- 4 days ago
"Mooch" is the newest comedy/drama from director Jeffrey Ryan. On this latest episode of EoM Presents, EoM Contributor Joel Winstead sits down with writer/actor/director Jeffrey Ryan to discuss the creation of the narrative, the music, the success of failure, and more.
Leaning more into the drama side of things, this deeply personal story illustrates that there's a little bit of Shane in everyone. It is heartfelt and hilarious, and has a banging soundtrack you'll be scream-crying to in no time. Stay for the credits!
Official Synopsis:
Shane is a struggling thirty-year-old caddie who stumbles into a new gig: a private eye for a shady New Jersey nightclub owner.
At almost thirty, Shane is the oldest caddie at Hopkinton Country Club by a full fifteen years — and going nowhere fast. So when a reckless move to pocket three hundred dollars from New Jersey's wealthiest nightclub owner blows up in his face, it should be the end of him. Instead, it's the strange beginning of a whole new hustle: getting paid to steal information for a living.
For the first time, Shane's dreams feel within reach. But the deeper he wades into a world of secrets, favors, and dangerous people, the more the job starts bleeding into his personal life. He can do the work, dodge the heat, and outrun the fallout — and still, no matter how many people he crosses or how good he gets, one thing never changes.
Shane is, and always will be, a MOOCH.
"Mooch" is a sharp, offbeat crime comedy about hustling, self-sabotage, and the con man who can't con his way out of being himself.
Available on VOD and digital August 14th, 2026.
Available on DVD September 1st, 2026.
Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/t74CWzyHzRk?si=u3cOsnk2cv0VjxIT
Official Webpage: https://www.moochfilm.com/
Directed/Written By: Jeff Ryan
Cast: Jeff Ryan, Scott Cohen, Katerina Tannenbaum, Geneva Carr, Louis Cancelmi, Will Chase, Lucy Walters
Leaning more into the drama side of things, this deeply personal story illustrates that there's a little bit of Shane in everyone. It is heartfelt and hilarious, and has a banging soundtrack you'll be scream-crying to in no time. Stay for the credits!
Official Synopsis:
Shane is a struggling thirty-year-old caddie who stumbles into a new gig: a private eye for a shady New Jersey nightclub owner.
At almost thirty, Shane is the oldest caddie at Hopkinton Country Club by a full fifteen years — and going nowhere fast. So when a reckless move to pocket three hundred dollars from New Jersey's wealthiest nightclub owner blows up in his face, it should be the end of him. Instead, it's the strange beginning of a whole new hustle: getting paid to steal information for a living.
For the first time, Shane's dreams feel within reach. But the deeper he wades into a world of secrets, favors, and dangerous people, the more the job starts bleeding into his personal life. He can do the work, dodge the heat, and outrun the fallout — and still, no matter how many people he crosses or how good he gets, one thing never changes.
Shane is, and always will be, a MOOCH.
"Mooch" is a sharp, offbeat crime comedy about hustling, self-sabotage, and the con man who can't con his way out of being himself.
Available on VOD and digital August 14th, 2026.
Available on DVD September 1st, 2026.
Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/t74CWzyHzRk?si=u3cOsnk2cv0VjxIT
Official Webpage: https://www.moochfilm.com/
Directed/Written By: Jeff Ryan
Cast: Jeff Ryan, Scott Cohen, Katerina Tannenbaum, Geneva Carr, Louis Cancelmi, Will Chase, Lucy Walters
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00we're alive we're alive hey guys joel here again uh just got done interviewing jeffrey ryan the
00:06writer director of the um indie comedy drama mooch um it was a long process of getting it
00:14uh written and and filmed and out there and and then distributed so we talked about his
00:20journey with his new film uh what he's got coming up next and how he got um aaron gillespie from
00:28the band under oath to write and produce and uh bring in some friends from other famous pop punk
00:34bands of our yesteryear to do an all new original soundtrack to the film um good conversation with
00:41a great independent director um give it a watch all right and we're going uh back here with jeff
00:49ryan who i interviewed before for his uh horror mean-spirited back today talking about mooch
00:56um i one of the things i wanted to get to first was because i know that you know youth
01:01men
01:01definitely comedy um uh the salem movie um mass hysteria definitely it's horror but more comedy
01:12mean-spirited definitely had comedy to it and now we have mooch and i know mooch is definitely a
01:16comedy but it's more to me it feels like more of a drama um what was it like trying to
01:24find a place for this movie that wasn't very genre focused specific yeah i
01:33i it's a great question you always ask the best questions joel because i you always like do a
01:39bunch of research and it's it's wonderful because i also consider this a drama with a lot of comedy
01:47comedy and it's it's a it's like a stupid comedy in like the jim carrey a sort of cheap way
01:53but i
01:56i don't know i like i felt in my gut that i wanted to make this movie for so long
02:01that i kind of didn't
02:03think about the irresponsible nature of all my connections being horror and and when i was like
02:10trying to release this movie i'm like emailing everyone i know and they're all like we do horror
02:14movies what are you doing i was like i don't know this is maybe a mistake but i i just
02:20felt like
02:21i wanted to make this movie for a long time i really care about it it's really personal to me
02:26it's something i'm very proud of and i also to be honest when i made my horror movies i wasn't
02:33a huge
02:34horror fan and i've since then become an enormous horror fan where like all i do is consume horror movies
02:40shows and things where i just became so in love with the genre that i feel like going back i
02:47would
02:48love to make a horror movie having a different perspective on it because i think i kind of did it
02:53initially because i was told do horror it's cheap it's it gets sold and on some level it's true
03:00and on the other side of it i just am such a fan of the genre now that i kind
03:05of want to
03:05have another chance at putting more respect on it than i think i did in the past not that i
03:10didn't
03:11try to be respectful but it was like i just i have a love for it that i didn't before
03:14it
03:15yeah yeah so uh i know that just because i i follow you and your work and i know that
03:22you try to get mooch into some festivals and it wasn't really working out how you wanted to can
03:26you talk to me about how reject took a film festival and and how that's going yes i
03:35i mean it's one of those things where i the main part was i thought we were getting into south
03:41by
03:42southwest ignorantly i guess i just i thought i had enough connections where it was probably going
03:47to be viewed the right way and i thought it was like a no-brainer it was like i had
03:53all these
03:53amazing emo pop and pop punk bands that were kind of willing to be a part of the movie and
03:59south by with music and you know all these things uh and then we didn't get in i it like
04:05destroyed
04:05me truly destroyed me i was like what am i doing i felt like quitting still feel like quitting all
04:10the time but i just remember after feeling bad for myself me and my two producers joe and jacob we
04:20got on the phone together and we just started joking about tribeca and we're like well we're probably
04:25going to get rejected from tribeca obviously like and then when we did i wasn't as upset because i
04:32already knew it was going to be a no from tribeca but i was a little upset and i was
04:36like well what
04:36if we just like took this van i have around new york city and like got big magnets and put
04:42it on the
04:42side of the thing and just did the tribeca logo but said rejecta and then it turned into like a
04:48nathan for you sketch idea and that's why we did it initially was just to make a piece of
04:54film making a joke video of myself being like documenting me trying to get people in the back
05:00of a van in new york buffalo bill and that was hilarious to us and then we actually were like
05:07oh
05:07well we're doing all this let's put on a real screening so we actually had like a 200 person
