Aimee La Joie’s versatility as an actress shines through in a dark, comic thriller being shown on the final day of the Oceanside International Film Festival.
La Joie, 33, of Poway, is a member of the ensemble in “Hemet, or the Landlady Don’t Drink Tea.” The movie is set in a fictional version of Hemet, but all the filming was done in Ramona and La Jolla in 2021.
The 13th annual film festival runs from Feb. 20-24 at The Brooks Theater, 217 N. Coast Highway in Oceanside. Film screenings are set for 2:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24.
The film is part political satire, part dystopian adventure — a horror film that examines the corruptibility of power, said director Tony Olmos.
“The story itself is about a community of people that live in an apartment that is being run by this old lady who is ruthless,” Olmos said. “She’s a fascist dictator type. It takes place in this made-up time in which things are not going well in the United States … worse than what we have been seeing, so people don’t have a lot of choices as to where they can live, so they put up with this lady.”
To make matters worse, there is an epidemic of people on a drug that turns them into zombies, he said.
La Joie plays Kate Myrtle, the daughter of the despicable landlady, and the mother of a young boy and girl.
“The emphasis is on dark, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but if you like dark, twisted comedies then you’ll like this one,” La Joie said.
La Joie said she’s had some crazy roles while performing mostly comedy in the past, but “Hemet” took her out of her comfort zone. Some scenes involved yelling and screaming, which she said “pushed her to the limits” of acting.
“My character did not have that many comedic elements,” she said. “It’s just a matter of changing up the style a little bit, toning it down, trying not to play the comedy. I just tried to let it speak for itself, versus what I normally do to try to make it funny, working on my comedic timing and playing way out there characters.”
“Hemet” actors are Randy Davison, Brian Patrick Butler, Derrick Mangin and Nick Young with Aimee La Joie, right.
(Daniel N. Butler)
Brian Patrick Butler, a Rancho Bernardo High grad and former Poway resident, wrote the screenplay for “Hemet” and was also the film’s executive producer.
Butler, 33, met La Joie when they worked together on a short film, “Buy Roses for Me,” in 2017. Butler said he thought La Joie was a very funny performer so he had her in mind for a part in “Hemet” right from the start.
“It was kind of cool seeing her do something funny but a little different than what she usually does,” Butler said. “I think she did it with ease.”
Butler’s and La Joie’s characters in “Hemet” are intertwined. Butler has a cross-gender role — he portrays Liz Topham-Myrtle, the corrupt landlady and the mother of La Joie’s character.
Screenwriter, film director and actor Brian Patrick Butler dressed as the landlady, Liz Topham-Myrtle, in “Hemet.”
(Daniel N. Butler)
In her first scenes in the film, La Joie is somewhat aloof, and stressed out while taking care of two kids who are faced with a sudden move into an apartment under difficult circumstances, Butler said.
On screen, La Joie and Butler have a tempestuous relationship with a lot of arguing. Tensions also arise with the tenants, who end up revolting against Topham-Myrtle, Butler said.
Butler describes it as a “mutually hateful relationship” but La Joie said her character is aware of the privilege she gets from her powerful mother.
“The mother uses that to emotionally abuse her at every turn,” Butler said. “We’re laughing along the way at the slurs they throw at each other, the arguments they get into and the comedic tensions that rise as it pushes toward the conclusion.”
Butler said La Joie deftly showed the different sides to her character.
“She’s very, very funny and she can do wholesome entertainment,” he said. “Her character goes through the gambit of light humor and some really dark stuff that happens. It’s funny and disturbing. She pulled it off.”
Brian Patrick Butler is a former Poway resident with a theater arts degree from San Diego State University.
(Jules Kirkeby Photography)
The inspiration for the film came from Butler’s experiences with landlords over the years while living in Normal Heights and Los Angeles, among other places.
Details such as Myrtle wearing an arm brace for carpal tunnel were a reflection of his own experience. He said he was once threatened by someone wearing an arm brace as he walked on that person’s lawn on his way to his car in a public parking lot during filming in a rural area.
The storyline also weaves in references to rising tensions in America over the last six years, he said.
La Joie said she liked the challenge of performing in a difficult role and was impressed by the acting in the film, including the professionalism of the child actors.
La Joie started acting in drama classes in high school in Fallbrook, then continued at UC Berkeley where she got a bachelor’s degree in film studies in 2012. Along with starring in the independent film, “Freedom, Wisconsin,” La Joie recreated the experience of bad dates on the online series, “The Bumble Bums.”
She said her ability to adapt to different roles and characters springs from the parodies and online sketches she writes, films, edits and directs. Topics of her parodies have included “Say Yes to the Dress,” “MasterChef,” “Queer Eye” and “Home Town.”
It’s not uncommon for La Joie to play five different characters, men and women, in each video she produces, she said.
“I’m mainly known for doing a lot of my own videos online,” she said of her work shown on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. “I do a lot of content where I’m playing characters who are film crew members, and those videos are very popular among people who are in the TV and the film industry.”
La Joie and Butler said they are hopeful “Hemet” wins an award at the film festival. Butler has been nominated for Best Editing in a Feature, Best Screenplay (Feature) and Best Actor in a Lead Role.
“It’s an ensemble movie with so many different types of characters and a range of emotions,” Butler said. “It was just an awesome experience. We had fun making it and I loved the way it turned out.”
Admission to the festival’s film screenings is $15 per person or $12 for seniors, students and military members. Admission to the closing awards show from 8 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24 at The Brooks Theater are $10 per person or $8 for seniors, students and military members. For more information, visit the website osidefilm.org.
Ashley Mackin-Solomon, a reporter with the La Jolla Light, contributed to this story