About 20 minutes into a screening of “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” at Atlanta’s Tara Theatre, Captain Kirk’s crew is nearing home but receives a surprise distress signal and a warning: “Do not approach Earth!”
A voice emanating from the crowd intervenes: “Earth sucks! One star. Would not recommend!”
That wasn’t Kirk or Sulu and certainly not Spock. It was Candace Weslosky, part of five-person Atlanta comedy troupe Cineprov. Their mission going back 20 years: to explore strange movies, to seek out new jokes and snarky observations, to boldly riff where no one has riffed before.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
The group has gathered monthly since 2005 at different locations around Atlanta to screen a film and do their own live version of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” the classic TV show hosted by Joel Hodgson goofing on old public domain movies with two puppets. Cineprov’s current home is the Tara.
Evan Brandonisio, a 31-year-old brand strategist who has been part of the Cineprov cast for seven years, calls the event the perfect Venn diagram of three areas of interlocking interest: geek culture, film and comedy.
“I always love making fun of movies with my friends,” Brandonisio said. “The hardest you laugh is when you’re hanging with your friends. We bring that to an audience.”
They do this for the pure fun of it.
“We are not making money,” said Weslosky, a 13-year Cineprov vet who also oversees the LDOD acting troupe at the Plaza Theatre that performs “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” every Friday night in front of the 1975 movie. “We’re making memories. And we believe in independent theater.”
Credit: ROD
Credit: ROD
Christopher Escobar, who runs both the Tara and the Plaza, loves how the Cineprov crew can simultaneously mock a movie while celebrating cinema.
“It’s a fascinating blend of theater and film,” he said. “Even if they did the same movie twice, it would not be the same experience. You have to be in the room to experience it.”
Weslosky, a 42-year-old ophthalmic technician, said she encourages regular attendees to show up early for a “meet and greet” in the lobby with the cast. Nic Hoffmann, a 40-year-old geography teacher and cast member for seven years, estimates they average about 30 to 40 regulars and 100 total attendees per screening at the Tara.
“The people who come to the show become our friends,” Weslosky said. “It’s a very intimate community.”
Brittany Montelongo, a car rental company employee who lives in Jefferson, considers herself a superfan after first seeing the Cineprov gang in 2018 mock schlocky 1959 Mexican horror film “Santa Claus” where Santa battles a demon.
She found their commentary so funny, she started going regularly. “It’s one thing I look forward to each month,” she said.
Her favorite moment during the “Star Trek IV″ screening was Weslosky’s reference to an old “South Park” episode where water park workers convince the main characters that a “talking” Orca whale named Wozniak needs to get sent back to the moon.
When Weslosky uttered “Please help Wozniak!” in a whale-style voice during the film, Montelongo said, “It hit me so hard, I almost died. It hit my funny bone just right.”
Credit: Courte
Credit: Courte
Cineprov started partly by accident, said Larry Johnson, a restaurateur with a yen for comedy. In 2005, he was part of an improv group drawing almost no audience at the now-shuttered Basement Theatre in Chastain Park. On Halloween, he and his friends noticed the venue playing old Dracula movies and thought it would be fun to ape “MST3000.”
They built a small but fervent fan base via word of mouth, surviving shifting locations over the years including Sketchworks, Relapse Theatre, then the Plaza in 2015.
There have been 15 Cineprov members over the past two decades. While the process to join was previously informal, the group started holding auditions for new members seven years ago (Hoffmann, Brandonisio and newest Cineprov-er Nur Chernnet all auditioned). The group rotates three members per screening.
Post-pandemic, the Plaza could not accommodate them for logistical reasons, but Escobar, who had just taken over the Tara, promised them space there. For a year, Cineprov was temporarily ensconced at Round Trip Brewing Co. in Underwood Hills, but the group found that a bar was a less-than-ideal setting for screening movies.
But the Tara welcomed them last summer.
“Our best spot so far,” Brandonisio said.
“We love the movies they’ve been able to book and the size of the theater,” which fits up to 200, Weslosky said.
Johnson said picking which films to screen is more art than science. It can’t be a comedy because riffing on them would be redundant. Sci-fi and action tend to work best. And it helps if the movie takes itself too seriously.
Recent targets included Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Bloodsport,” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Total Recall” and Johnson’s favorite film “Starship Troopers” for the group’s 20th anniversary last month.
“Star Trek IV” was a no-brainer since it features time travel, a spaceship that resembles a tin can and saving whales.
“It’s a 40-year-old movie about equality and climate change,” Weslosky said. “Treats! Delicious!”
“Thank God we don’t have to deal with those things anymore!” Brandonisio joked.
But Johnson said he fundamentally respects any movie that makes it to the finish line: “I can’t make a movie, even a bad one. At least you tried! We don’t want to be perceived as taking potshots and simply calling something stupid.”
Credit: RODNEY HO
Credit: RODNEY HO
The Cineprov cast gives the Tara a list of several movies they want to screen well in advance. Tara then negotiates with film companies, typically paying between $275 to $400 for a single Cineprov screening, and keeps the proceeds from ticket sales, drinks and food.
Hoffmann said most film companies don’t mind Cineprov lightly roasting an old catalog movie, but Disney is a hard no across the board. This means Cineprov can’t touch any “Star Wars” films or Disney films like “Angels in the Outfield” or “The Mighty Ducks.”
“They’re protective of their IP,” Hoffmann said.
DC also nixed their request for the 1980 film “Superman 2″ because they didn’t want it to interfere with the new “Superman” film coming out July 9, he said.
Another strikeout was the 2008 fantasy flick “Twilight,” which was produced by Lionsgate Studios.
“I want to do that so bad,” Brandonisio said. “I want to riff the baseball scene. ‘That leg is soooo high!’ (He is referencing the unusually high leg kick of pitcher Alice played by Ashley Greene.)
The next Cineprov movie on July 12 will be 1985’s “Rocky IV″ featuring Rocky facing off against his Russian foe Ivan Drago in Moscow.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Hoffmann said. “By punching someone to death, Stallone ends the Cold War. And Paulie gets a robot for no reason. It’s ridiculous!”
If you go
“Rocky IV,” 8 p.m. Saturday, July 12, $16.49. Tara Theatre, 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road NE, Atlanta. 470-567-1968, taraatlanta.com.
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