Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Nicole Holofcener on Adapting & Helming The Land of Steady Habits

She doesn’t really rehearse, shoots a limited number of takes and prefers not to watch dailies. While such an approach to filmmaking may seem a bit impractical to some, for writer/director Nicole Holofcener, it defines a decisiveness that has enabled her to produce a body of highly realistic and instantly relatable work.

In her past films — Walking and Talking, Lovely and Amazing, Friends With Money,

By Julie Jacobs  |  September 28, 2018

Interview

Screenwriter

Three of Night School’s Writers on Developing the Hilarious Script

Is Night School the next Girls Trip? Like its predecessor, it’s simultaneously goofy and excellent, as well as helmed by Malcolm D. Lee, in which he directed Tiffany Haddish in her breakout role. Here, Haddish co-stars with Kevin Hart, who plays Teddy, a terrible high school student who grows up to be an ace barbecue salesman. All looks reasonably bright for Teddy until he accidentally burns down the store that employs him,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  September 28, 2018

Interview

Costume Designer

BlacKkKlansman Costume Designer Marci Rodgers on Dressing the Year’s Most Urgent Film

Costume designer Marci Rodgers was out of the country working on a movie when she got a call from Spike Lee. Rodgers and Lee worked together on his Netflix series (and adaptation from his feature film) She’s Gotta Have It, yet he was calling about a new project, a feature film based on an incredible true story about a black cop in Colorado Springs infiltrating a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 24, 2018

Interview

Director

White Boy Rick Director Yann Demange on Capturing Detroit’s Decline With Fresh Eyes

Detroit, the most American of cities, home of Ford and Motown, had by 1984 been, in many ways, been abandoned by America. It took an outsider, Paris-born, London raised director Yann Demange, to see this American story with fresh eyes and bring it to the screen in White Boy Rick.

“I didn’t know the history of Detroit. I had just moved to America. I was blown away as I read about the history of the most prosperous city;

By Loren King  |  September 24, 2018

Interview

Production Designer

How The House With a Clock in Its Walls was Actually Built

Horror master Eli Roth, known for directing The Hostel and Cabin Fever series, trades gore for wonder in his newest work, a PG adaptation of John Bellairs’ 1973 YA novel, The House With a Clock in Its Walls. Starring Jack Black as Uncle Jonathan, a self-proclaimed warlock, and Cate Blanchett as his sharp, competent witch neighbor, Florence Zimmerman, the plot of House and the fate of its young protagonist,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  September 21, 2018

Interview

Stunt Coordinator/Stunt Person

Real Navy Jets and Aviators Will Satiate Top Gun: Maverick‘s Need for Speed

The Navy may be as excited about the upcoming Top Gun remake as the fans.

“Much like the first film, these are going to be real jets and real U.S. Naval aviators flying in these scenes,” Naval Air Forces spokesman Commander Ronald Flanders told The Credits. “We’re excited about it.”

The movie is one of only two films currently supported by the Navy’s Hollywood office —  and the production underwent a lengthy approval process to obtain a production assistance agreement that outlines how the Navy will support the film,

By Alicia M. Cohn  |  September 19, 2018

Interview

Composer

TIFF 2018: The Tender Fragility of the Boy Erased Score

Boy Erased is a shattering portrayal of a family fractured by a challenge to their stringent religious beliefs. Based on the memoir by Garrard Conley, Lucas Hedges plays Jared, a young man from a religious family who begins to realize he is gay. Jared’s parents send him to a church-sanctioned conversion therapy camp where he struggles to find acceptance even within. Hedges’ performance is fragile and vulnerable, which makes many of the story’s events difficult to watch.

By Kelle Long  |  September 14, 2018

Interview

Composer

TIFF 2018: The Front Runner Composer Rob Simonsen on Scoring a Political Upheaval

Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner centers on Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman)’s doomed 1988 presidential campaign, undone by the candidate’s extramarital affairs and a media landscape shifting beneath his feet. The film plunges you into the fevered weeks when Hart’s campaign unravels, seemingly hour by hour, as the talented senator refuses to face the reality of his actions and his staff is left scrambling to play defense.

You’ll likely be too caught up in the drama (and marveling at a time when a politicians’ infidelities were career-enders) to notice just what composer Rob Simonsen‘s score is doing,

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 14, 2018

Interview

Editor

TIFF 2018: The Time-Altering Superpower of the Widows Editor

Oscar-nominated editor Joe Walker has spent a lot of time thinking about time. Our perception of time may change over the course of our lives, but in truth, it’s always experienced forwards. One thing happens after another and there is no way (yet) to go back. In Walker’s movies, however, time is a tool he can use to manipulate a story. When does a character know something? Is there a secret in the past that explains the present?

By Kelle Long  |  September 13, 2018

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

TIFF 2018: The Sister Brothers Director & Co-Writer on Their Funny, Soulful Western

When Patrick DeWitt’s novel “The Sisters Brothers” was published in 2011, something new was afoot in its pages. A bloody western set during the gold rush, it had everything you’d expect; gunfights, whiskey, brothels, and ne’er-do-wells of all stripes lusting after the riches buried in the rivers and mountains of California. These genre tropes, expertly handled by DeWitt, were the grimy, gritty package in which he delivered the story’s real gold— the titular Sister brothers and their endless,

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 13, 2018

Interview

Actor

TIFF 2018: First Man Actor Skyler Bible on Working on Damien Chazelle’s Revelatory Space Drama

