Clutch your inner bong and inhale deeply as local director Gabe Weisert brings back 1998's most riveting star duo, real-life twins John and James Reichmuth, a.k.a. surreal screen twins Gil and Roy. Enter the hirsute warmth that is Cow Monkey.

Weisert's previous feature, Fishing with Gandhi, a semi-improv comedy that premiered at Film Arts Festival, was a hothouse of roiling urban-versus-rural tensions, as an earnest young Phishhead hitchhiked from Seattle to San Francisco – and met up with world-class Critter Country yahoos Gil (John R.) and Roy (James R.) along the way. Their pooled I.Q. gave rise to life truths demented enough for a bud-impaired alterna-youth to bounce a personal catharsis off of.

The dim duo have less spotlight competition in Cow Monkey. Cindy (Bridget Schwartz) is a graduate anthropology student researching her Bigfoot thesis paper in the wilds near Fort Bragg. Grover (Dan Klein) is the preserve's extra-crunchy-granola custodian, one who may have spotted an actual she-Yeti. Both are pleasant semi-ditzes, with the odd genius moment (as when Grover sighs, "Sometimes ... I wish humans had never been discovered by society"). But these functioning adults pale beside the inbred majesty that is Gil 'n' Roy.

They, too, are seeking Sasquatch – albeit with a gun, not a flower or a notebook. Gil's rationale: "We've got a score to settle. It [Bigfoot] peeled our dog like a banana." Roy, the cranial hemorrhage to Gil's slow leak, just wants that inevitable National
Enquirer capture money, since he's in heavy hock to a "crankster gangster" back home in Hooterville.

Yeti-netting, however, is just one among many, many tasks the brothers are perilously ill equipped to handle. A piercing if rare flash of interfraternal self-knowledge arrives when Gil – recalling one unfortunate past weaponry accident – warns, "Roy, you have not enough mental power to be in the NRA." Yet more staggering insights, tersely understated, duly define the Gil-Roy universe.

Hunting down the "700-pound primate killing machine" that may or may not have pulverized hound Wanda II (Wanda I is another tragic story) takes all of the pair's woodsmanly cunning, especially since nonarmed vegan types Grover and Cindy keep getting underfoot. Tactics employed include cuddly bait (e.g., toy bunny dangled on fishing line from tree perch), Vietnam combat reenactments, a sort of kung-pao fu, intellect application ("Every single monkey has a clock in its brain. It's a principle of science"), and lots of talking. There's a truly Eric Rohmeresque-yackage level, standing and seated, in both features. Pleasurewise, it's no contest: one campfire conversation here could make Ma nuit chez Maude say "Uncle!" in humiliated awe.

Once again collaborating with his cast on the screenplay, Weisert lets Cow Monkey float by as slowly and prettily as clouds do across the blue Mendocino sky (very nicely captured in Matthew Uhry's Sony H.D.-cam photography) or the yea wider horizon behind Roy's forehead. No doubt there are people capable of laughing not once through Weisert's über-deadpan comedies. They should leave the country; we don't want their kind here. If the digital revolution means more Gil and Roy movies, this is a "golden age" (Ross's phrase) indeed. May they live as long, and have as many wacky misadventures, as Ma and Pa Kettle. As the screen brothers themselves prove, quantity is quality.

--Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Guardian

The feature was developed and written by James and John Reichmuth, Bridget Schwartz, Dan Klein, and Gabe Weisert. Improv-based rehearsals were videotaped and then transcribed into a rough semblance of a script. John and James rehearsed Roy and Gil on their own--they've had those characters for many years.

It was filmed at Lari Shea's Ricochet Ridge Ranch just north of Fort Bragg, California (which is the Southern tip of Big Foot territory). In addition to being an ridiculously nice lady, Lari leads horseback tours all over the world.

The movie was "filmed" with a Sony HDW-700A HDCAM High Definition Camcorder. This is basically a very expensive, very fancy video camera. But the picture looks great-it's not quite video, and not quite film. It's also relatively cheap, and easy to edit.

A word about the shoot--there were no toilets. It was often cold and wet and windy. Nobody slept much and we were sometimes a little snippy with each other. And our caterer tried to poison us. But the sunsets were beautiful. And we laughed a lot, every day.

Our film was edited on a program called Final Cut Pro, on an Apple G4, right in our very own basement. This program is not without its faults, but is pretty great nonetheless.

Matthew Uhry shot the film--he did our first feature, "Fishing with Gandhi." He assembled a crew that was very small and flexible. They endured rain, mud, and the vagaries of actors.

Cow Monkey was edited by Bil Yoelin, who cut an amazing documentary directed by Chris Wilcha called "The Target Shoots First." If you're interested in issues like alternative music, "selling out," the rock band Nirvana, or workplace politics, you should see this film. Bil was assisted by Yin Liu, an Academy of Arts student with a blindingly bright future ahead of her.

Creepy bird noises and mood-enhancing sound effects were added at Outpost Film Center in San Francisco. It's one of those places that has a nondescript door in a industrial part of town but is actually home to millions of dollars worth of amazing post-production equipment.

--Gabe