HBO Reveals the Trailer for Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

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HBO has revealed the first look at Director Ivy Meeropol’s Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which focuses on the infamously callous, cruel attorney and hails from a director whose life was impacted by Cohn’s relentless drive for power at all costs. Meerpol’s grandparents were Jules and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and were ultimately put to death at Sing Sing Correction Facility in New York in 1953. The man who prosecuted them? Roy Cohn.

Meeropol’s film had its debut at the 2019 New York Film Festival, and its premiere on HBO on June 19 marks the 67th anniversary of the execution of her grandparents. Cohn’s notoriety is hardly limited to the Rosenberg case. The documentary tracks his life, from the late 1950s when he was the chief counsel to infamous red-baiting conspiracist Senator Joseph McCarthy, through the 1980s and his close connection to the Reagan White House. Cohn, a closeted gay man, was also a rabid anti-homosexuality activist (the trailer includes an especially poignant cameo from John Waters on this point), and, of course, he was a political mentor to Donald J. Trump. Cohn died from complications from AIDS in 1986.

In popular culture, Cohn was one of the main characters in playwright Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking epic about the AIDS crisis “Angels in America.” Kushner eventually adapted his play for director Mike Nichols for a 2003 miniseries, which also aired on HBO. In the series, Al Pacino played Cohn. Then, in 2018, Cohn was resurrected again by Kushner in Angels in America: Part II – Perestroika. In this iteration, he was played by Nathan Lane. In all accounts of the man, in fiction as in life, his only cause was to attain power.

The doc also premieres right in the middle of Pride Month, which is celebrated every June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, the tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. It’s always a heady time to look back on the life of such a notoriously calculating and cold-hearted man, but now it feels particularly charged. Here’s what Meeropol has to say about the timing in a press release from HBO:

“Roy Cohn made his name prosecuting and pushing for the execution of my grandparents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Many years later he became Donald Trump’s lawyer, mentor and close friend. If there was ever a time to reflect on how we got here it is now. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the film with HBO audiences.”

Check out the trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis from HBO:

BULLY. COWARD. VICTIM. THE STORY OF ROY COHN, debuting FRIDAY, JUNE 19 (8:00-9:45 p.m. ET/PT), takes an unflinching look at the life and death of infamous attorney Roy Cohn, who first gained prominence by prosecuting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in what came to be known as the “atomic spies” case. The documentary draws on extensive, newly unearthed archival material to present the most revealing examination of Roy Cohn to date. Director Ivy Meeropol (Indian Point, HBO’s Heir to an Execution) brings a unique perspective as the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; having spent much of her life feeling both repelled and fascinated by the man who prosecuted her grandparents, obtained their convictions in federal court and then insisted on their executions.

This film will also be available to stream on HBO GO, HBO NOW, and on HBO via HBO Max and other partners’ platforms.

Featuring a trove of fascinating, unearthed archive material as well as recently discovered audiotapes of candid discussions between Cohn and journalist Peter Manso, recorded at the height of Cohn’s career as a power broker in the rough and tumble world of New York City’s business and politics, this vivid portrait focuses on family, friends, colleagues, employees and lovers, as well as those targeted by Cohn – all of whom were profoundly affected by crossing paths with him. The film follows key periods of Cohn’s life, including his time in Provincetown, MA, where he was considerably more open about his sexuality than in other settings, and where he shared a house with Manso and novelist, Norman Mailer.

The documentary includes numerous interviews, including John Waters, Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Nathan Lane, and Tony Kushner, whose 2018 Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning revival of “Angels in America” featured Lane as Cohn. Lane offers insight into how devastatingly dangerous the actual Roy Cohn was and how he wielded power through invective and innuendo.

Featured image: Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn. Key Art copy. Courtesy HBO.

Excellent! The First Trailer for Bill & Ted Face the Music is Finally Here

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Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are finally back together again in the first trailer for Bill & Ted Face the Music. The third film in the excellent trilogy, Bill & Ted Face the Music comes from a script from original screenwriters Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, which sees our dynamic duo learning that only one of their songs holds the key to saving all life as we know it. Gnarly.

The first time we met Bill and Ted was in 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The last time we saw these two knuckleheads grinding it out on a fresh quest was the 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Yes, technically, Winter and Reeves were together for Bill & Ted Go to Hell, a 2016 documentary, but fans have been itching to see them take on one last adventure together, so today’s trailer is manna from a guitar god’s heaven.

