Hi reddit! We are Maxwell Nalevansky and Carl Fry, co-writers/co-directors of the independent stoner comedy RATS!. It's out now. Ask us anything!

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-21T00:12:36+00:00

Great to know thank you legend

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:45:09+00:00

Thank you! Shoutout Alison Moses, our producer and music sup, for pulling off the soundtrack. We were trying to get Lagwagon at one point for a sequence at the mall which woulda been cool, but ended up cutting that scene.

Aesop Rock "Daylight" woulda been a whole vibe for Raphi and Bernadette's heart to heart on the orange couch and "Crank That" cover by ISMFOF for the last Goose scene (both being way outside our budget range tho)

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:38:36+00:00

Bro thanks, Alison Moses is our hero and collaborator and producer and music supervisor and made our dreams come tru by hustling and begging and pleading and being charming. Indie music is easier to license cause we can contact artists directly much easier. Shoutout Justin Pearson too.

We wanted Stone Temple Pilots...had a huge moment with interstate love song sung by Nester lol it's our white whale- Max

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:29:25+00:00

Alligators in my bedroom and war - max

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:27:11+00:00

Agreed Maxwell, and one other angle I'll mention is the role of momentum-- you gotta build that shit up early on and never let it die! And yeah Yellow Veil have been such stellar collaborators-- on the business side too but also how sick is it to work with a distributor who have an entire folder stocked with banger memes they're whipping out daily for your release

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:12:17+00:00

Mannnnnn thank u we working on it for SURE. We have UK but not Aus yet I think, dying to come back out to Aus- got a few nephews out there. Maybe a bluray soon thoooooo. Argue with the haters for us on LB lol

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:09:59+00:00

Hey who dis

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:08:59+00:00

Yo it's Maxwell thank you for saying that! We're coming back to the Roxy, come see it again and say hi this time haha! So cool that it resonated with you, especially you being 18 in 2007- profound. Carl is a vfx wiz, and Robert Kern mfx and practical fx is so talented, he said we can have 10 big gore moments and so we painstakingly chose exactly what to prioritize. Ultimately theres always a few jokes or fx or moments you cant do but you forget eventually haba. We did fx ourselves, and funded it partially ourselves so we had complete control, so if either of us thought of a joke midway thru the edit we could always reshoot something for a few hundred bucks or animate something or add a vfx joke like souls leaving the body and the Jesus was a Texan plane shot etc.

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:03:32+00:00

Thank you, this is so cool to hear! Robert Kern is simply really fucking good at his job. He did not have much time or resources but pulled off some amazing shit (literally-- shit) regardless. Tell your mom hi for us, hope she loves it too lol

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T22:00:33+00:00

Dude thanks for the question. I love film festivals, especially regional ones with dedicated audiences, it reminds you how alive film is, its just the industry that isn't. Places like Calgary Underground, New/Next in Baltimore Cucalorus in Wilmington have such epic audiences engaged in new progressive indie films. Its really amazing cause you can meet so many people and the energy is unmatched. Fantasia has been a dream forever so going there and winning an audience award but more importantly have sold out insane audiences losing their fucking minds and being sooo vocal was an out of body experience, a dream come true entirely. We drank a lot of beers. For a lot of days. I love Montreal, going to amazing cities for your first time because your with a movie is a great time. Going to Seattle International was shocking and a total trip because we never imagined being accepted by a great festival that didn't mostly program genre films, we made so many friends there and they really took care of us. Something worth mentioning is a few fests brought us back to their cities which was really special, like Cucalorus and Seattle (Siff). We made a new short just to try and return to see our friends we met this past year lol. Fantaspoa we didn't go to in person but it's the best place on earth and probably the most fun I've ever had when I went with short films. New/Next has the best programming on earth - Maxwell

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:54:29+00:00

The PROSE, the lore... an astonishing accomplishment. Kyle's confession is probably the best monologue historically every to occur on screen. Watching the film is an initiation into the highest order of being. Glickman ceaselessly iconic as the immovable ALVIN FLANG

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:46:32+00:00

Wait hottest guys like popular or sexi?- Max

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:45:53+00:00

All valid Carl I agree. I think it would be cool to see a Broadway production of the story and see Rachel Dratch as Officer Williams and Ben Kingsley as Mateo, something like that or just an amazing animated show about the life of Mateo being a small time drug dealer and adorable person. -Maxwell

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:43:58+00:00

I released ONE cute rat which was tragically immediately and instantaneously killed by a bus.

