You know, it’s refreshing when a film actually tells it like it is, and I can’t remember seeing one that more clearly defined the truth about relationships between men and women than Knuckle Draggers.  To start, here’s a quick description of the film from IMDB, written by the film’s writer and director, Alex Ranarivelo…

“Knuckle Draggers” takes a realistic, but comic look at how the behaviors of men and women have evolved very little since the caveman times. When Ethan, the needy nice guy, is dumped by his fiancee, he asks his misogynist older brother Kyle to help him win her back. Kyle tries to teach Ethan how to act like “a real man” and to never put a woman on a pedestal. Repulsed by his brother’s harsh views on how to treat women, Ethan ignores his advice and ventures out into the dating world, where he slowly realizes that everything Kyle says seems to be true.

That description gets to the core of the film, but it doesn’t tell you everything.  There’s actually a … READ MORE

Fresh off his “Best Actor” award at the Reel HeART International Film Festival in Toronto this past Saturday night (June 27th), Knuckle Draggers Producer/Actor Paul J. Alessi was gracious enough to take the time to answer a few questions for our readers in this exclusive interview Q&A. Alessi plays the co-lead role as Kyle, an abrasive divorced man who offers his “expert” advice on relationships to his struggling brother Ethan (Ross McCall).

Knuckle Draggers is an independent film with a talented ensemble cast (undoubtedly several future stars of film will come out of this group) that is currently… READ MORE

Paul J. Alessi won the ‘Best Actor’ award at the Reel HeART Film Festival 2009 for his role in the Knuckle Draggers film.

Scott of Popcorn Junkies reviews Knuckle Draggers…

I get requests for publicity all the time, which is a hilarious concept to me at least, but I always find it amusing to read the e-mails. Most of them are grammatically abhorrent, amongst other things, and anyone who doesn’t take the time to actually use my name (as in “Hi Scott”) doesn’t deserve the *ahem* privilege of being pimped. So imagine my surprise when the star of a film, and one of its producers, sends me a nice letter asking for help promoting his film.

Paul J. Alessi, who co-stars in Knuckle Draggers as well as being one of the producers, wrote a nice letter and had the distinction of being friends with my boss Murtz Jaffer. For Murtz I have done a lot of things over the years at InsidePulse so helping out one of his buddies is something I think I’m contractually obligated to do. We did some nice stuff for… READ MORE

As long as there have been movies, there have been movies about relationships. One of the very first films to play for an paying audience was The Kiss, which was a 47-second smooch made in 1896. It was quite controversial at the time.

Obviously, the form handles love in broader terms now, with romantic comedies and dramas of every stripe, and even the majority of action films have some love interest.

It does make the world go ’round, they say.

Working outside the mainstream, the adult romantic comedy Knuckle Draggers examines men and women, but mostly men. In particular, how men work in and out of relationships, how they deal with women, and how their attitudes can be shaped by their male friends.

Ethan (Ross McCall) has just been dumped. His beautiful girfriend (Jennifer Alden) is tired of waiting for the life she wants, even though Ethan is working towards a dream she should have long since understood. He’s devastated but his brother Kyle (Paul J. Alessi) sees this as an opportunity to … READ MORE

Knuckle Draggers is an independent movie from Producer/Actor Paul J. Alessi and Director Alex Ranarivelo that made its world premiere film debut on April 26th, 2009, at a sold out Newport Beach Film Festival. The movie won two “Rising Star” awards at the DelRay Beach Film Festival, including Outstanding Feature by a New Filmmaker/Producer and Best Close-up in a Feature Film. Tonight (June 27th), the movie showed at the ReelHeART Film Festival as an official closing night film. Theatrical release and home video release dates are yet to be determined

With a diverse and talented ensemble cast, Knuckle Draggers presents the same conventional plot about the differences between the two genders. Men are simple creatures that have not evolved much beyond caveman times. They still just want sex and lots of it. Women on the other hand, need to commuicate, and need security. Relationships are easy, if you just understand one thing… READ MORE

Filmnut – Actor/Producer Paul J. Alessi

Jeff Schubert Host/Producer of Filmnut says, “Award winning Actor/Producer Paul J. Alessi came on to talk about his romantic comedy Knuckle Draggers. I felt like I was talking to an actor from the Sorpranos! Paul was a lot of fun with his New York attitude and telling stories about how his film came together, working with his cast and crew. He is doing a great job of promoting and marketing his film, something that every filmmaker needs to pay attention. There is more product then ever out there and if you’re going to stand out you have to put in the time. We get into that a little and Alessi offers up some websites. The F. Gary Grey story (Grey directing credits include: “Be Cool” “The Negotiator” & “The Italian Job”) alone is worth watching the interview. But lots of other great material including how he auditioned for and got on the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race”… Knuckle Draggers is still on the festival circuit, it will closing the Real Heart Festival in Toronto this Saturday, I’ll announce on the message boards when it’s going to be released, I’m looking forward to it. And Or you can keep up with it here: http://www.knuckledraggersmovie.com/ ”

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Tandem offline print coverage of Paul J Alessi and Knuckle Draggers includes an interview, details and news about the film.

The Filmnut Live Interview with actor/producer Paul J Alessi this Wednesday June 24th at 8pm PST

Paul will talk about the Knuckle Draggers film and show a clip from the movie.

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