Here, we find William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. (Winter) and Theodore “Ted’ Logan (Reeves) as middle-aged rockers who have yet to craft the tune that’ll save the world. Once the action kicks in, Bill and Ted need to embark on a new, epic adventure to find the one and only song that’ll save humanity. Only they’re no longer alone; they’ve got daughters. Bill’s got Thea (Samara Weaving ) and Ted’s got Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine). The foursome will also find some help with a few familiar faces, some historical figures, and some musical legends, too.

So how are Bill and Ted going to write the tune to save the world? In pure slacker fashion, they’re not. Instead, they’ll simply travel to the future to a time when they’ve already written the song, and steal the tune from themselves. Beautiful. We’ll leave the shock of their future selves to your viewing pleasure. It’s absurd.

Bill & Ted Face the Music is directed by Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest). Joining Reeves, Winter, Weaving, and Lundy-Paine are Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi), William Sadler, Kristen Schaal, Holland Taylor, Jillian Bell, Anthony Carrigan, Jayma Mays, Erinn Hays, Hal Landon Jr., Amy Stotch, and Beck Bennett.

Bill & Ted Face the Music is set to open in theaters on August 21, 2020.

Check out the trailer here:

Here’s the official synopsis for Bill & Ted Face the Music:

The stakes are higher than ever for the time-traveling exploits of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan. Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle-aged best friends set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it. Along the way, they will be helped by their daughters, a new batch of historical figures, and a few music legends – to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe.

Featured image: Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter star in BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC. Photo Credit: Patti Perret / Orion Pictures

How Makeup Artist Louise McCarthy Helped Tattoo The King of Staten Island

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As the makeup department head for The King of Staten Island, Louise McCarthy faced a unique challenge that she had never encountered before — creating laughs with tattoos.

Directed by Judd Apatow, the film stars Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson as Scott Carlin, a twenty-something slacker who has been struggling emotionally with the death of his father — a firefighter who lost his life in the line of duty when Scott was a child. Unable to get his life on track, Scott still lives with his mother (Marisa Tomei), spends his days getting high with friends (Lou Wilson, Ricky Velez, Moises Arias), and avoids making a commitment to his girlfriend (Bel Powley), who is preparing to move on with her life. Scott does have a dream. He wants to be a tattoo artist. Problem is, he’s not very good. And that’s where the comedy comes in.

“The tattoos are a character. They are a story in themselves,” says McCarthy, via phone from New York where she has been safely sheltering with her family. “It was a big part of the script.”

McCarthy was brought into the project by executive producer Michael Bederman, with whom she had collaborated in the past. She was intrigued by the opportunity to work on a comedy with Apatow. She admits that prior to the film, she wasn’t that familiar with Davidson.

“When I read about all these tattoos in the script, I thought, ‘Well, this is pretty interesting and this is going to be a lot of work,’” continues McCarthy. “And then I googled Pete and saw all his tattoos. I started reading about Pete’s life and then I understood that this was based on his real family.”

 

As part of the storyline, Scott turns friends and family into guinea pigs so he can practice creating tattoos. Everyone knew the potential for humor in the scenario and wanted the funniest tattoos possible. McCarthy estimated they dreamed up about 200 different designs to get to the final selects that were used in the film.

A big fan of the art, Davidson sports over 100 real tattoos on his upper body. He suggested bringing in his favorite artist, London Reese, to consult. “We were very grateful to work with someone who really is a tattoo artist to pick his brain a bit,” says McCarthy. “To have his knowledge was really helpful for me during the process.”

It turned into a group effort, as both cast and crew weighed in on funny concepts.

“We were coming up with ideas. Pete was coming up with ideas,” she remembers. “And Judd was like, ‘I’d like to see this’ and London would draw it. It was important to Pete and Judd to be accurate from a tattoo artist’s point of view.”

Photo credit: Lloyd Bishop / Universal Pictures
Makeup department head Louise McCarthy (left), Pete Davidson (second from the left) and writer/director Judd Apatow (right, back to camera) on the set of The King of Staten Island. Photo credit: Lloyd Bishop / Universal Pictures

Camera tests turned into tattoo auditions. McCarthy and makeup key Jill McKay kept applying different ones to Scott’s friends during the sessions to see which got the biggest laughs.

