por Scott Marks

Andrew Dickler was in town on behalf of the San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) for a benefit screening of “Douuchebag,” a new independent feature that finds him wearing three hats (co-writer, editor and star) as well as a beard that only a Rabbi could love.

Despite its edgy title, “Douchebag” follows a fairly familiar storyline: Sam (Dickler) is a week away from getting hitched. In an attempt to put an end to an old sibling rivalry, Sam’s betrothed (Marguerite Moreau) decides to fetch estranged brother Tom (Ben York Jones) and bring him to the wedding. Once united, the boys embark on a road trip in search of Tom’s fifth-grade crush. Think “The Hangover” goes “Sideways.”

Dickler got his start as an apprentice editor on Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and has since gone on to cut such indie classics as “Me You and Everyone We Know” and “Anvil! The Story of Anvil.” His is a tall, lean, energetic presence with a rapid-fire delivery that frequently resembles that of his mentor QT.

“Douchebag” is one of the better examples of mumblecore, a newly coined, relatively incoherent genre desperate to catch on with the kids nowadays. On a rainy Tuesday, several members of the SDFCS met with Dickler (his whiskers trimmed from a forest to a shrub) over Cokes and what passes for pizza in San Diego to speak about the genre, the film’s provocative title and the value of a tripod as opposed to its cost.

Scott Marks: I never thought I’d live to see the words “Douchebag” and “Jackass” adorn a marquee, and the fact that I saw them on the same day has given me a double feature that I will always remember.

Andrew Dickler: (Laughing) That’s good.

Q: I’m not sure we could review a film with this title on the (KPBS Film Club) I refuse to say “D-bag.”

A: How lame is that?

Q: “P***k” would have been just as good a name and easier to get away with.

A: “P***k” wouldn’t have worked. It’s different. It’s way more mean-spirited and it’s slang for penis. Douchebag is kind of a more playful way of saying a**hole…I think. What it comes from is a feminine hygiene product that no one uses anymore. Now it’s become something different, a slang term. It’s kind of part of the zeitgeist now, another way of saying what a jerk.

Q. But douchebag is a term that can be seen as denigrating to women.

A: Why?

Q: Because it’s a device intended to freshen a woman’s vagina.

A: Well, change the tip and it cleans the b*** hole, too.

Q: (Laughing) Good point.

A: Originally the movie was never called “Douchebag.” It was called “Mary Barger.” All along, the producer Jonathan Schwartz said nobody knows who you guys are and nobody is going to go see a movie called “Mary Barger.” I liked the title “Mary Barger.” A banal woman’s name is kind of intriguing, but for marketing purposes it didn’t make sense. We sat around thinking what to call the movie, but the title didn’t come to us. When we started talking about Sam’s character, one of us said, “The guy’s a douchebag.” I saw (the look on) Jonathan’s face and I said, “We should call the movie ‘Douchebag.’” He didn’t say anything, but I saw it in his face.

Q: It was a lightbulb moment.

A: Drake (Doremus), the director, and I didn’t want to call it “Douchebag” because it sounded like a different movie than what is was. But the response was undeniable. Everybody laughed and it turns out (Jonathan) was right. To make a tiny, low-budget movie with no stars you need to have something (other than a good movie) to help.

Q: Do you object to the term mumblecore or is it something you embrace or neither?

A: It seems like it’s become a genre and that’s really for you guys. Film critics want to have a way to peg a movie and genres are a perfect way to describe to your readers what kind of movie it is.

Q: Isn’t it also good for studios to have a catchphrase to pitch? I would assume that most young filmgoers are familiar with the term.

A: Absolutely.

Q: And most people my age should not know what mumblecore means.

A: It’s a way to describe a movie that is not always accurate.

Q: What comprises the genre?

A: I can only tell you what I think it is, a movie with no budget, actors that nobody is familiar with and who may not even be professionals, a lot of improvisation, made with a minimal crew on simple locations, and it’s dialog driven.

Q: Isn’t that called Italian neorealism? And you’re forgetting two things: choking close-ups and hand-held camerawork. I don’t understand it.

A: I can explain it to you. It’s cheap.

Q: How expensive is a tripod?

A: Expensive. To go buy the tripod is no problem. When you then put a camera on a tripod, you’re setting up a shot and there is no time to set up or block a shot. You might be stealing a location or the sun is going down. You might not even have known you were shooting because you just now came up with an idea and it’s like, “Okay, let’s roll.” A tripod isn’t going to do you any good. You have to be hand held. In our situation you couldn’t make a movie with the descriptions we just talked about and put the camera on a tripod.

Q: Why can’t you just keep the camera permanently fixed to a tripod and when an idea comes to you, park it and hit the record button? Just to visually break things up a bit.

A: We were encouraged to improvise and you couldn’t follow us around with the camera in one position. It made it difficult for the cameraman, but it also made it possible for him to capture us doing something unexpected and not having to be tethered to a tripod. Being hand-held makes it look raw and smaller, and it does give the film a different feel. There are scenes in the car where the camera is mounted on the side.

Q: So you can afford to rent a side mount for the day but a tripod is too expensive?

A: That’s a good point.

Q: How come we haven’t seen more of Nicole Viscus, the Roller-blading beauty that made a splash several years ago in a Coca-Cola commercial. (I thoroughly botch the pronunciation of her last name.)

A: It’s pronounced “Vicious.”

Q: That’s even better. She also skates in “Douchebag.” Is that how she got the job?

A: I think the roller-skating did somehow play into it. That commercial is awesome and she’s a really good actress.

Q: When Sam is asked why he and Tom had a falling out, he invents a story about fighting over a pet dog. This is kind of like the film’s Maguffin and I feared that the details of the story would be stale foreshadowing of things to come.

A: Of course you know they’re not really fighting over a dog. We always knew that “Douchebag” was going to be a story of two brothers trying to work out their relationship. That scene was shot on the second time around. Originally we had a different opening for the movie and we realized that we needed to better establish Sam’s current life and the upcoming wedding and his fiancée wanting to know why his brother is no longer involved in Sam’s life. It was never our goal in the movie to explain away and eventually resolve why they hate each other. They are on a road and at least back in each other’s lives. You hope that things will eventually be ironed out to the point where they are happy being with each other.