On Friday, April 24th, I had the sincere pleasure to take a three and a half hour drive from my quaint suburban home to the bright lights and gilded streets of Dubuque, Iowa. Why? Well folks, the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival officially selected a movie I was a teeny tiny part of, and the writer / director / all-around-great-guy invited me to come!
Let’s get through the sundries quickly.
The film? Failed State. The writer/director? Matt Doherty. You might know him as “Averman” in Mighty Ducks, or “Big Head” in So I Married an Axe Murderer. Well after those early roles, Doherty continued acting, but also learned scene craft and cut his teeth on the page and behind the camera. Smash cut to the post-apocalyptic world we live in where Matt assembled a ragtag group of fellow smart thespians and set out to make a movie to celebrate the literal failed state we live in. Part social experiment, part artistic outlet, and all parts acerbically funny.
How I was a part of it? Well, thank Kathy Fishman. My beautiful wife was a hah-yoooge fan of the original Duck film, and befriended Matt early into her social media tenure. One rainy afternoon she denoted a post wherein Doherty was asking his friends if anyone knew a good graphic designer. She name-dropped me. He and I zoomed, and immediately hit it off. Soon thereafter, I became his goto maker-of-things. And when he decided to put together Failed State, there were some design needs throughout the film — including some fake posters, conspiratorial government agency logos, and other minutiae. And after the film was ready? I was on board to make the company website, start working on some cool merch, and so on.
Alright. I think that gives you the broad strokes of how I wound up in Dubuque.
So, what prey-tell is the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival? Well, it’s Iowa’s largest film festival that tends to receive over 1,000 submissions of content to whittle down to about 200 that get screened throughout the city across a jam-packed week of festivities. Cool? Tres-cool. Most excellently… Failed State was an official selection of the festival’s jury. This meant a choice spot in the screening times, as well as the festival volunteers just being some of the nicest folks I’ve ever met helping to guide us around various activities. But enough about logistics and the like. How about I just wax poetic about the flick?
Admittedly when Mr. Doherty sent me the final finished cut of his film — boasting that the entirety of it was shot and edited on an iPhone, and then masterfully audio-mixed — I had the skeptic underpinnings when a good friend tosses you their novel they’ve been talking about writing for decades. Keep in mind Failed State WAS NOT anything akin to that metaphor… I was just an anxious friend hoping that this movie was good. Not even five minutes into watching, my shoulders relaxed, my jaw unclenched, and my often stonefaced façade cracked into a gleeful smile for the next 90 minutes.
The movie follows a pair of plucky writers pitching their project, Failed State, and tripping over potential government plots, circular logic loops, and more bleeped Disney-drops than you can shake a Steamboat Willy at. It’s equal parts Zucker brothers farce, Kevin Smith slice-of-life, and manic psychedelia circa 1969. The ensemble cast each gets a spotlight — be it a manic two-hander between Patrick Curran’s Meyer and Patrick Joseph Rieger’s Levy, Ann Noble’s ice-queen extraordinaire Pam half-chewing the scenery, or Tamika Katon-Donegal’s Lucinda snarking each scene into a double-speak word salad buffet. And just when you think you have things understood? Out walks a clown to throw to a commercial, or an unforeseen musical interlude. All that and I didn’t even mention the fourth-wall breaking on screen graphics that purposefully lends a hand before flipping you the bird. It’s marvelous!
And let me be clear: Matt and his posse didn’t put me up to these glowing words. I’m not one to pull punches about creative quality — as I expect the same in return when I hand them work of my own. Fair is fair. But I digress.
So the movie is good. Dubuque was an experience I won’t soon forget (doubly so because after we attended the screening we got really good ice cream). But there’s one big thing left to cover about the movie.
Not unlike Unshaven Comics, Doherty’s Ohkeydoh Studio is a wholly independent operation. And Failed State is very much its Samurnauts. It was made with in-house money. Shot, edited, mixed, produced, gaffed, and memed wholly on a non-studio, non-corporate, punk-rock budget. And to watch the film? You head to the site and buy it… for whatever you want to pay. Matt’s mantra? Art is art. Patrons can support it however they deem to. It’s a respectful ideal. Because in 2026, no one is buying DVDs or Blu Rays really. Physical media is now for record-collecting hipsters, and nostalgia-twinged xennials (hi!). And contrary to any misconception you might have about the interconnectedness of Hollywood… Failed State has yet to be in a bidding war to appear on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, AppleTV, Fubo, Pluto, Dropout, or Kwyjibo. Not because it wouldn’t be awesome for it to appear there mind you… but no different than why my graphic novel isn’t distributed by any major publisher yet either. Such is the world we live in— when we’re not nepo-connected to insider-money and connections.
If you didn’t have the chance to enjoy Matt’s interview with Bob and Mike, now’s the time. As for me? I’m working on some top secret follow up projects with Mr. Doherty behind-the-scenes. I’d tell you more… but you have to have watched Failed State to understand.
Don’t get WHAQED!
