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 »
Chiwetel Ejiofor Dons KINKY BOOTS
Chiwetel Ejiofor is a charming man with an easy laugh. He’s also a man that isn’t afraid to take chances. In KINKY BOOTS he wears stilleto heels higher than many women would attempt and he not only makes it look easy, he makes it look fun. And don’t forget that this is a guy who played… Read More »
The PROTAGONIST of Jessica Yu
Jessica Yu’s mind works in unconventional ways, hence her documentary, PROTAGONIST, which starts with the works of Euripides and ends up considering human nature in all its dazzling complexity. When I talked with her on November 29, 2007, the conversation took on why puppets are so potent, tracking down an ex-terrorist, and the gender differences… Read More »