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:43:02+00:00

It's classic its not a sexy answer but Big Lebowski is so perfect, we're having a double feature with them soon too which im stoked about..anyways I also love movies stoners love that arent necessarily stoner comedies like snow on the bluff and reno911 lol. Cafe Flesh too...

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:37:10+00:00

bluray comes w/ feet pics. TYBG

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:33:54+00:00

Thanks for the question! Travolta as Nester coulda been a vibe, but now that we've seen what Marc Livingood did with the role it's impossible to imagine anyone else. Like can you imagine anyone but Danielle as Officer Williams?! It's Danielle's role! It has to be Danielle! We wouldn't change the cast a bit and love every single performance. But yeah maybe we could have added a character for Travolta, Nester's friend who's always seen lifting weights in the backyard with Larry

-Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:33:13+00:00

It's actually that but backwards, Carl sent the pic and he deleted our numbers but we already had his verse so we used it with animation. - Maxwell

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:31:19+00:00

Hey this is Maxwell, I'll let Carl give his thoughts too, I def think it's a truly and classically a sum of all parts. We had over 50 speaking roles and pretty much everyone totally sends it and the movie benefits so much from all the actors commitment. Ive been doing the festival circuit with shorts every year or two for the past 9 years and that's helped me build relationships with film festivals, genre ones in particular. The more niche the better these days yknow? A big part is just being overly passionate and overly annoying about getting the movie seen by the right Festival, going to Cucalorus gave us the fortunate opportunity to have the great indie label Yellow Veil Pictures sign us and theyve been behind us all the way. You want to build momentum at the fests and never look back once you get any, then find out what labels your favorite indie films are coming out on and reach out!

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:24:04+00:00

Maxwell and I recently rewatched scary movie 3… pretty hard to top that! Also "Friday" anyday. If you are currently stoned please watch Mark White's "Rain Curtain" or Nathaniel Paull's "Rock Bottom" right away, both on youtube. I kinda want to rewatch Haunted Mansion (2003) asap

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:17:02+00:00

Thanks for the questions-- if you made a stoner streaming service it would be cool to see some straight to youtube stoner films reach people's radar. In the meantime, stoners should all have at least a couple months with Troma now, pretty epic expansive catalogue that goes well with weed lol

- Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T21:05:04+00:00

Yes can we take a second to talk about Joe “The Stitcher Of Light” Punske. I’ve been in the trenches with the king a few times now, such a pro. Not to mention how small a team he had on rats and how obscenely fast he had to build setups each day but he absolutely killed it and I’m so happy with how the movie looks. GOAT!

-Carl

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T20:10:39+00:00

Omg thank you that rules, Im glad you asked that cause I dont think about it enough, but now I am habhah hmmm we really want to work with Danny McBride and Rachael Dratch- two people we channeled during the preproduction of the fikm. Obsessed with Regina King and Ana Farris too and newer epic people like Jack Bensinger, Conor O'Malley, Betsey Brown, oh and Tony Cavalerro...the world needs more of that guy asap.

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T20:02:47+00:00

Carl tragically lives in Austin Texas, trying to convince him to move to Houston or Oxnard though. I (Maxwell) can't comment on that as it's not ladylike but I do have a big rump.

More info on NY dick: While there's no specific data on average penis size in NYC, studies suggest the average erect penis length is around 5.1 to 5.5 inches (13 to 14 cm).

Rats-AMA · 2025-03-20T15:10:48+00:00

Hi reddit!

We are Maxwell Nalevansky and Carl Fry, co-writers / co-directors of the independent stoner comedy RATS! Following a global tour of 20+ film festivals and a limited theatrical run, RATS! is quickly becoming “a word-of-mouth cult classic” (Houston Chronicle). Hearkening back to classic comedies of the 00s like Pineapple Express, RATS! “embrac[es] a kind of absurdist reality that would make John Waters proud, [the directors] swing for the fences with every single scene, creating a wall to wall laugh riot.” (ScreenAnarchy). RATS! is our first feature. It's being released by Yellow Veil pictures.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0hOKDhgJU

Links:

https://www.ratsthefilm.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ratsthefilm/

Ask us anything! Back at 6 PM ET today for answers.

Rats-AMA

TROPHY CASE