Pumpkin is a 2002 romantic dark comedy film starring Christina Ricci. It is a story of forbidden love between a developmentally-handicapped young man and a sorority girl. The film was directed by Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder and written by Broder.

Plot[link]

Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci), in an effort to help her sorority sisters win a coveted award that has eluded them in the past years, joins them in training some handicapped young adults for Challenged Games (a fictional analogy to the Special Olympics). Carolyn is linked with Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris) and is horrified, mostly because she has never been in such an environment. Pumpkin is kind towards her and soon she finds herself falling in love with him because he is genuine, unlike her sorority sisters, as led by Julie Thurber (Marisa Coughlan), and her boyfriend, Kent Woodlands (Sam Ball).

Carolyn experiences backlash and disdain about the relationship from her friends and family, including Pumpkin's own mother, Judy (Brenda Blethyn), despite the fact that Carolyn's love has inspired Pumpkin to get out of his wheelchair and become the best athlete on the team. Judy later walks into her son's room and discovers that Carolyn and Pumpkin have been sexually involved. Pumpkin's mother accuses her of raping her son and says he has no idea what she has done to him. She calls Carolyn's school and Carolyn is kicked out of school and the sorority. Carolyn then drinks medicine in her cabinet in an attempt to overdose and commit suicide, but suffers no ill effect after finding out that she has merely drank saline solution from a contact lens cleaning bottle and Pepto Bismol.

Since Kent and Carolyn are the "perfect couple" and would ensure that the sorority wins the award, strings are pulled and Carolyn is let back into school, as well as the sorority, and Kent takes her back. At the sorority's ball, Pumpkin and his friends crash the party so Pumpkin can dance with the woman he loves. Kent won't stand for it and punches Pumpkin repeatedly as the girls hold Carolyn and keep Pumpkin's friends at bay. Kent turns his back as Pumpkin gathers his wits, charging and tackling Kent, knocking him unconscious for a few seconds. Kent gets up, looks around, and runs off crying. Carolyn tries to take Pumpkin inside to the dance, but Julie and the sorority sisters won't let them in. Carolyn pushes her way through with Pumpkin and they dance alone. Soon, others start to see the love between them and join them on the dance floor.

As they're dancing, Kent is shown driving erratically and sobbing hysterically. He swerves to avoid a truck and plunges off a cliff with the car exploding in midair, crashing to the bottom. Carolyn goes to the hospital to check on Kent and finds that he is now paraplegic, though not burned from the explosion. He blames Carolyn for his problems and she is left distraught. She quits school, the sorority, and swears off Pumpkin forever. The sorority stops helping the team and the rival sorority wins the award. Carolyn enrolls at a public university and opens up to her peers who encourage her to go for what she wants.

The sorority sisters have a change of heart and show up at the Olympic event. Kent is now the coach for Pumpkin's team and has become a motivator and humble person. Pumpkin races his rival, a bully who berates Pumpkin at every chance given. Pumpkin is motivated by Kent, telling him to win it for Carolyn and saying she wouldn't want him to lose. As he's running, he sees Carolyn in the stands and gets a sudden boost of energy. Pumpkin wins the race and at the finish line he is congratulated by the sorority sisters, his mother, and Kent. Carolyn comes down to see Pumpkin as his mother is hugging him. She endears him to Carolyn, finally accepting her son's progress into a man. As Carolyn and Pumpkin walk off together, she asks him what name she should call him, his real name, Jesse, and he replies "Pumpkin will be fine."

