Shira Dubrovner left behind a successful career in the film business to return to Mammoth Lakes and, eventually, to found the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, now in its third year (May 24-28) It was one of the things I asked her about when we spoke on May 18, 2017, but it wasn’t the first. That… Read More »
Perry Blackshear, MacLeod Andrews & Evan Dumouchel Insist that THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE
THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE is a first-rate existential horror film, as well as a psychological thriller. I got the same vibe watching it that I had gotten watching PI and BRICK, the maiden efforts of Darren Aronofsky and Rian Johnson respectively. Writer/director Perry Blackshear understands more than just how to create evocative, even sumptuous, visuals, he knows… Read More »
John C. Reilly Makes Beautiful Music in CYRUS
When I spoke with John C. Reilly about CYRUS on June 22, 2010, the first thing I wanted to ask him about was why the improvisational style used by the Duplass Brothers was so appealing to him. The script is more like an outline, with the actors creating the dialogue on the spot, and the first take usually… Read More »
Brit Marling & Zal Batmanglij Listen to the SOUND OF MY VOICE
For co-writers Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling, making SOUND OF MY VOICE wasn’t just a labor of love, but one of passion. Batmaglij directed and Marling stars as Maggie, the enigmatic leader of a cult who claims to have come from the future to save her followers in a film that lets the audience decide… Read More »
Hal Hartley & Parker Posey Revive FAY GRIM
The only room to be found in the shared suite was the cramped bedroom, and so Hartley, Posey, and I stretched out amid my recording equipment on the bed to chat about art, politics, and the effect of eye contact on and off the screen.