First Man represents the first time we’re getting a full-blown biopic about the legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong. Academy-award winning director Damien Chazelle‘s film, scripted by Spotlight and The Post‘s Academy-award winning scribe Josh Singer (based on the book by James R. Hansen) tells the story behind the first manned mission to the moon, with the focus squarely on Armstrong (Ryan Gosling). The Apollo 11 mission that ultimately leads to Armstrong’s iconic first steps on the moon took a decade to prepare,

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 12, 2018

Interview

Composer

TIFF 2018: Hans Zimmer on The Dark Knight, Wonder Woman 1984 & More

Hans Zimmer is no stranger to working with directors who have a ferocious passion. Yesterday, we published our interview with the Oscar-winning composer about his score for Steve McQueen’s thrilling crime drama Widows. Zimmer’s minimalist, intimate score blended perfectly with McQueen’s film about three women navigating the criminal underworld in Chicago to pull off a nearly impossible bank heist. They’re attempting to pay off their dead husband’s deaths and forge their own paths,

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 12, 2018

Interview

Composer

TIFF 2018: Legendary Composer Hans Zimmer on Scoring Steve McQueen’s Sensational Widows

Hans Zimmer’s minimalist, intimate score for Widows gets under your skin. The legendary composer creates a sonic environment that feels as pressurized and cloistered as the predicament of our four heroines. When you see Steve McQueen’s brilliant crime drama, you’ll notice a persistent humming throughout. As the stakes rise for the three women at the center of the story (the widows of three dead criminals who now must pull off a monumentally dangerous heist to pay off their debts and forge a path of their own),

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 11, 2018

Interview

Stunt Coordinator/Stunt Person

How Fight Trainer Don Lee got Jennifer Garner Back in Action for Peppermint

Seventeen years after her star-making turn as Sydney Bristow in Alias, Jennifer Garner is back in action and back in action shape for the new movie Peppermint.

In the new movie (out today), Garner engages in hand-to-hand combat, knife fights, gunfights, and even a little boxing. She did the majority of her own stunts.

“She is heavily involved in her fight scenes. The majority of things she could do she does,” said Don Lee,

By Alicia M. Cohn  |  September 7, 2018

Interview

Cinematographer

TIFF 2018: DP Pepe Avila del Pino on Bending Genres in The Kindergarten Teacher

Director of photography Pepe Avila del Pino lensed Sara Colangelo‘s daring The Kindergarten Teacher (Netflix, premiering on October 10, 2018), starring Maggie Gyllenhaal about the unusually intense bond Gyllenhaal’s kindergarten teacher Lisa Spinelli forms with a student, Jimmy Roy (Parker Sevak) she’s sure is a child prodigy. Written by Colangelo and based on a script by Nadav Lapid, an Israeli writer/director whose 2014 feature of the same name inspired the film,

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 7, 2018

Interview

Sound Designer

Game of Thrones‘ Emmy-Nominated Sound Designer on Bringing the Heat

Emmy-nominated supervising sound editor Tim Kimmel oversaw one of Game of Thrones’ most explosive episodes, ever. Kimmel received his Emmy-nom for his work on last season’s epic fourth episode, “The Spoils of War,” written by co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Matt Shakman.

Kimmel, who is the Formosa Group‘s supervising sound editor, oversees the sound editorial crew, and his team have a vast sonic mandate;

By Bryan Abrams  |  August 27, 2018

Interview

Actor

American Horror Story: Cult‘s Emmy-Nominated Actress Adina Porter on Playing in the Dark

Bronx born and raised with theater roots, Adina Porter’s path to her first ever Emmy-nomination has taken her from the boards to the small screen in some of TV’s most demanding yet delicious roles. Before she became one of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror regulars, you may have seen her Alan Ball’s True Blood on HBO as Lettie Mae Thornton. Lettie Mae was Tara (Rutina Wesley)’s alcoholic mother, a character who was supposed to be killed off in season one but who survived,

By Bryan Abrams  |  August 24, 2018

Interview

Editor

How The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s Emmy-Nominated Editor Gave Midge her Sparkling Start

Timing is everything, or so the saying goes, in comedy. This is just one of the lessons the truly marvelous Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) learns on her journey to develop a stand-up set when her personal life hits turbulent times. That timing is particularly brisk on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The show was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, known for writing the breakneck dialogue of Gilmore Girls. The new Amazon series is sharp,

By Kelle Long  |  August 24, 2018

Interview

Cinematographer

Emmy Nominated Ozark Cinematographer on the Show’s Bleak & Immersive Style

Ozark is relentless. Whether an emotional reunion, a difficult decision, a gruesome death, or a grisly torture, the camera offers no relief. You cannot look away, but you likely will not want to. The show’s cinematography is compelling and immersive, capitalizing on some of the strongest performances of the season from a cast that includes Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Julia Garner, and Peter Mullan. Director of Photography Ben Kutchins received an Emmy nomination for his work on the complex season finale packed with emotional bombshells.

By Kelle Long  |  August 22, 2018

Interview

Costume Designer

The Meaning Behind the Emmy Nominated Fahrenheit 451 ‘Firemen’ Uniforms

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 has become a gold standard among dystopian novels proving decade after decade the endurance of its message. Ramin Bahrani’s HBO adaptation explored the renewed relevance of the 65-year-old cautionary tale about the government sanctioned destruction of facts and ideas. With a mere 100-minute runtime, every frame had to communicate the rigid rules of the society where Captain Beatty (Michael Shannon) clashed with the book-loving ‘Eels.’ Clothing was hugely impactful in defining the role of the celebrity ‘firemen’ in the story.

By Kelle Long  |  August 20, 2018