How To Be
| How to Be | |
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Slamdance Film Festival Poster
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| Directed by | Oliver Irving |
| Produced by | Justin Kelly |
| Written by | Oliver Irving |
| Starring |
Robert Pattinson Rebecca Pidgeon Jeremy Hardy Powell Jones Michael Irving |
| Music by | Joe Hastings |
| Cinematography | Paul Swann |
| Edited by | Reuben Irving |
| Distributed by | IFC Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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84 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £250,000 |
| How to Be Soundtrack : Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
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| Soundtrack album by Joe Hastings & various artists | |
| Released | 28 April 2009 (U.S.) |
| Recorded | Various times |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Label | Dreamboat Records |
| Producer | Joe Hastings and Gary Moore |
How to Be is a 2008 independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Oliver Irving. It is about a young man named Art, played by Robert Pattinson, who is going through a quarter-life crisis. The film premiered in competition at 2008 Slamdance Film Festival on 18 January 2008. The film was also selected to open 2008 Strasbourg International Film Festival and Pattinson received 'Best Actor in a Feature' award for his portrayal of Art at the festival.
Art (Pattinson) is not talented, but aspires to be a musician. He has a dead-end job at a supermarket, despite having a degree (which he doesn't seem to value much). His girlfriend ends their relationship. Art is then forced to move back home with his cold and neglectful parents (played by Pidgeon and Michael Irving). Art buys a book titled, It's Not Your Fault. Upon reading it, he tries to follow the self-help book's advice. He decides to use inheritance money to first buy a car, and then pay for a Canadian therapist, Dr. Levi Ellington (Jones), the book's author, to come to his home in England and help Art get his life on track, about which his parents are less than thrilled.
Despite his unsupportive parents, Art attempts with his new life coach and two slightly unbalanced friends Nikki (Pearce) and Ronnie (White) to find a balance in his life, true happiness, and a good relationship with his parents.
The film also stars Jeremy Hardy as Art's superior at the care centre at which he volunteers.
Casting for the film took more than a year. Initially Simon Amstell was attached to the project. Talking about the casting Irving said that "He (Rob) understood what we wanted to achieve, he was musical and had completely the right look. To find all those elements was incredible: the final piece in the puzzle."
For his role of awkward and geeky musician in the film, Pattinson's looks were altered. According to Irving "I said, 'You're banned from cutting your hair between now and the shoot, we had to give him the most awkward haircut we possibly could, and we cut his trouser length a little bit too high. Things like that played down his apparent good looks." And about his musical abilities, Irving added that "He downplayed how good he was, a lot of the time he would turn out to have a really good technique (while playing the guitar and harmonica) and we told him he needed to play it more simply."
Filming took place in early 2007.
How to Be was released in the United States by IFC Festival Direct on 29 April 2009. Leading up to the release, the director, Oliver Irving, took the film on a United States screening tour. The DVD was released first in the United Kingdom on 18 May 2009 and was released in the United States on 17 November 2009.
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