“The Outfit” Director Graham Moore on His Meticulous, Mobbed-Up Debut
Graham Moore, who won both an Oscar and a Writers Guild of America award for his adaptation of The Imitation Game, has joined a growing list of scribes going behind the camera to helm a production. The Outfit, his feature film directorial debut, has arrived, which the longtime scribe co-wrote with Jonathan McClain.
The movie follows a highly skilled English tailor, played by Academy Award winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies),
MPA Creator Award Recipient Writer/Director Nikyatu Jusu on her Stunning Debut Feature “Nanny”
Deploying West African folklore to interrogate the myth of the American dream, writer/director Nikyatu Jusu‘s debut feature Nanny is a remarkably assured genre-melding experience. Nanny also gives viewers something that’s sadly still quite rare—it evocatively places us inside the head, heart, and aching soul of Aisha (Anna Diop), an undocumented Senegalese immigrant trying to navigate the mystifying codes of the United States to create a stable place to bring her son,
Director Ben Proudfoot on his Oscar-Nominated Short “The Queen of Basketball”
Lusia “Lucy” Harris’s basketball resume includes leading Delta State University in Mississippi to three consecutive national titles and representing the US at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. She made history as the first woman to score a basket at the Olympics as she led the team to a silver medal and became one of the first two women inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Her trailblazing feats in the 1970s so impressed NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal that he signed on as executive producer of The Queen of Basketball,
“Jockey” Director Clint Bentley on Finding the Right Narrative Track
Director Clint Bentley and his co-writer Greg Kwedar always wanted Jockey to sit in that sweet spot between gritty naturalism and emotional lyricism. Coming from a documentary background, the filmmakers worked hard to “get best of both worlds,” said Bentley. It began with the old-fashioned legwork of observing the rituals and characters at the track where they shot Jockey and earning the trust of the real-life trainers and riders whose stories and lives are the backbone of the film.
How “The Dress” Went from a Short College Film to an Oscar Nominee
Writer/director Tadeusz Lysiak didn’t plan on being nominated for a Best Short Film Live Action Academy Award when he started developing the script for The Dress while attending Warsaw Film School. The indie film is rife with emotion and puts an authentic lens on loneliness and sexuality through the eyes of Julka (Anna Dzieduszycka), a hotel maid short in stature with a very large desire to find love.
The story allegorically mixes isolation and intimacy through a protagonist normally not seen as a sexual object.
Writer/Director Jared Frieder’s Long Journey to Make “Three Months” Starring Troye Sivan
Imagine what you would do if, at one of the most pivotal moments in your life, you find out you’re at risk for a life-threatening disease? Jared Frieder turned the experience into a movie. That movie, Three Months, is out today on Paramount+.
Three Months, a funny and touching coming-of-age story, tells the story of Caleb (Troye Sivan), an unruly, gay high school senior who is days away from graduation and ready to pursue his dream of becoming a photographer.
“Uncharted” Director Ruben Fleischer on His Epic Adventure With Tom Holland
The first time we see treasure hunter Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) in his element he’s knocked unconscious. When he wakes, he realizes his foot is caught in the netting of loose airplane cargo that’s whipping in the air like a tail on a kite. The timely snag has saved his life. He murmurs one of his famous Drake-isms: “Oh, crap.”
Director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland) is at the helm of Uncharted (in theaters February 18),
Director Sacha Jenkins on Confronting Racism in “everything’s gonna be all white”
Midway through Black History Month, Sacha Jenkins‘ documentary series everything’s gonna be all white debuted on Feb. 11 on Showtime. Introducing itself as “A tale of two Americas, one white, one not,” the three-part show offers a sprawling group portrait of Black, Native American, Korean-American, Puerto Rican, Afro-Peruvian, South Asian, and other citizens of color who go before the camera to offer their unvarnished views on racism in the United States,
“Marry Me” Director Kat Coiro on Refueling the Rom-Com With J. Lo
February is the month of Galantine’s and Valentine’s Day, and both are the perfect time for the new musical rom-com Marry Me, which stars Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, and Maluma and hits theaters and Peacock on February 11. The story begins as pop superstar Kat Valdez (Lopez) and fiancé, Latin singing sensation Bastian (Maluma), are preparing to marry onstage. The fans and everybody else on the globe are invited, as it will be live-streamed during a concert.
“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” Directors & Writer/Producer on Relearning American History
The documentary Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America has won numerous awards at fests across the country, including the Audience Award at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, and boasts a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is based on criminal defense and civil rights lawyer Jeffery Robinson’s work relearning American history and sharing knowledge that includes events and episodes either erased from in history books or never included in the first place.