05:13screening for the real rejected festival that was like a full party and it was like such a blast we
05:18met
05:18our producer peter poke there who did like maxine x and all these other things and he came on and
05:25helped us sell the movie and it was like a really great experience of just like you know do something
05:30different a lot of people asked me to do it again it was just so much work i just couldn't
05:35do it again
05:36it was like i don't want to be a festival director i i'm not good at it i thought about
05:41doing year two
05:42inviting all these films but only playing mooch
05:44i was gonna do it in my like like a virtual one where
05:50and they just watch me online watching
05:56that was too much that would have been fantastic well i was gonna ask if you're gonna keep it going
06:01if we're gonna get reject uh you know and moving forward well we we had really fun ideas for it
06:08it was
06:09to be honest the problem was that new york city to do it like the party part i and i
06:16basically begged
06:17every person there to buy every piece of merch broad to like break even i even had to pay i
06:23had to
06:23charge people tickets because new york city to rent a space is just so expensive that we found the
06:29cheapest possible like party location in manhattan that was like across near tribeca and it was still
06:36so much money and it was good and uh i was like i can't do that again because that's too
06:42much money
06:43but i did think it was really fun to think about submission fees were just showing that you got
06:47rejected from like tribeca sundance or south by and that's like entrance fee um and i also did submit
06:56our reject a short film to tribeca and got rejected which i thought is funny yes um shame on them
07:04it was
07:04it would have been hilarious yeah it would have been great for them uh what you had mentioned
07:10it before but you did get a lot of great pop punk bands kind of spearheaded by aaron gillespie from
07:15under oath how did that connection happen and how did you get this amazing original soundtrack
07:23i i look at this whole soundtrack as a crazy fever dream because
07:30it was a strange experience how you kind of like you know when you're making films as you know like
07:37you're you set this idea in motion and then these ideas that you have kind of come to fruition in
07:44ways
07:44that you don't expect not always the way you want but they're you know there's like action gets action
07:49and i think that's like a cool thing from making movies where if you put work in usually something
07:57comes back and it's not always what you expect in this case i actually initially was
08:03thinking i was going to try and get like census fail to come play a song in the movie because
08:07they were a new jersey band i saw them live in jersey city
08:12and i went to an emo night and like it was just like buddy from census fail was like very
08:16new jersey
08:16and i'm very new jersey and i was like oh that's a cool connection and like we talked on email
08:22but like it didn't seem like it was like of the right fit and then on a scout i just
08:27like
08:28randomly dm'd uh aaron and he happened to be on a flight where like i you know he just happened
08:34to
08:34see my message come up and we started talking on instagram and then the next day i think we had
08:39like
08:39a phone call that was like four hours or something it was stupid he was like on a long drive
08:43and we just
08:44talked about you know growing up in the church growing up and like having weird experience with the
08:50church and then also just what it means to kind of like live out life now and about art and
08:57it was
08:58a really surreal experience because i was like you know as a filmmaker i don't think of myself as
09:03worthy of talking to musicians because music is something that influenced me so much as a kid and
09:08it was like a thing always a part of me it like helped make who i am today you know
09:13under oath was a band
09:13where i grew up going to church and i was like this is the coolest music i can and i
09:18won't get in trouble i
09:19want blink 182 in the bathroom listen to it and yeah so but it was cool because he never saw
09:27me as
09:27like less than or anything he saw me as an equal artist and i think that right there is the
09:32reason
09:33the collaboration worked so well is he had no ego we we talked every day while he was working on
09:39the
09:39music um he came to set he loved it being on set initially we were doing just one song and
09:45then
09:45after being on set he was like what if we did a whole soundtrack and i got like a handful
09:50of
09:50friends to come sing on that i was like uh yeah yeah cool yeah and yeah it was a dream
09:55come true
09:56because like that just made the movie to me where the movie is like uh someone who you know loves
10:02emo
10:02music and paints his nails black and to me the music was such a part of that identity that to
10:08be able
10:08to have a soundtrack that's original but also sounds like stuff i used to listen to and that i love
10:14i'm
