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Idiots writer-director Macon Blair has the patience of a saint.
A year ago, just as he was wrapping up The Toxic Avenger’s six-year journey to the big screen, Blair was also preparing to film Idiots — a throwback road comedy that is now completing its own 13-year odyssey to movie theaters.
The story begins back in 2013, a life-changing year for the filmmaker and actor. His starring role in Jeremy Saulnier’s self- and crowd-funded revenge thriller, Blue Ruin, brought the house down at Cannes. Prior to his breakout role at the prestigious festival, Blair had already begun writing what was then known as The Shitheads, having been inspired by Blue Ruin co-producer Alex Orr’s anecdote about highly unqualified transporters that deliver troubled teenagers to treatment centers.
From there, Blair conceived Mark Southard and Davis Hench, two wildly different, aging slackers who are tasked with driving teenage scion Sheridan Kimberly to rehab on behalf of his disengaged billionaire parents. It doesn’t take long for Sheridan to throw his ill-equipped handlers completely off course — and establish himself as one of the most irredeemable characters of the past decade-plus. Originally, Blair and Orr imagined the latter directing Blair as the character of Mark, but their respective roles would shift as time passed.