“Drive My Car” Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi on His Moving Portrait of Life’s Twists & Turns
One of the most intriguing cinematic journeys of 2021 emanates from Japan and is aptly named Drive My Car.
A mesmerizing sojourn that exactingly unfolds over a three-hour running time, the film follows acclaimed actor and theatre director Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), beginning with his unorthodox marriage to Oto (Reika Kirishima), before segueing to a stage production he is directing of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. The latter brings him together with Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura),
How the “Scream” Team Created The Best Film in the Franchise Since The Original
How do you create the fifth film in a beloved slasher franchise that’s both a nod to everything that’s come before, a clever meta-commentary on horror films and toxic fandom, and something that’s entirely your own? This was one of the questions we put to Scream directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and their producing partner and the third member of their Radio Silence triumvirate, Chad Villella. The trio has once again brought the same passion that imbued their last outing,
“Ray Donovan: The Movie” Writer/Director David Hollander Gets Inside the Anti-Hero’s Head One Last Time
When Ray Donovan debuted on Showtime in 2013, Liev Schreiber introduced the character as a brooding fixer who uses a baseball bat to make problems go away for shallow celebrities and sleazy Hollywood moguls. But over the course of seven seasons, the one thing Donovan could never fix was his own broken family, headed by the charming but awful con artist father Mickey (Jon Voight).
In February 2020, Showtime dumped the series without warning.
Best of 2021: Director Barry Jenkins Mixes Beauty and Brutality in “The Underground Railroad”
This interview is part of our highly subjective, decidedly non-comprehensive “Best of 2021” year-end list. It was originally published on May 12.
The Underground Railroad has been a long time coming in Barry Jenkins‘ imagination. As a kid growing up in Miami’s rough Liberty City neighborhood, the writer-director pictured literal railroad tracks running beneath the earth. Fast forward to 2014, when Jenkins thrilled to Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and secured adaptation rights even before he’d finished promoting his Oscar-winning Moonlight movie.
Best of 2021: “Passing” Writer/Director Rebecca Hall On Navigating the Complicated History of Racial Identity
This interview is part of our highly subjective, decidedly non-comprehensive “Best of 2021” year-end list. It was originally published on November 30.
The complexity of bringing a thematically laced film like Passing to the screen isn’t a simple one. For Rebecca Hall, who makes her directorial debut, it was also a personal journey, “an extended catharsis” that allowed her “to get to the bottom of a lot of mysteries” in her family.
Best of 2021: Aaron Sorkin on Having a Ball Making “Being the Ricardos”
This interview is part of our highly subjective, decidedly non-comprehensive “Best of 2021” year-end list. It was originally published on December 10.
You might think the opportunity to write a film about the legendary Lucille Ball would have been irresistible for Aaron Sorkin, but he wasn’t immediately convinced. “It took me about 18 months to say yes, to commit to it,” Sorkin says of the project that would eventually become Being the Ricardos,
“Red Rocket” Writer/Director Sean Baker & His Cast On Their Charmingly Offbeat Comedy
Sean Baker, indie writer/director of award winners Tangerine and The Florida Project, has been very successful in creating narratives that feel authentic. Determined to always film on location, never on a soundstage, and a champion of hiring locals and newcomers in featured roles, he has employed guerrilla filmmaking and made more than one career for his performers. You can never see a Sean Baker movie coming,
Aaron Sorkin on Having a Ball Making “Being the Ricardos”
You might think the opportunity to write a film about the legendary Lucille Ball would have been irresistible for Aaron Sorkin, but he wasn’t immediately convinced. “It took me about 18 months to say yes, to commit to it,” Sorkin says of the project that would eventually become Being the Ricardos, his propulsive new film that takes us through a week of production on the set of I Love Lucy,
“C’mon C’mon” Writer/Director Mike Mills on Creating a Space For Intimacy
When it comes to family, we all have our own story. In C’mon C’mon, from writer/director Mike Mills, we connect with a tale not often told, one that drops us in the living room of a sister and brother who have been living their own adult lives on separate coasts and slowly drifting apart from each other. When her husband has an abrupt mental health issue, she asks her brother to step in to watch their child while she attempts to piece back their marriage.
“Passing” Writer/Director Rebecca Hall On Navigating the Complicated History of Racial Identity
The complexity of bringing a thematically laced film like Passing to the screen isn’t a simple one. For Rebecca Hall, who makes her directorial debut, it was also a personal journey, “an extended catharsis” that allowed her “to get to the bottom of a lot of mysteries” in her family.
The story, which is adapted by Hall from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, follows two Black women, Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga),