10:14just like you know floored it's it's like a dream come true i can rest on that how how far
10:21so mooch was
10:22written and kind of like a thing already before aaron became involved yeah it was like i so initially i
10:29mean you're the first person i'm ever telling this to by the way but the exclusive yeah exclusive
10:37um initially it was uh i think it was like i wrote the breakup scene in the movie
10:44while listening on repeat to um angela baker which is a song from let it unfold to you by census
10:52fail
10:53and i just like when i heard that song i like imagined this like breaking up thing and that was
10:59like a huge part of the script writing where i was like oh like that put in my head just
11:06the idea of
11:06someone screaming and singing to someone and then breaking up so like that was the idea because the
11:13song they're like bridge has like screaming words and like a pause and then screaming words and like
11:19a pause and i while writing i was like oh it'd be funny if someone was like singing those words
11:23to
11:23something right but then pausing with the pause yeah you also didn't do this that was like the
11:31core concept and then uh when aaron wrote love me back that like slowly became part of the identity
11:40of the script because it was going to be the concert scene and whatever song played in the concert
11:45in the movie was always going to be the breakup song and then it became more involved throughout the
11:52movie and more of like everything aaron just like did such an amazing job like i yeah songs are just
11:58so good and i yeah it fit perfectly so what an easy kind of switch between the census fail song
12:04and
12:04love me back what a what a great because it's got the same kind of energy and it's got the
12:08same kind
12:09of like you know kind of emo-ness behind it you know like i love that's my favorite song on
12:14the on
12:14the on the whole thing yeah me too and i actually i mean my favorite song has switched throughout the
12:20entire process i was always like oh it's love me back and i was like oh it's give me a
12:23minute and
12:23i was like oh it's little miracle and i was like i just all the songs my kids are selfish
12:28yeah it's
12:29give me minutes on the trailer right uh yes yeah yeah yeah great song yeah and john vaselli from
12:34secondhand serenaded that and just kills it it's so good yeah i mean everyone is is so great and
12:41aaron like helped write and produce the whole album himself yeah i mean like i'm on i'm credited on
12:47the album as a writer producer and aaron was adamant about me doing that i felt like a fraud
12:53to be honest because like i sure it's like the ip of the movie i wrote but like in reality
12:59aaron
13:00aaron did the work and like i we used a lot of my personal stories as like for him to
13:06make fun of
13:07and like called me and would be like what what stupid story like what idiot things did you do
13:12and i'd be like oh well i used to do this and he's like great that's great
13:16perfect
13:17but yeah i mean like he he he initially sang on all the tracks and like put it all together
13:25and then uh as we brought people in it was kind of like he would send them the track
13:32and then without vocals and people would just you know sing and come in on it but yeah he talented
13:37dude to be honest yeah nice yeah that's that's amazing what a what a great just by dm yeah it
13:44wild
13:45right like um yeah it's hard for me to like actually think about that actually working because it just
13:51never does yeah um so i don't know maybe maybe the airplane situation is just lucky it's got to stalk
13:59your favorite celeb and wait till they're in the perfect position and then yeah oh i do it all the
14:03time but yeah aaron's the only one who's gotten back to me yet yet yeah yeah so far
14:12uh so okay so um when you are uh making this movie there's a lot of uh kind of intenseness
14:21to it it
14:21kind of gets a little scary and scott cohen who we i only knew from gilmore girls really and then
14:27he
14:27kind of i did a batman came out and um uh he kind of i was like oh okay i
14:32can see this what uh what
14:33was that experience like bringing him on and working with him scott is like a dear friend at
14:40this point but that that was a cool experience it was just like we didn't know who to cast for
14:48don
14:48we had like a million people on our list of just like it could be anyone it could be like
14:54everyone
14:55brought a different flavor in our brains of like what that character was to me and um his energy
15:05uh he basically he acted in this movie that my friend joanna uh arno made which you were in which
15:12i was in for like a second really um and it's uh like the feeling the feeling that the time
15:19for
15:19doing something has passed is the title it's very yes i wasn't gonna try that movie is incredible
15:25it's so funny and joanna is like a brilliant brilliant filmmaker but that movie watching scott
15:32and that i was like oh scott's really interesting and phenomenal and i asked our casting director
