If you look at actor Mike Gilio’s filmography, he doesn’t have any appearances in big-budget summer releases. As a matter of fact, Gilio has actually acted in several TV movies and done some guest work on TV shows like Chicago Hope and Early Edition. But his acting has nothing to do with why he is the subject of this column. No, Mike Gilio is the topic here because has also written and directed (and starred in) one of the most critically acclaimed films currently on the festival circuit, Kwik Stop.
Kwik Stop’s biggest champion is world-renowned film critic, Roger Ebert. Ebert enjoyed the film to such a degree, he invited Gilio, producer Rachel Tenner and Kwik Stop to play at his 2002 Overlooked Film Festival in Champaign, Illinois. Kwik Stop received the honor (if you can call it that) of being the only film to play at Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival that hadn’t yet had a theatrical distribution of any kind.
"We hired a publicist when we were in LA during the LA Film Festival," Gilio states. "She has a relationship with Roger. She dropped him an e-mail saying, ‘I know you’re going to see hundreds of movies at the Chicago International Film festival, but, if you get the chance take a look at this little one, [Kwik Stop], I highly recommend it.’ He did and after that he started singing its praises."
Kwik Stop is an unorthodox road trip movie, inasmuch as none of its characters ever manage to get on the road; they are forever being held back by something. Gilio plays the lead, a would-be actor named Mike who has his sights set on blowing out of Chicago to go to Hollywood where he wants to become a star. When he meets Deedee (Lara Phillips), an underage girl with a loose set of morals, the two hit it right off.
"Ah," Gilio sighs about sharing his name with the lead, "I just typed my name in needing to get a draft of the script out. I figured I’d change it eventually. The next thing I know, we were in production."
He laughs about the comparisons between his character and him. "I guess that my only saving grace against the charges of being narcissistic or indulgent or egotistical [for naming the lead Mike] was the fact that I chose to play the character that most would deem a jerk or an asshole." Gilio continues, "I think that Mike’s a character who wants to be something else. He calls himself Lucky. He wants to be something better than what he is."
What Mike is turns out to be a lying, shoplifting, ethically challenged, actor wannabe who funds his life through a combination of burglary and mooching off those closest to him.
Though Mike isn’t the most marketable lead character around, this has posed no problems for film festival audiences. Distributors are another matter though. Strangely, what has formed the biggest stumbling block for Gilio and Tenner, is Kwik Stop’s original and non-formulaic script.
"There’s been a lot of confusion over what genre the movie is in," Gilio chuckles. "Back in the day, when I was writing this thing, I thought that it would be interesting to play with a conventional genre, but distributors and programmers have their own set of expectations." He takes a deep breath and states, "This isn’t to say that Kwik Stop hasn’t had any feelers from distributors–it definitely has–it’s just that their interest has been blatantly misguided." Gilio laughs and says, "We’ve certainly had distributor interest, and we’ve had a lot of opinions about what needs to be done with the film [to make it more marketable]." He pauses and then says, "But what’s funny about it is that there hasn’t been any uniform opinion about what needs to be changed." He holds up his hands, "I’m a reasonable guy. If there was something that everyone didn’t like, if there was something that was clearly a problem, we could have changed it."
Gilio cites the example of one producer who said that he’d "have a commercial hit" if he lopped off the last 20 minutes of the film.
Even the title of Kwik Stop has posed problems for some distributors. "When people see the name Kwik Stop, they immediately think it’s kind of like a Kevin Smith, generation X, slacker knockoff that they’ve seen time and time again," Gilio says. And he is resisting any slight temptation to monkey with the name as well, regardless of how well My Big Fat Convenience Store would work as a marketing tool on the indie circuit.
Placed in several critics’ top ten lists for 2001, the year when Kwik Stop first hit the festivals, Gilio is very pleased with the success his film has had. He is currently at work writing his next feature, Arcade.
