(Above: Brian Herzlinger)
A scrappy, winsome digital diary
Thirty days, an $1100 game-show fallout and a digital-video camera bought on credit from Circuit City: could it be enough to earn an average dude a date with Drew Barrymore? Newbie filmmakers Brian Herzlinger, Jon Gunn and Brett Winn’s giddy documentary My Date With Drew follows Herzlinger’s uncompromising pursuit of his childhood crush (he’s got the pink fan-club stationary to prove it), employing second-hand Hollywood connections (including a violent session with Barrymore’s facialist) and unchecked desperation to get their (“Non-stalker, I swear!”) proposal to Drew. Herzlinger knows that in order for My Date with Drew to succeed, he has to ooze scrappy sheepishness; consequently, he’s an aggressively likable antihero, constantly vying for audience sympathy, staring into the camera and howling dopily along to bad radio. The underdog routine flies: Herzlinger is unemployed, self-effacing and covered in body hair—just kind, earnest and convincing enough to leave audiences rooting wholeheartedly for his dream to come true.