15:39patricia what she thought of scott and she's like oh i love scott he's amazing and so i texted joanna
15:43just being like what was it like working with scott and she just gave the highest praise for him and
15:48yeah it was like really quick turnaround because we were just getting close to filming and i was like
15:52you know scott and i i think we either had a zoom or something but he said yes he came
15:59he didn't say
16:00yes till we were already filming actually so and same with leslie the girl who plays leslie uh was
16:07cast like i was doing casting sessions during filming and that's not a headache at all as a director oh
16:14yeah it's like yeah during our lunch break going and like being like yeah um oh great take yeah
16:23but it was it was great it was like scott showed up we met up at the hotel he was
16:28staying at and we
16:29basically just had like a meeting and got to know each other and we just had like a great playful
16:34relationship on set he would always like dog on me in character and like leave me notes of like
16:40you're doing a terrible job directing today in my locker and i mean i just like i really i really
16:47love scott he's one of the kindest people and you know after rapping him ashby who plays joey and i
16:54went out to eat for like three hours and he just was just like the kindest sweetest man it was
16:59it was
17:00awesome it was you know that's like the best part of making movies is like the stuff on set and
17:05things like that it's like the rest of the stuff that's brutal so now so you know you wrote this
17:13thing it was you filmed it a while ago maybe two years ago at this point yeah yeah and it
17:18took a
17:18while to find a home i found a home it's released it's on anywhere you can rent movies yep and
17:26now
17:26that it's kind of here and behind you how you feeling i you know for the first time in a
17:35while
17:35i feel really good about the movie i i think the only time i don't feel happy if i'm being
17:43fully
17:44transparent and honest is like i when like you just get those moments where it's like success looks
17:52different for everyone and it's always going to look different and you know to no fault of anyone
17:59right like i think most people get excited when they see something on netflix or something which
18:04that could still happen it's like windows like it's like the first window of release it's
18:10touring a little bit with emo night and it's also doing like the buy rent the movie online until it
18:17goes to a streamer and i'm just like for the first time in a while i think for mean spirit
18:21i was
18:22insecure about the movie and afraid because i felt like a fraud knowing that like i didn't know horror
18:28movies enough so like if that makes any sense i just like i think on this one like i just
18:35feel
18:35like it's at least like truly my pov and identity that i am really proud of and i like no
18:41matter what
18:41if people don't like it that's totally okay but i at least know that like if someone relates to it
18:46on the way that i do it feels similar to how i felt when i released youth men which was
18:52like
18:52if you grew up in this i think yeah youth men rules i grew up as a youth group kid
18:57yeah yeah and it's
18:58like i think that's like and like i don't think the movie's like perfect but i do think it's like
19:01a
19:01thing where it's like oh we all are like we can all laugh at this together and i think in
19:07some ways
19:08that's kind of what mooch is it's like i'm willing to like look like an idiot for the sake of
19:13hopefully people getting entertainment out of it and hopefully finding the story entertaining and
19:18interesting um and i don't know if that's the best way to go about it but i at least like
19:23i'm really
19:23proud of mooch so i'm very happy with the release of that perfect love it what what's next i have
19:33a
19:33mockumentary i'm trying to make which is uh it's about serial killers nice is that that's why serial mom
19:39is all up in your letterbox every day i know i at one point i remember you asking me if
19:45if i was
19:46making uh an erotic thriller because i was yeah that's right yeah no i just haven't seen the palma
19:52movies but yeah serial mom i was like i think i was watching it every day for a while and
20:02dropped it
20:02gorgeous as well it's basically those two movies combined yeah nice and yeah it's psychotic and weird
20:08but and yeah i don't know i mean i'm like i'm really trying to also get jobs as like as
20:14an actor
20:15i'm trying to like advocate that because i think a lot of people think that i don't want to act
20:18in
20:18other people's things because i'm like always doing my own things but in reality it's just like
20:24i just don't like waiting around so like i'm i'm actively trying to like figure out what my life
20:30looks like i don't know so don't ask google about statistics of success rate because it's
20:40well that's uh with this next new mockumentary that sounds fantastic thank you so much for taking
20:45the time today to meet with me and um everyone go watch mooch oh my gosh joel thank you so
20:50much i
20:50you know grateful of course
20:52you