The one question I knew I wasn’t going to ask the team behind THE DUNNING MAN was the one about that Oscar™-winning film that shares a name with DUNNING MAN’s director/screenwriter, Michael Clayton. Instead, when I spoke with Clayton, writer Kevin Fortuna, editor Ian Blume by phone on March 6, 2017, I started the conversation by… Read More »
LATTER DAYS
Oh no, it’s another film about a religious good boy moving to the big bad city and discovering that he’s gay. I know, it sounds awful in that we’ve seen this a gazillion times sense, but LATTER DAYS is a cut above the rest for its gentle message about finding the strength to see other… Read More »
GARDEN STATE
Only rarely does a film as profound, as rich, and as deeply affecting as GARDEN STATE come along. Even more rarely is it the handiwork of a first-time filmmaker. That would be Zack Braff, known for his role as the philosophically harried intern on the subversively wicked comedy, Scrubs. Braff is Andrew Largeman, a struggling… Read More »
KINSEY
KINSEY opens with the face of Peter Sarsgaard in close-up looking directly into the camera and asking questions of a sexual nature. An offscreen voice stops him when he uses a euphemism for a sexual act. No, says the voice that we will shortly learn is Kinseys, it wont work unless you are completely straightforward,… Read More »
THE HELP
THE HELP, based on the novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett, gently but firmly peels away they dry rot of racism that festered beneath the gracious, etiquette obsessed façade of southern gentility before the civil rights movement. What is remarkable, and a remarkably difficult line to walk, is that it does so while… Read More »
Jay C. Cox Reveals LATTER DAYS
LATTER DAYS is a film that is funny, moving, and that far exceeds expectations. So does its writer/director, C. Jay Cox. I’ve rarely chatted with anyone so engaging and so wickedly funny. But don’t be fooled, this is an inteligent, thoughtful guy who has the worldview that can only the found in a gay Hollywood screenwriter who… Read More »
Bill Condon Studies KINSEY
A word of warning. Like KINSEY, the film he wrote and directed, Bill Condon is direct when discussing the research that his title character carried out on human sexuality. Also like the film, it’s done with erudition, insight, and spiced with a pointed wit. When we spoke on October 28, 2004, the converstation naturally turned to… Read More »
Michael Hoffman at THE LAST STATION
Idealism and living those ideals in the real world is only one of the intriguing issues that screenwriter/director Michael Hoffman wrestled with in adapting THE LAST STATION from the book by Jay Parini to the screen. When I talked to Michael Hoffman on January 6, 2010, he explained how he used Anton Checkov to get… Read More »
CRASH With Ryan Phillppe and Paul Haggis
CRASH represents a sea change in careers moves for many of the people involved, not the least director and co-writer Paul Haggis, a veteran of television sitcoms. The provocative story of anger, fear, and race relations in contemporary Los Angeles also provides Ryan Phillippe with one of his best roles in years, maybe the best… Read More »
George A. Romero Insures the SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
When I talked with horror icon George A. Romero on May 13, 2010, it was hard to know where to begin, considering his first feature, 1968’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, earned a place on the Library of Congress’ film register in 1999. I decided to lead with the metaphorical aspect of his latest film, SURVIVAL OF THE… Read More »