Click here to listen to the interview. I started my conversation with Paul Dano with the obvious question, what was it about Richard Ford’s book of the same name that made him want WILDLIFE to be his feature film debut. As with all his answers, Dano replied thoughtfully. Even moreso when we moved on to… Read More »
ALL NIGHTER — Gavin Wiesen Interview
I spoke with Gary Wiesen by phone on March 24, 2017, the day his film, ALL NIGHTER, opened in San Francisco. It’s his first comedy, but briskly executed with a true feel for not just the humor, but also the underlying pathos of a father seeking out his estranged daughter with the help of her… Read More »
LA LA LAND — Damien Chazelle & Justin Hurwitz Interview
I had the distinction of being the first interview for writer/director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz on LA LA LAND press tour. Not just in San Francisco, but nationally. It was, I joked, a heavy responsibility. It was not the only first for them that day, as noted later in the conversation. The pair… Read More »
DON’T THINK TWICE
At one point in Mike Birbiglia’s DON’T THINK TWICE, a character opines that your 20s are for hope, and your 30s are for realizing how dumb that hope was. Yet this finely observed tragi-comedy of art, commerce, and finding happiness takes a more compassionate view of its characters, an improv group that is having the… Read More »
Mike Birbiglia Says DON’T THINK TWICE
I met Mike Birbiglia at an improv school in San Francisco’s Mission District where he had just taught a class despite coming down with a cold. As art imitating life imitating art, it was ideal. His film, DON’T THINK TWICE, follows an improv troupe whose members are about to be thrust into the next stage… Read More »
Josh Mond and Christopher Abbott Introduce Us to JAMES WHITE
Josh Mond believes in the collective approach to filmmaking. As co-founder of Borderline Films, he and partners Antonio Campos and Sean Durkin produce each other’s films, which include Campos’ SIMON KILLER andDurkin’s MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. With JAMES WHITE, Mond takes his turn behind the camera, and, when I spoke with him and WHITE’s co-star,… Read More »
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu is BIUTIFUL
Until now Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu has made films that feature multiple story lines of people in crisis. With BIUTIFUL, he follows one story from beginning to end, but loses none of the complexity or richness of his previous work. It also incorporates part of his own experience of feeling a brush with death. When I… Read More »