The battle of the sexes takes a decidedly different turn in INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS, and so when I talked with its star, Brenda Blethyn, and its director, Cherie Nowlan on June 25, 2007, how men and women react to the film was top of my list of things to ask them. Along the way, Blethyn bragged… Read More »
Sandra Nettlebeck Cooks Up MOSTLY MARTHA
Inevitably, food was going to come up while talking with Sandra Nettlebeck, and when it did, she helped me to understand the different religions, as she put it, of French and Italian cooking when we chatted about MOSTLY MARTHA in 2002. Being in charge, identifying blind spots, and the separating herself from her characters were… Read More »
Jeffrey Blitz and Reece Daniel Thomspon Explain ROCKET SCIENCE
When I spoke to Jeffrey Blitz and Reece Daniel Thompson on May 4, 2007, the buzz about ROCKET SCIENCE had just begun. In town for a screening at the San Francisco International Film Festival, they had just completed a sword-buying trip to Chinatown before our scheduled appointment and worries had set in about how the swords… Read More »
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Goode and Scott Frank are on THE LOOKOUT
Scott Frank’s script for THE LOOKOUT had been around for a decade or so before he found a way to have it made with him as the director. When I talked to him and co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode on March 14, 2007, he seemed to think it was worth the wait. With both… Read More »
Leila Conners Peterson on THE 11TH HOUR
When I talked with Leila Conners Petersen on August 8, 2007, the thing I most wanted to discuss was how her film, THE 11TH HOUR, >wasn’t< a rehashing of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Both deal with humankind’s effect on the environment, but Petersen and her filmmaking partners, Nadia Conners and Leonardo DiCaprio, wanted to do more… Read More »
Edward Espe Brown Explains HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
I’ve owned a copy of the Tassajara Bread book for over a decade and so it was pretty much inevitable that when I spoke to its author, Edward Espé Brown, on October 8, 2007, the subject of baking the perfect loaf would come up. But first, I needed to cover the illusion of perfection, the metaphor… Read More »
Laura Linney & THE SAVAGES
Laura Linney can raise the cinematic IQ of any film in which she appears by at least 50 points. The same ravishing blend of smarts, wit, and sponteneity is equally apparent in person. When I talked with her on October 5, 2007, about THE SAVAGES, I was finally able to ask her about something I’d always… Read More »
Tony Gilroy Pulls the Strings on MICHAEL CLAYTON
Tony Gilroy is no stranger to the inner workings of law firms. He researched how things operated while writing the screenplay for THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE, but with MICHAEL CLAYTON, which marks his directorial debut, he kept things strictly out of the supernatural realm while still exploring the evil at work in the world. When we… Read More »
Mitchell Lichtenstein Sharpens His TEETH
If there is any truth to the old saying that any publicity is good publicity, Mitchell Lichtenstein is on to something with his feature film debut, TEETH. The writer/director and erstwhile actor decided to go beyond the metaphor of the vagina dentata, and deal directly with that myth, the one that has haunted men though… Read More »
IN BRUGES with Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh has the same sort of dark, yet whimsical sense of humor with which his film IN BRUGES, is rife. When I talked with him on January 30, 2008, the twisted way in which he examines morality was top of my list of thing I wanted to discuss, as well as the redefinition of… Read More »