Synopsis Having just left the Seattle wedding of his widowed mother to the brother of her late husband, understandably somber twentysomething Danno (Dan Klein) has skipped the bus in favor of hitchhiking back home to San Francisco. He's wound up in a truck driven - when it doesn't overheat, as it very often does - by two yokel twins, Gil (John Reichmuth) and Roy (James Reichmuth). Brain damage (hereditary or pratfall-caused) seems to run in their family. While Danno slowly moves from struck-mute incredulousness to a certain awed appreciation for his inbred companions during various bucolic road stops, his San Francisco flatmates sink neck-deep in urban neurosis. Disheveled Stephen (Gabe Weisert) seems to live on the permanent panic-attack edge, a state not helped by Giles' (William Birdthistle) pretentious bitchiness. Expecting Danno's return this night, Stephen and Giles plan a homecoming pot luck. But the only guests they invite - reluctantly - are a very-tightly-wound Bronte (Christina Milano), who's given to scarifying remarks like "I'm fine! I'm hovering above the pain right now!," and jockish Chris (Dan Hunt), whose aggressive friendliness hides insecurity and a mean right hook. Recalling such indie-comedy prototypes as "Stranger Than Paradise" and "Slacker," "Fishing" floats more on off-the-cuff attitude that clever situations, punch lines or narrative structure. But the perfectly tuned, deadpan performances and scene rhythms suggest a sureness of purpose far from the characters' cluelessness. While brief flashbacks go for broader effects, most often the picture accrues hilarity just from the going-nowhere, saying nothing-in-particular weirdness of its protagonists. Actual twins and co-scenarists (along with Weisert and Birdthistle) John and James Reichmuth are especially inspired as the backwoods Tweedledee & Tweedledum. --Dennis Harvey, Variety Director's Notes "Fishing With Gandhi" was shot in two weeks on a sell-your-plasma budget. The cast and crew drove down California's Highway One, and most of the material was improvised at various stops along the way: a squatter's shed, an abandoned army garrison, a junk heap. I gave John and James and Dan a rough outline of what they should talk about (mental illness, pet fatalities) and they took it from there. John and James, who are twin brothers, have been practicing their characters for years. The background city material, which was mostly scripted, was shot around Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Actually, the stuff about "improvised" isn't completely true. There were rehearsals, and a few key concepts were mapped out, but very little was actually written down. Many of the jokes and sight gags came up the day of the shoot. Each scene was shot in one long take, then we shot close-ups for lines that we thought were particularly funny or profound or strange. The Reichmuth brothers improvisational strategy is to "keep talking until the other guy cuts you off. Then you start talking again." I'm not sure how to describe it. A friend called it "The Graduate" meets "Deliverance." My girlfriend's mother suggested "The Beverly Hillbillies" meets "My Dinner with Andre." --Gabe