WILMINGTON — Family drama, backended by plenty of zany comedy, is amping up the 30th annual Cucalorus Film Festival.
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Simon Rex — best known as a former MTV VJ-turned-actor (“Red Rocket,” “Scary Movie”) — stars in “Operation Taco Gary’s,” one of over 100 films screening as part of Wilmington’s independent film festival taking place this week.
The irreverent comedy is taking over the big screen at Thalian Hall’s main stage on Friday and follows two estranged brothers, including wanted felon Danny (Rex), who disrupts the subdued life of his younger brother Luke (Dustin Milligan, “Schitt’s Creek”), who is on the move to Ottawa, Canada. Luke’s trip to his once-in-a lifetime dream job, a position at a Paleontology Research Center, is eventually hijacked by his older brother.
Luke has constantly tried to separate himself from the whims of his brother, but could never quite cut ties like the rest of the family. Danny, on the other hand, has been off the grid for several years — chasing conspiracy theories, running from the feds, and using Luke’s identity to stay hidden.
The two end up on a journey that essentially mends the brothers’ relationship and launches them into a world that, at first, appears straight out of Danny’s imagination.
For Rex, playing Danny meant allowing conspiracy theories to consume the character’s life and personality.
“I kind of just did an impression of a couple of my friends who are exactly this guy,” Rex quipped in an interview with Port City Daily earlier this week.
Despite raving about aliens who want to wipe out humans and repurpose them as fossil fuels, celebrities that are in on it to save their skin, and the brothers being confronted with tranquilizers, cocaine, kidnappings, and shoot-outs, Rex said Danny’s intentions are good.
“It taught me cut a little more slack to my conspiracy theory friends because they have a good heart,” Rex admitted.
The same can be said about the movie, Rex indicated, as the plot centers on Danny simply wanting to protect his younger brother at any cost.
Rex got involved with the film — directed by Michael Kvamme (“Funny or Die”) — when friend and producer Matt Vaughan (“Urban Scout”) approached him with the script. Rex admitted to hesitating on mixing friendship with business, saying it can get “sticky.” However, after reading it and getting a kick out of every page, Rex said he went all in.
“This is one of those rare incidents where working with a friend actually worked out. We’re actually better friends now, and I had a blast,” Rex said.
He also became a producer on the film, a side of the business he was unfamiliar with.
“Normally as an actor, they don’t want [feedback] from you. It’s just, ‘Shut up and say the lines,’ and ‘wear this’ and ‘stand here,’” Rex said. “So, that’s very nice to have some creative input.”
This allowed Rex to help with casting, rewriting jokes, and even choosing his own wardrobe. He has embraced the role with a newfound love, something he first became interested in after watching Channing Tatum produce and star in the movie “Blink Twice,” released August 2024. Rex played Cody, a friend of Tatum’s character.
“I learned a lot from him because he was always involved with the creative decisions in the movie on set,” Rex said.
While filming “Operation Taco Gary’s,” Rex also launched a production company, called Crispy Productions — “but I’ll probably change the name in the future” — which already has a few projects in the works. He remained mum on details, as they’re still in the early stages.
However, for his character, Rex chose to play Danny 100-miles-per-hour, something he said is indicative of his own demeanor in real life. That characteristic came in handy to support a role written with a “manic energy,” he said.
“I think it helps the comedy when you plow through jokes so fast that the audience doesn’t have time to catch up — and they’re just like, ‘Whoa, what did he just say?’” Rex explained.
Though the fast-paced mentality was something Rex related to in Danny, he said it was also one of the harder parts to play. For instance, while normally he doesn’t over-rehearse lines for comedies, because the lines will no longer be funny to the actor, which can come through in the delivery, there was one scene he spent three months working out to perfect its rapid-fire delivery. The speed was essential for the jokes to land.
“And in this case, it worked,” Rex said.
The scene consisted of a three-page monologue where Danny exposed every conspiracy he knew about aliens on earth dating back to the 1996 Summer Olympics. Meanwhile, Luke is subdued by a tranquilizer and begrudgingly listens beside a campfire, stranded in the middle of a forest.
It was filmed overnight from dusk to dawn, with numerous takes — an exhausting shoot, according to Rex, but one that paid off.
“This person isn’t trying to be funny, they’re being serious, and that’s why it’s so funny” Rex said. “While I’m saying these insane things, I got to play it very real.”
On the other hand, Luke is serious — and seriously over his brother’s insanity.
While Danny and Luke are on the run from the coalition — a group Danny claims is working with aliens — they pick up accomplices Allison (Brenda Song) and Klyle (Tony Cavalero), who are both all in on Danny’s conspiracy theories. The crew and a reluctant Luke make a pitstop at a Taco Gary’s — a fast food chain in the movie, which somehow or another has become a safe zone.
Coalition members Jason Biggs (as himself) and his one-eyed Portuguese sidekick (Arturo Castro) are after the brothers for a million-dollar object Danny stole. Eventually, Luke questions his own sanity, refusing to admit his brother might be right about everything, as the lines between reality and conspiracy blur.
“A lot of the scenes with Arturo and Jason Biggs are all really funny, and Tony Cavalero, who plays the bigger conspiracy theorist than me — who plays Klyle — I mean, everything he does, to me, makes me laugh out loud,” Rex said of his favorite scenes.
The film was shot in North Carolina, between Waxhaw and Charlotte, and received funding from the North Carolina Film Incentive grant program for its almost $2.7-million spend.
“Taco Gary’s” was meant to have a general, Midwest setting to exemplify the cross-country road trip, and Charlotte had a good mix of both cityscape and foliage — somewhere that could “look like a lot of places,” Rex said.
It also stars a familiar face — and voice — in Benji Hughes, a musician from Charlotte. Rex met years ago in L.A.; he was part of a comedic rap group Dyslexic Speedreaders and adopted the alter ego Dirt Nasty and toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rex met Hughes in an L.A. recording studio in the mid-early 2000s. It was around 2008 Hughes recorded and released his magnus opus “A Love Extreme.”
“I just turned 50 years old, and I don’t want to be on the road rapping at 50,” Rex said about leaving his music persona behind.
But Hughes and Rex became friends, kept in touch, and Rex always stayed with him during visits to Charlotte. The actor said he reached out to Hughes to appear in the movie. His unnamed character meets a pantless Danny and an injured Luke while camping out in the woods.
“In real life, I know him so well, and he’s one of the funniest people that I know, for somebody who writes such beautiful, deep, poetic music that’s so incredible” Rex said. “Putting him in the movie just made it really, officially, a North Carolina thing, even though the movie doesn’t take place in North Carolina.”
Originally, Rex was scheduled to sit in on a question-and-answer session at the film’s Cucalorus screening. However, he received a job offer that required him to cancel his appearance at Wilmington’s independent film festival at the last minute. But he’s had the opportunity to screen it with a live audience already in Austin.
“They were laughing at places that I didn’t even think were laugh-out-loud moments. So that was a good sign, to see people having a good time throughout the whole movie,” he said. “I really wish I could be there in North Carolina with everybody.”
Wilmington’s audiences can screen “Operation Taco Gary’s” on Nov. 22, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and it’s open to Cucalorus pass holders here. Benji Hughes will also perform at Jengo’s Playhouse around 1 a.m. after the film screening.
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