Krippendorf's Tribe (1998)
After squandering his grant money, despondent and recently widowed anthropologist James Krippendorf must produce hard evidence of the existence of a heretofore undiscovered New Guinea tribe. Grass skirts, makeup, and staged rituals transform his three troubled children into the Shelmikedmu, a primitive culture whose habits enthrall scholars. But when a spiteful rival threatens to blow the whistle on Krippendorf's ruse, he gets into the act as well.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
You won't be disappointed!
That was an excellent one.
Beautiful, moving film.
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Krippendorf's Tribe came out at a time when Hollywood had an obsession with jungles and tribe's people. Look at some of the films of the 90s: Jumanji, The Jungle book (live action), Jungle 2 Jungle, The Wild Thornberrys.Krippendorf's Tribe is a fairly silly knockabout comedy. To be honest it's pretty much done by numbers and predictable. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same fate a lot of comedies suffer from too much sexual humour to make it suitable for anyone younger than a teenage audience and it lacks the depth that adults want from films.Dreyfuss puts in a great performance as always and is convincing as the professor out of his depth. After Mr Holland's Opus you can see why many critics thought this film beneath him. Jenna Elfman is great alongside Dreyfuss and the two have chemistry. Much like Cameron Diaz in The Mask, she can do sexy as well as handle some of the more goofy farcical comedy.In recent years this film has been accused of being racist. While it is hard to deny that this film does stereotype tribes from Papua New Guinea, I don't think the film was intended to cause offence. The film is dated for a film from 1998 it feels like it could have been made 10 years earlier.While no masterpiece I found this film funny in places and entertaining throughout. With a less capable cast this film would have been an absolute stinker though. Look out for an early appearance from Mila Kunis as well.Worth a watch.
Great performances by Dreyfuss and Elfman make this movie work wonderfully and make you laugh so hard you think your going to cry. This film is put together in a way it's sure to make you laugh. Professor James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfess) is a Professor of anthropology and also a widower. Down in depression he ends up using the universities grant money for his own personal use. Faced with either confessing and going to jail, or going on with his fairy tale tribe. He chooses to go on with his made up tribe the Shelmikedmu. Using his own 3 kids and back yard for filming. He comes up with the most unique tribe ever seen before. Also with the help of his over anxious colleague Veronica Macelli (Jenna Elfman) who wont leave him alone. He ends up going deeper and deeper into his fairytale tribe, and trying to keep up with his lie. They end up taking the tribe national.Dreyfus handles the comedy with aplomb as he has done before, with the help of a supportive cast. It was nice to see Phil Leeds one last time in a couple of very brief appearances in a crowd scene. He was one of those talented character actors who always added that bit of spice to a production. This movie is very well put together, and just so ridiculous you got to laugh. In the end you will wish you were Shelmikedmu too. It's definitely worth seeing.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
Krippendorf's Tribe (1998): Dir: Todd Holland / Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Gregory Smith, Natasha Lyonne, Lily Tomlin: The tribe speculated upon regards a family to its hero in a recycled idea that worked well in Tootsie. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a single parent who has until evening to complete a speech regarding his tribal research. He convinces the board with a phony video of his family playing a tribe in their backyard. Jenna Elfman wishes to broadcast his success so he gets her drunk and involves her in a mating ritual that she will eventually see on the news. Meanwhile there are those whom do not buy the act and set out to prove him a fraud. Recycled concept fully formula with a conceited ending. Director Todd Holland does well with the film's amateur appeal. Dreyfuss and Elfman have fine comic chemistry that translates the only decent comic payoff in the entire charade. Gregory Smith and Natasha Lyonne have the misfortune of playing the reluctant children but their roles are typical and far from elevated. The biggest waste is the usually funny Lily Tomlin playing someone attempting to expose Krippendorf as a fraud by searching for the real tribe. With only its leads pulling through it is a wonder that it couldn't muster up a single original idea. Familiar premise leaves viewers with little other than to wonder what the Krippendorf yard sale would look like. Score: 3 / 10
Richard Dreyfuss and Jenna Elfman made a very stupid mistake when they decided to add their names to "Krippendorf's Tribe," a disastrous film."Krippendorf's Tribe" is the type of film that falls under the category of mistake. The script, costumes and performances of the leads, Richard Dreyfuss and Jenna Elfman were all factors that drew me to this conclusion. Even the supposed romance between Dreyfuss and Elfman was a mistake as they had no chemistry.I gave this film my full attention for 90 minutes but it didn't live up to what I was expecting. One thing I noticed lacking from this film was comedy, true comedy. The jokes were poor, futile attempts at laughs. Furthermore, I don't remember laughing at all and if I did it was at them instead of with them.It was a sad sight to watch respectable actors such as Dreyfuss and walk around in awful outfits and star in this awful film. I'm really sorry I wasted my time on this film. The razzies were correct in making this the dullest comedy of 1998. They should have given worst actor awards to Dreyfuss and Elfman as well.