Click here to listen to the interview. Nia DaCosta’s adaptation of Henrick Ibsen’s play HEDDA is the most dynamic, the most arresting, and the most suspenseful version I’ve ever seen. It’s not just that she’s moves the action to the 1950s England, nor that she’s added queer identity to the mix of what may or… Read More »
BIOSPHERE — Mel Eslyn Interview
Click here to listen to the interview on PRX. Mel Eslyn has worked for Mark Duplass’s production company for many years, listening as he bounced ideas for movies off her, but when he pitched the idea that would become BIOSPHERE, something happened for Esleyn. We talked about that when we spoke via Zoom on July… Read More »
BIOSPHERE
Click here to listen to the interview with director/co-writer Mel Eslyn. At the beginning of BIOSPHERE, the world as we know it has ended, leaving only two human beings left alive. They are Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), and they have gone from being the apex species on the planet to finding… Read More »
SETTLERS — Wyatt Rockefeller Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Wyatt Rockefeller knew from a very early age that his future was in filmmaking, but before making his feature-film directorial debut with SETTLERS, he took a detour into public service in the Obama administration. We got to that later in conversation with him on July 20, 2021. A… Read More »
SCALES (Sayyedat al-Bahr) — Shahad Ameen Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. SCALES, the first feature film from Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen, is about Hayat, played with quiet intensity by Basima Hajjar, who is rescued as an infant by her father from her desolate island’s traditional sacrifice of daughters. As a result, her father is mocked, and she grows up… Read More »
THE ASSIGNMENT
The subject matter in Walter Hill’s THE ASSIGNMENT will make half the audience cringe in a way that the other half, no matter how empathetic, won’t be able to fully understand. And that’s sly. This brutal exercise in gender studies, masquerading as a biting action-noir fable, is rife with irony and with bald truths designed… Read More »
LITTLE MEN — Ira Sachs & Theo Taplitz Interview
I’m still not convinces that Theo Taplitz >isn’t< a well-preserved 40-year-old masquerading as an adolescent. Still too young to vote, he’s already made two short films that are whimsical, yet solid (click here for links), and given a performance in Ira Sachs’ LITTLE MEN that is wise beyond his years. We started my interview with… Read More »
Alex Garland and EX MACHINA
One of Alex Garland’s goals in writing the script for his directorial debut, EX MACHINA, was to get the science right, even for subjects such as consciousness and artificial intelligence, which are so poorly understood. He vetted the script with experts, refusing to shoehorn the science to make his story work. He’s still smarting from… Read More »
Paul Feig Can Take THE HEAT
My favorite part of talking with Paul Feig about THE HEAT on June 6, 2013 happened right before we started the interview. Having sworn off coffee, he was sipping tea (see photo) and telling me how much he missed a cup o’ java. When I offered to move my coffee where he couldn’t see it,… Read More »
Gurinder Chadha Can BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
When I talked with Gurinder Chadha she was hoarse from talking non-stop about her world-wide hit at the 2003 San Francisco Asian American Film Festival where it had been the opening night film. That didn’t dampen her enthusiasm, which has been going strong for over a year ever since her little film became one of the top… Read More »