I think it’s going to take a few years for people to find it because it just hasn’t been out there.
“But I actually got a call recently from the composer Mike Lira, who told me, ‘Hey Frank, do you know that your film Growing Up Smith is on SBS World Movies? My mum called me and told me that it’s on’. And I honestly had to say no, I didn’t.
“But I understand they’ve actually played it again on World Movies, and that it’s also on SBS On Demand as well. Which is really great because people that hadn’t heard of it, will.
“I feel like if more people know about Growing Up Smith and know that it’s on SBS On Demand and that it’s free to watch, that they’ll see it, really like it and hopefully spread the word. It just needs that little bit of a push.”
Growing Up Smith is available now on SBS On Demand.
