Steven Soderbergh’s signature style is one of cool detachment to his characters. His films tackle people in crisis, but the tone is always one of an ersatz cinema verité witness to what is happening to them. In PRESENCE, he has channeled that aesthetic into a ghost story told from the spirit’s point of view. Literally.… Read More »
THE LESSON
There are murky waters, literally and figuratively, in THE LESSON, a languid tragedy of manners about family dynamics and career neuroses. At its center are Liam Somers (Daryl McCormack), a brilliant literature tutor struggling to complete his first novel, and the subject of Liam’s Oxford thesis, the revered writer, J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant). To… Read More »
Ravi and Geeta Patel Want You to MEET THE PATELS
I have rarely laughed as much as I did when I spoke to Ravi and Geeta Patel on August 13, 2015, it was by Skype, with me in San Francisco, Geeta in North Carolina, and Ravi in Hollywood, but the rapport made it seem like we were all in the same room. The subject was… Read More »
Todd Solondz Explains LIFE DURING WARTIME
Todd Solondz was just finishing up his oatmeal when we were introduced on July 21, 2010. With a such a wholesome and solid breakfast under his belt, he was more than ready to talk about LIFE DURING WARTIME, a film that uses the idiom of wholesomeness and savagely juxtaposes it with lives rife with anguish,… Read More »
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris & LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Johnathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are partners is life (as in married) and in business (as in successful makers of commercials for umpteen years). Maybe it took such a combination to bring LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE to the screen without slighting either the family angle of the story, or the sly visual vocabulary used to portray… Read More »