“George & Tammy” Creator Abe Sylvia on Crafting a Complicated Love Story
It’s a story that’s been on Abe Sylvia’s mind for a while. The screenwriter of The Eyes of Tammy Faye and writer/producer of such television series as Dead to Me and Nurse Jackie has always had a soft spot for country music. Blame it on his Oklahoma upbringing. And that’s why Sylvia found the story of George Jones and Tammy Wynette too good to resist.
How The “Babylon” Sound Team Built a Sonic Bacchanal
The opening sequence to Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (in theaters today) hits you like one of the many lines of powder its characters will ingest. It’s eye-opening, choreographed chaos, leaving you with an intensely euphoric feeling – quite fitting for a story that revisits Hollywood’s infancy of the 1920s and ‘30s when La La Land was a sandbox of drugs, sex, and all night partying.
It’s here we meet Manny Torres (Diego Calva),
“Devotion” Score Mixer Alvin Wee on Letting the Music & Emotion Take Flight
Growing up in Malaysia, Alvin Wee was drawn to “big action movies” such as the Harry Potter series and Transformers. “I liked sensory overload, the loud, visual spectacle. My favorite movie was Superman with Christopher Reeve. It’s also my favorite score, by John Williams,” says Wee, the Score Mixer on Sony’s Devotion, now in theaters. Wee was also the score mixer for Disney’s Encanto,
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” Animation Supervisor Brian Leif Hansen Packs Puppets With Emotion
Inside a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Portland, a little boy made of wood galvanized efforts by stop motion filmmakers for three years before emerging now to wow moviegoers in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. This dark stop-motion iteration of Carlo Collodi’s 1882 tale, in theaters and streaming on Netflix, takes place in 1930’s Italy, adding Mussolini and forest witches to the story’s signature evil doers: circus master Volpe (voiced by Christoph Waltz) and the monster whale.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Composer Ludwig Göransson on the Score’s Secret Weapon
One of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler’s closest collaborators throughout his entire Marvel journey has been composer Ludwig Göransson. Beginning with Coogler’s 2018 Black Panther, Göransson has been by his side, helping him breathe life into the music and sounds of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Along with other key collaborators like costume designer Ruth E. Carter and production designer Hannah Beachler,
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Hair Department Head Camille Friend on The Sequel’s Stunning Looks
Both 2018’s Black Panther and this year’s Wakanda Forever have hugely impacted popular culture, not least by expanding the acceptance and expression of Afro-Futurism in everything from fashion and hairstyles to architecture. Both production designer Hannah Beachler and costume designer Ruth E. Carter won Oscars for their work on the first film and are in the running for a return to the podium with Wakanda Forever.
“The Whale” Screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter on Hard-Won Hope
In Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Brendan Fraser is transformed so completely he is nearly unrecognizable playing the title character. Fraser has been the frontrunner for Best Actor in the Oscars race since the film received a six-minute standing ovation at its Venice International Film Festival premiere in September.
The film is based on Samuel Hunter’s award-winning 2012 play of the same name, which is inspired by Hunter’s own challenges with eating disorders and growing up gay in the Midwest as part of an evangelical community.
Bringing Stop-Motion Puppets to Life Through Sound in “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
As the Wood Sprite (Tilda Swinton) grants Geppetto’s (David Bradley) grief-stricken wish to bring forth a son from his wood carving, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio draws life where there are only puppets and sound where there is only silence. The hearty revamp of Carlo Collodi’s classic is so engrossing, you may not recognize the meta miracle the movie accomplishes in an inanimate world. However, there are endless marvels to be seen and heard.
“Bardo” Stars Daniel Giménez Cacho & Ximena Lamadrid on Taking a Trip With Alejandro Iñárritu
As with all films written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, the auteur’s new release Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is difficult to define or categorize. He himself has said it is his most personal work, but viewers who love it have felt their own powerful connection to elements of the story. Without question, it is a cinematic experience that goes beyond suspension of disbelief and calls for surrender from its audience.
Shaping Locks & Lives With “We’re Here” Hairstylist Abdiel Urcullu
One would think grammar school teachers and drag queen wigmasters have little in common. But having been both, Abdiel Urcullu can see the similarities.
For the past two years, Urcullu, who previously taught math to 4th and 5th graders, has served as the key hairstylist for the HBO series We’re Here. Debuting in 2020, the reality series follows drag queens Eureka O’Hara, Shangela, and Bob the Drag Queen as they travel to small-town America to encourage a community to get in touch with its inner drag.
