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The Hacks

Sort of “Breakfast Club” for “Men of a Certain Age,” this intimate drama concerns one defining night with the members of 'The Hacks,' five 40-something best friends who get together (when their schedules allow) to make music in a makeshift studio. After six weeks away, each of their lives has started to drift a bit out of control. Through a long night's journey into day of talking, drinking, and making music together, they explore the big issues of their lives: their regrets, fears and dreams for the future, their relationships with each other and ultimately the meaning of life in the face of their ever more obvious mortality. By the time the dawn comes, while they may not have solved all of their problems, their time with one another, making music, has allowed them to, once again, face their lives (and MIDlives) with the renewed optimism of a brand new day. An honest and authentic look “behind the curtain” at how passionate, intelligent men behave together and the importance of intimate relationships.

  • Brady Caverly
    Director
    Happy Hour
  • Brady Caverly
    Writer
    Happy Hour
  • Paul Duff
    Producer
    Happy Hour
  • Graham
    Producer
    Stumpf
  • Darin Cooper
    Key Cast
    "David"
  • Michael Cram
    Key Cast
    "Allen"
  • Jay Huguley
    Key Cast
    "Kevin"
  • Jack Noseworthy
    Key Cast
    "Jim"
  • Gabriel Olds
    Key Cast
    "Jack"
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 37 minutes 46 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 20, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    United States, United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    4K C-LOG 3-Cine
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Brady Caverly

Upon graduating college, Brady Caverly promised himself he’d make a feature film by the time he was thirty. Now, just shy of a quarter century late, he’s made that dream a reality.

Caverly started as a producer, director and editor of corporate marketing films for a local production company while a film student at Penn State. At 26, he started his first production company creating regional TV spots and corporate/industrial/marketing videos for clients such as Re/Max Realty, Baskin-Robbins and the City of Los Angeles.

In 1997, he stumbled into the long-form Direct Response TV (DRTV) industry as it was entering its heyday. And for the next several years he wrote, produced and directed some of the most successful infomercials in the country.

In 2000, Caverly co-founded C Squared TV (then Alchemy Worldwide), a vertically-integrated company which handled all aspects of the infomercial businesses, from product development, branding, manufacturing, and production of the TV content, through media buying, shipping and customer service. The company released a string of successful products and shows, including The Magic Bullet personal blender, which remains one of the most successful and longest running DRTV programs in the history of the industry. Caverly has been instrumental in the creation of television campaigns that have grossed nearly $2 billion in direct-to-consumer sales.

Caverly now follows the advice of the characters in his recent feature and devotes his days to his real passion of creating film and television.

In 2016, he wrote, directed and produced the award-winning short film Happy Hour. And 24 years after his initial deadline, he finished The Hacks, a feature film he wrote and directed (and provided many of the songs for). It dramatizes one defining night in the lives of five 40-something best friends who get together to drink, talk, make music and work through the crises that come with impending middle age. Caverly has also written pilots for two one-hour series and has several more TV and film projects right behind them.

Caverly lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, a talented painter, and is the proud parent of two amazing grown children. He is also an amateur singer-songwriter who regularly gets together with his friends to drink, make music and find the most expeditious road to happiness in these brief, wonderful lives we’ve been given.

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Director Statement

In more than five decades on this earth searching for a “meaning of life,” I have come to this conclusion: There is nothing more important than making and nurturing intimate relationships with other human beings. That is our goal, our purpose in this life.

The Hacks is my passion project to that ideal.

The Hacks was inspired by experiences with my friends in our little pickup band where we drink, talk, make music and help each other navigate our paths through life (a group which also includes the producer, DP and composer of this film).

It became clear that the issues with which we struggled during these de facto therapy sessions – our fears, regrets, dreams for the future, relationships with the people we care about and ultimately the meaning of life in the face of our ever more obvious mortality – were not unique to us.

They were the same issues that we grappled with in our twenties and, presumably, will be struggling to address in our seventies. The same ones my twenty-two-year-old daughter faces as she starts her life as an adult, or my teenage son faces as he moves away to college. The big issues of life are universal. Everyone, regardless of age, sex, social or economic status, grapples with the same things.

These are the issues I wanted to explore, and the notion of a sort of Breakfast Club for Men of Certain Age began to present itself as an ideal way to do that: take five best friends, each in the midst of a crisis that addresses one of these issues, lock them in a room with a bunch of booze and musical instruments and keep them there until they work their shit out. (Plus we already had the location – the movie was shot in the space where the real-life Hacks meet.)

It was designed to be an authentic look behind the curtain at how passionate, intelligent men talk and behave when they are alone together. How true intimates interact. Friends that know you so well they can often see things you’re hiding from yourself. Who are kind and generous but also have the courage to be brutally honest with you even when it’s painful and fraught with risk.

In order to be as realistic as possible with the dialogue and interactions, I started by recording and transcribing, David Mamet-style, some of our own conversations during our band night sessions. Then I riffed, improvised, expanded and explored the dramatic possibilities of these themes until I had created five unique fictional characters, each in the midst of some sort of existential crisis.

The intention was to make the events and conversations seem totally real and unscripted while, in reality, every line and beat is in service to a carefully-designed structure with clear, strong character arcs. My challenge to myself was to dig as deep as possible into my own life experiences to find characters, situations and themes that were honest and true enough to resonate with a larger audience. No artificial, maudlin or manipulated scenarios, no cheap laughs or artificial conflicts - these are men who respect one another, who challenge one another and who truly care about one another.

Ultimately, The Hacks is a celebration of the power of intimate friendships - of the importance of carving out time to truly connect with other human beings. It's structured to provide a rollercoaster ride between moments of conflict and tenderness, fear and joy, all while intimately exploring the complexity of personal relationships. Hopefully, it’s fun and funny but it also has something to say which I believe is critically important.

If I have succeeded, people should walk away with a fresh optimism about their lives - regardless of their age - and excited to set up a "band night" of their own - whether it's poker with their buddies, book club with their girlfriends or camping with the kids. The Hacks is a rallying cry to fight, like the “Hacks” in the movie, to make your own life what you want it to be and to seek out those moments of joy which make life valuable.

Brady Caverly
Writer/Director