Click here to listen to the interview. To say that Nicole Riegel quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson during our conversation via zoom on June 26, 2024, made my day is an understatement. It was wonderful to discover that the writer/director of DANDELION and I were both Emerson nerds, and, for me, it explains part of why… Read More »
BACK TO BLACK
Any success enjoyed by the Amy Winehouse biopic, BACK TO BLACK, rests squarely on the frail shoulders of the actress playing the singer, Marisa Abela. With an outsized presence like Winehouse herself, Abela channels Winehouse’s violence and vulnerability, making her at once a lost little girl and a musical powerhouse who refused to be pigeonholed… Read More »
MUSICA
Rudy Mancuso (played by . . . Rudy Mancuso) lives in a slightly different universe than the rest of us. Where we hear the rumble of city life, Rudy hears rhythm and music. Where we see people going about their daily lives, Rudy sees syncopated choreography. And that’s the universe that Mancuso, as director and… Read More »
FINDING YOU
FINDING YOU is the quintessence of YA fiction brought to cinematic life. In it, our ordinary, yet winsome heroine, Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid) is pursued by a famous movie star, is the only hope of settling a decades-long family feud, and puts all the snooty girls in her orbit in their respective places. All while… Read More »
HEARTS BEAT LOUD
Click here for the flashback interview with Brett Haley and Katharine Ross for THE HERO. Timing is everything, as we learn in Brett Haley’s HEARTS BEAT LOUD, an irresistible, perfectly balanced comedy-drama about love, loss, and that old truism about the only constant that we can count on is change. It’s also Nick Offerman being… Read More »
A FANTASTIC WOMAN — Daniela Vega and Sebastián Lelio Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. When I spoke with Chile’s Sebastián Lelio and Daniela Vega for the Oscar-nominated A FANTASTIC WOMAN on January 9th, 2018, I started with the obvious question, why a film with a transgender protagonist, and why Daniela, who started the project as a consultant before becoming its star. We… Read More »
I SAW THE LIGHT — Tom Hiddleston & Marc Abraham Interview
When I spoke with Tom Hiddleston and Marc Abraham on April 1, 2016, I was less interested in how Hiddleston pared even more weight from his already slender frame to better approximate Hank Williams skeletal build, or the five weeks he spent with a country music artist Rodney Crowell in order to absorb the atmosphere of… Read More »
SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION You Will Be Glad to Have Made
Seymour Bernstein is a one of a kind. A brilliant pianist who preferred composing to performing. A teacher who brings out the genius in his students, and a philosopher whose life only appears to be a Spartan one. When we spoke by phone on March 11, 2015, I was delighted to be able to ask… Read More »
Laurie Anderson Shares the HEART OF A DOG
Where oh where to start when talking to Laurie Anderson? A performance artist, musician, actress, filmmaker, first NASA artist-in-residence, and all around great soul, she was in San Francisco to talk about her new film, HEART OF A DOG, a film that uses her dog Lola Belle’s life and death as a touchstone for a… Read More »
The WHIPLASH of Damien Chazelle
When I met Damien Chazelle, one of the first things I said to him was that his film WHIPLASH had to be one of the sweatiest movies ever made, up there with BEN HUR and COOL HAND LUKE. He laughed and said he was pleased to have filled such a niche market. That’s the kind of guy… Read More »