Cast[link]

• Christina Ricci as Carolyn McDuffy
• Hank Harris as Jesse "Pumpkin" Romanoff
• Brenda Blethyn as Judy Romanoff
• Dominique Swain as Jeanine Kryszinsky
• Marisa Coughlan as Julie Thurber
• Sam Ball as Kent Woodlands
• Harry J. Lennix as Robert Meary
• Nina Foch as Betsy Collander
• Melissa McCarthy as Cici Pinkus
• Caroline Aaron as Claudia Prinsinger
• Lisa Banes as Chippy McDuffy
• Julio Oscar Mechoso as Dr. Frederico Cruz
• Phil Reeves as Burt Wohlfert
• Marisa Parker as Courtney Burke
• Tait Smith as Hansie Prinsinger
• Michael Bacall as Casey Whitner
• Amy Adams as Alex

Critical reception and box office success[link]

Pumpkin received mixed reviews from critics; 27 of 43 reviews compiled by Rotten Tomatoes were negative, resulting in a "Tomatometer" score of 39%.^[2] At Metacritic, the film received a metascore of 46% based on 24 reviews.

One of the most positive reviews was by Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times; he wrote, "Pumpkin is alive, and takes chances, and uses the wicked blade of satire in order to show up the complacent political correctness of other movies in its campus genre." Michael O'Sullivan of the Washington Post also approved of the film, calling it "an odd and oddly endearing romantic black comedy." On the other end of the spectrum, Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that the film "gets along on curiosity value for a while, but becomes increasingly unconvincing and ludicrous as it staggers endlessly toward the finish line."^[3]

Pumpkin opened in American theatres on June 28, 2002 in a limited release. It grossed $30,514 in eight theatres in its first weekend, with a per-screen-average of $3,814. The film expanded to 19 theatres the following weekend, but its theatre count declined from there. Pumpkin completed its theatrical run four months later with a final gross of $308,552.^[4]

Since the film's DVD release, the film has become a cult hit. It is often recognized as one of the first examples of genre bending. Ricci herself has called it "a great movie" ^[5] and Jeff Weiss of Stylus magazine called it "one of the most underrated films of the decade."^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Pumpkin at the Internet Movie Database
• Pumpkin at AllRovi
• Pumpkin at Box Office Mojo
• Pumpkin at Rotten Tomatoes
• Roger Ebert's review of Pumpkin

Big Ass (บิ๊กแอส)
Big Ass at MTV fast Forward
Background information
Origin	Bangkok, Thailand
Genres	Thai rock (earlier materials) Nu metal (on Seven album) Metalcore (on Begins album) Rock
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Music Bugs(1997-2003) GMM Grammy(2004-present)
Associated acts	Bodyslam
Members
Ekarat Wongcharat Poonsak Jaturaboon Apichart Promraksa Pongpan Pollasit Kachorndej Promraksa

Big Ass is a Thai rock band. It was originally a pop rock band but the music moved toward hardcore punk in some of the band's recent works. Big Ass latest release is Love, their sixth album.

History[link]

Big Ass released their first album Not Bad in 1997 with music label Music Bugs. Their second and third album, XL and My World followed in 2000 and 2003. Big Ass won numerous awards for their work but attracted a rather limited group of audience during their first three albums. It left the old music label, Music Bugs, to join Genie Records label of GMM Grammy. Their fourth album Seven (signifying seven years in the music scene) was very successful in terms of awards and popularity. The album was recognized by both major music awards in Thailand: Season Awards, and Fat Awards ^[1] (See Awards section below). Popularity-wise, they were also voted the most popular artist by fellow artists in Fat Awards #3 and nominated for the most popular group in 4th Channel [V] Thailand Music Video Awards. Their fifth full album was Begins with hit songs such as Kha Noi Somkhuan Tai and Prom Li-Kit.

Besides their studio albums, Big Ass has a song in the special album Wan Fa Mai (วันฟ้าใหม่) celebrating New Year released around the end of 2005. The song Rao (เรา) in the album was performed by Big Ass together with Bodyslam.

In 2008, an original soundtrack for Thai movie Pid Term Yai Hua Jai Wawun (ปิดเทอมใหญ่ หัวใจว้าวุ่น, also known as Hormones) featured Big Ass. The band also appeared in the movie as themselves playing the song Kon Tai (ก่อนตาย) in a pub.^[2]

Origins of the name[link]

Student Weekly: The name of your band is a bit naughty. How did you come up with the name Big Ass?

