Jason Reitman is smart, puckish, and thoroughly delighted with his first feature film, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING. He should be. The adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s skewering of politics and political correctness is a perfect reflection of its writer/director. There is something to offend just about everyone in THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, even foodies, and that’s… Read More »
Wayne Wang Translates SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
Wayne Wang started his career with films exploring the Chinese experience, most notably, CHAN IS MISSING, an indie hit about a cab driver in San Francisco’s Chinatown. After a sojourn working in studio films such as THE JOY LUCK CLUB and then THE LAST HOLIDAY, he returned to his indie and ethnic roots with THE PRINCESS… Read More »
Todd Haynes Reimagines MILDRED PIERCE
Todd Haynes took on an icon when he decided to film MILDRED PIERCE. Even though his adaptation sticks to the James M. Cain novel with a loving fidelity, he was surprised by how much spectre of Joan Crawford in the title role of Michael Curtiz’s classic noir still looms. Addressing that issue when I spoke… Read More »
Danny Boyle’s 127 HOURS
Based on Between A Rock and A Hard Place, the book Aron Ralston wrote about his ordeal of being trapped in a slot canyon by a massive boulder pinning his hand, 127 HOURS was conceived by director/co-screenwriter Danny Boyle as a spiritual journey of a man forced to confront the solitary existence he had chosen for himself.… 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 »
Danny Boyle Translates SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
I talked to Danny Boyle on October 24, 2008, as the presidential campaign was in its final stretch, perhaps that was the reason politics was so much on Boyle’s mind during our talk about his latest film, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. From the innately American impulse to root for the underdog, to the practice of democracy in… Read More »
Robert Pattinson Enters the TWILIGHT
When I talked with Robert Pattinson on November 10, 2008, about playing Edward, the hunky vampire in TWILIGHT, that film had just sold out around 100 of its first screenings almost two weeks before its opening. He modestly refused to take any personal credit for that, even though he had been mobbed more than once… Read More »
Sarah Gavron Visits BRICK LANE
When I spoke to Sarah Gavron at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 25, 2008, her film, BRICK LANE, was screening and she was anxious to find out what Bay Area audiences would make of it. She needn’t have worried, but then, worry was part of the process of bringing Monica Ali’s novel to… Read More »
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