News Byte: New York Tech Alum’s Film Makes Its Theater Debut

Standing Up, Falling Down, a new movie by Peter Hoare (B.F.A. ’05), is being released in February 2020 in theaters and on streaming services, after premiering at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.

The movie, a comedy-drama, was filmed largely on location in Long Beach, on Long Island, where Hoare wrote the screenplay. It tells a story of an unlikely friendship that develops between Scott, an unsuccessful stand-up comedian (played by actor Ben Schwartz) who is forced to move from Los Angeles back to his parent’s house on Long Island, and Marty, a charismatic alcoholic dermatologist, played by Billy Crystal. Together, the two characters try to help each other face the failures in their lives. 

“I wrote a million things, some were optioned, some were sold,” Hoare said about his film in an interview with Newsday prior to its release. “I was hired to write a few things that never shot. It’s a weird business. This is the first movie I’ve been 100 percent in love with.”

Hoare was also a writer for the television show Kevin Can Wait, which ran from 2016-2018, and was a writer on 30 of the 48 episodes that aired. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2017 movie Killing Hasselhoff and worked for several years as a producer with MTV’s digital arm.

To date, Standing Up, Falling Down has received a score of 93 on the ratings site Rotten Tomatoes.