Dax: Actually when we were students we used so many different names to book studio time that the owner would get confused if we were the same band. So we wanted to find a unique name to represent our band. When we looked around, the first thing that caught our attention was an ass. It seemed firm and sturdy just like rock music, the music we like. And we didn’t want just a normal ass, so we named the band Big Ass.

Members[link]

Ekarat "Dax" Wongcharat, lead vocals

The Thai names and nicknames are given in parentheses.

• Ekarat Wongcharat, alternatively Ekkarat Wongchalard (เอกรัตน์ วงศ์ฉลาด; Dax or Dag, แด็ก): lead vocals
• Poonsak Jaturaboon (พูนศักดิ์ จตุระบุล; Off, อ็อฟ): guitar, backing vocals
• Apichart Promraksa (อภิชาติ พรมรักษา; Moo, หมู): guitar, backing vocals
• Pongpan Pollasit (พงษ์พันธ์ พลสิทธิ์; Oak, โอ๊ก): bass guitar, backing vocals
• Kachorndej Promraksa (ขจรเดช พรมรักษา; Kob, กบ): percussion

Note: In early albums, the bass guitarist of the band was Ekarat Rattanapinta (เอกรัตน์ รัตนปิณฑะ; Ton, ต้น).

Discography[link]

• Not Bad (1997)
• XL (2000)
• My World (2003)
• Seven (July 2004)
• Begins (November 2006)
• Love (12 December 2008)

Awards[link]

• Best new artist for album Not Bad, 10th Season Awards (สีสัน อะวอร์ดส์), 1998
• Best rock duo or band, best rock album for My World, and best rock song Che Wit Lang Khwam Tai (ชีวิตหลังความตาย), 16th Season Awards, March 2004
• Duo or group artist of the year for My World, Fat Awards #2, April 2004 ^[3]
• Best rock group and best rock album for Seven, 17th Season Awards, March 2005
• Song of the year for Len Khong Soong, and most popular artist voted by other artists, Fat Awards #3, April 2005 ^[4]
• Best rock group, best rock album for Begins, and best rock song for Begins, 19th Season Awards, March 2007^[5]

In the news[link]

Ekarat Wongcharat, the leading vocal of Big Ass, made the headlines when a 17 year old men's magazine model nicknamed "Fai" appeared with her baby "Justin" and claimed that Wongcharat was the baby's father on February 2006. Allegedly they had sex when Fai was 16 years old, meaning that Wongcharat would be a child sex offender if the accusation was true. Wongcharat was subsequently arrested and released on bail on 27 February. While Wongcharat gave his blood sample for DNA testing in March, Fai and Justin did not give theirs until early May. On 10 May 2006 police announced that the result was negative. A retest performed by Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunand drew the same conclusion. Even through he is not the child's father, the trial for the underage sex offense remained. The trial began on 13 February 2007 and the court decision was announced on 21 March 2007. He received two years of a suspended sentence and must produce two anti-drug songs as pledged by the singer in exchange for a light sentence.^[6][7]

See also[link]

• Thai rock
• String (Thai pop)

References[link]

• eotoday.com Big Ass profile
• News of Fai's story coming to light, Dax's arrest, DNA test result (Thai only), DNA retest result

1. ^ Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul, Indy music recognised, The Nation, March 25, 2003
2. ^ Pid Term Yai Hua Jai Wawun (Hormones) movie
3. ^ Fat Awards #2 results (Thai only)
4. ^ Fat Awards #3 results (Thai only)
5. ^ Season's Picks, Outlook, Bangkok Post, March 28, 2007 (Google cache)
6. ^ Details of case presentation and court decision (Thai only)
7. ^ Popular rocker given suspended jail term for having sex with underage girl^{[dead link]}