“Women Talking” Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on Scoring Sarah Polley’s Astonishing New Film
Based on the novel by Miriam Toews, writer/director Sarah Polley’s new narrative Women Talking considers how a group of women can move forward after the shocking betrayal and abuse by men in their isolated religious community. The backstory of the novel and subsequent film, which is set in 2010, mirrors horrific true events that took place at a Mennonite colony in Bolivia. For over four years, nine men secretly sedated over a hundred girls and women,
Getting Sea Sick With “Triangle of Sadness” Production Designer Josefin Åsberg
Satirical black comedy Triangle of Sadness, writer/director Ruben Östlund’s first English-language feature, debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. The Swedish auteur is known for 2014’s Force Majeure and The Square, which in 2017 also won the Palme d’Or and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Triangle of Sadness, like Östlund’s previous films,
“Bones And All” Writer/Producer David Kajganich on Creating a Consuming Cannibal Love Story
When screenwriter David Kajganich decided to adapt the YA novel Bones And All by Camille DeAngelis, he approached his friend and longtime collaborator, director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), about taking on the project — the two had worked together on Suspiria and A Bigger Splash. Though professional commitments initially prevented Guadagnino from doing so, eventually,
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story” Editor Bob Ducsay on Cutting a Razor Sharp Whodunit
Award-winning editor Bob Ducsay has been cutting blockbusters for decades, including 1999’s The Mummy and 2015’s Godzilla, and has worked with Rian Johnson since 2012’s Looper. He edited both The Last Jedi and Johnson’s first film in the Benoit Blanc series, Knives Out, in 2019. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which hits theaters on November 23 and then Netflix on December 23rd,
“Devotion” Director J.D. Dillard on Leading Jonathan Majors in His Emotional War Epic
The new historic war epic Devotion is based on the bestselling book by Adam Makos of the same name. The true story centers on the first Black aviator in Navy history, Jesse Brown (played by Jonathan Majors), and his fellow fighter pilot Tom Hudner (Glen Powell, who also acts as producer on the film), and their heroic actions during the Korean War.
Director J.D. Dillard, who helms this exciting and emotional film,
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Production Designer Hannah Beachler Reveals Her Guide to Talokan
When Chadwick Boseman died unexpectedly after leading the cast as the title character in 2018’s Black Panther, it shocked and saddened the world. There was, understandably, some doubt as to whether a sequel could succeed without him. What director and co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler did with Wakanda Forever, however, honored the actor’s legacy while balancing the excitement of a Marvel superhero-driven adventure with a story centered on resilience in the face of loss.
How Three-Star Dominique Crenn Chef & Production Designer Ethan Tobman Served Up “The Menu”
Ralph Fiennes stars as a brilliantly deranged chef Julian Slowik in The Menu, but he’s periodically upstaged by gorgeous close-ups of his culinary co-stars, beginning with compressed and pickled cucumber melon, milk snow, and charred lace. That’s the “amuse bouche” served to unsuspecting foodies (including Anya Taylor-Joy, John Leguizamo, and Nicholas Hoult) who gradually find themselves trapped in Chef Julian Slowik’s restaurant from hell.
Inspired by co-writer Will Tracy’s visit to a secluded island restaurant off the coast of Norway a few years ago,
Disney Legend Floyd Norman on the New Doc “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse”
As Walt Disney once famously said, “It all started with a mouse.” Steamboat Willie, which starred a mouse that became an icon, was released on November 18th, 1928. To commemorate the anniversary of that historic short, Disney+ is airing a new documentary called Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, which examines the character’s continued cultural significance in the US and around the world.
What makes this documentary so fascinating is it not only considers the evolution of Mickey through his nearly a hundred years in existence,
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Writer/Director Rian Johnson Unpeels His Whodunit
When released in 2019, Rian Johnson’s star-studded, deliciously delightful who-done-it Knives Out was met with universal acclaim and became a smash hit. In it, star Daniel Craig shed all remnants of his Bond persona to play the quirky Southern genius detective Benoit Blanc in a performance so winning and a film so enjoyable even a character’s sweater became a sensation. (Granted, that character, the spoiled viper Ranson Drysdale,
“Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities” Production Designer Tamara Deverell’s Twisted World
As the afternoon light waned in Toronto, production designer Tamara Deverell recently found herself sitting on the floor of an abandoned psychiatric hospital on break from the new Sofia Coppola movie she’s working on. With dusk approaching, she joked, “I’m getting scared because it looks like I’m in this spooky Guillermo del Toro room right now!”
If anybody would know about spooky spaces, it’s Deverell. She earned an Oscar nomination earlier this year for designing Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley and recently completed work on Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
