Click here for the flashback interview with Brett Haley and Katharine Ross for THE HERO. Timing is everything, as we learn in Brett Haley’s HEARTS BEAT LOUD, an irresistible, perfectly balanced comedy-drama about love, loss, and that old truism about the only constant that we can count on is change. It’s also Nick Offerman being… Read More »
A FANTASTIC WOMAN — Daniela Vega and Sebastián Lelio Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. When I spoke with Chile’s Sebastián Lelio and Daniela Vega for the Oscar-nominated A FANTASTIC WOMAN on January 9th, 2018, I started with the obvious question, why a film with a transgender protagonist, and why Daniela, who started the project as a consultant before becoming its star. We… Read More »
I SAW THE LIGHT — Tom Hiddleston & Marc Abraham Interview
When I spoke with Tom Hiddleston and Marc Abraham on April 1, 2016, I was less interested in how Hiddleston pared even more weight from his already slender frame to better approximate Hank Williams skeletal build, or the five weeks he spent with a country music artist Rodney Crowell in order to absorb the atmosphere of… Read More »
SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION You Will Be Glad to Have Made
Seymour Bernstein is a one of a kind. A brilliant pianist who preferred composing to performing. A teacher who brings out the genius in his students, and a philosopher whose life only appears to be a Spartan one. When we spoke by phone on March 11, 2015, I was delighted to be able to ask… Read More »
Laurie Anderson Shares the HEART OF A DOG
Where oh where to start when talking to Laurie Anderson? A performance artist, musician, actress, filmmaker, first NASA artist-in-residence, and all around great soul, she was in San Francisco to talk about her new film, HEART OF A DOG, a film that uses her dog Lola Belle’s life and death as a touchstone for a… Read More »
The WHIPLASH of Damien Chazelle
When I met Damien Chazelle, one of the first things I said to him was that his film WHIPLASH had to be one of the sweatiest movies ever made, up there with BEN HUR and COOL HAND LUKE. He laughed and said he was pleased to have filled such a niche market. That’s the kind of guy… Read More »
David Burris — THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT
When I spoke with David Burris on December 18, 2014, one of the things I most wanted to talk to him about was getting the accents right in THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT. It’s set in North Carolina, and he used actors from such far-flung places as Australia, England, and Los Angeles. We went on to… Read More »
PIRATE RADIO
What PIRATE RADIO does that is so remarkable is to capture as closely as a film can what it was like to be a fan of rock & roll at a time when it was considered not just noise, but actual subversion. Of course, in a way it was. This music was the anthem of… Read More »
VITUS
The secret life of children is fertile territory. The unsullied logic of those for whom preconceived notions and ossified received wisdom are phenomenon yet to come make for a piquant commentary on both. The innocence, the unrestrained emotion, and the intellect unfettered by the conventions of society are a potent combination in VITUS, a delightful… Read More »
Richard Curtis Captures PIRATE RADIO
Richard Curtis had more than just multiple story lines to juggle with PIRATE RADIO, he also had a cast afloat on a boat that was at the mercy of the whims of the ocean. When we talked on October 21, 2009, the question of seasickness was inevitable. The real topic was music, and the revolutionary… Read More »