How to Be: Twilight-Free Robert Pattinson Film Set for Coolidge Corner Screening

How to Be screening Coolidge Corner Theatre Thursday, 9:30 p.m. $15, ticket information If Mormon (and Twilight series author) Stephenie Meyer drank alcohol, one would assume that Oliver Irving, writer and director of indie film How to Be would be first in line to buy Meyer a beer. Since anything at all connected to Twilight these days is instant box office or merchandising gold, what was once simply Irving’s feature film debut is now the must-see indie for fans of Robert Pattinson, the British actor who starred in How to Be before he headed off to become sparkly vampire Edward Cullen. The combination of strong film festival buzz and the ongoing Pattinson craze has prompted the Independent Film Channel to distribute the film through its IFC Festival Direct cable service. On April 29, the film will be available on demand through the IFC service. Boston audiences, however, will get a chance to see the film in advance - and on the big screen - with a special viewing to be held Thursday at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Irving, composer Joe Hastings, and actors Johnny White and Mike Pearce will attend the 9:30 p.m. screening. Bostonist spoke to Irving and Hastings last week and learned how one little cinematic blockbuster can turn a little film into one with huge demand. At the time of our phone call, Irving and Hastings were in the back seat of a car en route to the California Independent Film Festival, one of the 19 film festivals to which the picture has been accepted since it made its Slamdance debut in 2008 (it should be noted that Irving has said in past interviews that he finished editing the film just a couple of days before Slamdance). The pair is in the midst of a cross-country tour with the film; screenings have, by large, sold out well in advance. When we relayed that online communities are begging Irving to bring the film to Asia, the director chuckled. “It’s been amazing,” the British director said. “Those people who were fans of Rob who see the movie, they say after that it feels like it’s the right movie for them. There’s been a good transference and we’ve discovered a whole extra audience.” Similarly, those fans have discovered a different side of Pattinson than the - let’s be honest now - matinee idol performances that they’ve seen in Twilight and the Harry Potter series. In How to Be , Pattinson plays

Art, a post-collegiate twentysomething struggling with a quarterlife crisis and the nagging sensation that he lacks the normalcy of his peers. After a quick succession of situation-altering events - breakup, job woes - he hires a live-in life coach to learn how to be as normal as everyone else. “When we first meet Art, he’s met that point where people have try to forage ahead in a career or artistic endeavor to really try to make it work for them,” Irving said. “It’s when they suddenly think, ‘I’m an adult all of a sudden and I have to make decisions and figure out what to do with my life,’ which is very intimidating time of their lives. He feels muzzled up and confused, can’t quite figure out how to make it work.” Art’s music comes to play heavily in the film, which is why Irving and Hasting collaborated together both on the script and the score. The movie’s original songs were written at the same time as the screenplay and develop to become components of the film score. That doesn’t mean, however, that Art is much of an artist, Hastings said. “The idea of the character is very self-indulged, self-involved. He is actually not a very good musician and writes these primitive tracks,” said Hastings. Since Pattinson is an accomplished guitarist, pianist and singer, Pattinson was required not only to perform the songs for the film (for which the soundtrack is now available), but tone down his ability to convey Art’s bumbling attempts at musicality. “He nailed it,” Hastings said. “It would have been difficult if we’d cast someone who didn’t understand that this was integral. It is very difficult for people to convey that honestly. That is one of the things that Rob did brilliantly.” While the film has an obvious draw from the Twilight crowd, its trailers suggest something a little less Paramore, a little more Badly Drawn Boy - both warm and sad in a dry British sort of way. The blend of comedy and melancholy has been appealing to audiences, Irving said. “There is empathy and understanding,” Irving said. “People have told me that there were times that they didn’t know whether they wanted to laugh or cry. Hopefully the tone of the film, it’s very funny, but they watch the film and they know how this is.”

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How to Be: Twilight-Free Robert Pattinson Film Set for Coolidge Corner Screening