One of McCarthy’s favorites is a cat peeking over his shoulder that Scott applied to the stomach of his friend Igor (Arias). Igor’s navel stands in for the feline’s anus.

Another big laugh-getter was a tattoo of Barack Obama that Scott applies to the forearm of his black friend Richie (Wilson). Richie is horrified because the tattoo is a cartoon rendition of the former president.

McCarthy attributed the design to David Sirus who co-wrote the script with Davidson and Apatow. “I think he drew that one,” she says. “One or two were done by other people. We actually did five different types of Obama tattoos. There were a few others that really didn’t look like Obama. But that was the one we decided looked the best and was the funniest.”

Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures
(from left) Igor (Moises Arias), Oscar (Ricky Velez) and Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow. Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures

The actors also joined in the fun. McCarthy remembers that Velez, who is both Irish and Puerto Rican, came up with the idea of a Puerto Rican leprechaun tattoo for Oscar, his character.

A key plot point involves Scott covering the back of his mom’s new boyfriend Ray (Bill Burr) with tattoos. As it was a pivotal moment in the story, McCarthy reveals there was a lot of back-and-forth about what images to include. It took six different approaches before they hit upon the final combination.

Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures
(from left) Ray Bishop (Bill Burr) and Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow. Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures

McCarthy credits associate producer Amanda Glaze for making it all work. Acting as essentially a tattoo traffic cop, Glaze coordinated the flow among McCarthy, Apatow, Davidson, and Reese. “It was busy and there were quite a lot of tattoos,” explains McCarthy. “She was a great help to me. I said at the end, ‘Amanda, you could be a tattoo expert on any movie.’”

But making sure the tattoos got laughs was only part of McCarthy’s challenge. In Davidson’s case, she actually had to cover up some tattoos. The comedian’s upper left arm features a tattoo of a kneeling fireman. Deeming that not appropriate for the storyline, the filmmakers had McCarthy mask it. She also hid one on the inside of his arm that displays Davidson’s dad’s badge number. Finally, she added tattoos to his leg appropriate to his character.

In total, it took McCarthy approximately 45 minutes each morning to get Davidson ready. “He just let me get on with it,” she says. “Every day, he’d get in the chair and do what we had to do. It was lovely.”

Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures
(from left) Writer/director Judd Apatow, makeup department head Louise McCarthy and Maude Apatow on the set of The King of Staten Island. Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures

When it came to the women, Mia Thoen van Moyland served as Tomei’s personal makeup artist. McKay oversaw Powley’s character Kelsey and Maude Apatow (Judd’s daughter), who plays Scott’s college-bound sister Claire.

McCarthy explains that she wanted Kelsey and Claire to have distinctive looks. “They are similar in age, but their lives are very different and I wanted that to stand out,” she says. “Kelsey wants to change Staten Island. Her look needed to be just the makeup and the nails. Claire is going off to college. She is a very prissy girl next door, so her makeup was more minimal.”

Photo credit: Alison Cohen Rosa / Universal Pictures
(from left) Kelsey (Bel Powley) and Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow. Photo credit: Alison Cohen Rosa / Universal Pictures
Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures
(from left) Claire Carlin (Maude Apatow) and Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow. Photo credit: Mary Cybulski / Universal Pictures

On the other hand, McCarthy and hair department head Kerrie Smith were able to let loose with the character of Joy, Scott’s aunt, played by Lynne Koplitz. At the actress’s prompting, they made the makeup heavier, the hair bigger and the nails long with bright colors. “Lynne was hilarious,” says McCarthy. “She was like, ‘You know, I want to be The Housewives of Staten Island.”

McCarthy hopes that everyone who sees The King of Staten Island will enjoy it as much as she enjoyed working on it. Being on set with so many comedians and a director who is pretty funny himself made for a fun day at the office. “You’re just listening and laughing — a free comedy show. It was great,” she says.

But although they were making a comedy, McCarthy adds there was a feeling on set to make a film that resonated. “Everybody was into it because it was Pete’s story,” she says. “We could really feel the respect and that was very, very nice.”

The King of Staten Island will be available on demand on June 12, 2020.

Featured image: Pete Davidson as Scott Carlin in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow.

Expect the Unexpected in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet

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It’s looking increasingly possible that movie theaters will re-open—with new codes of conduct in place for dealing with the still-present coronavirus—in time for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet to hit its July 17 release date. A Nolan film is always an event, but a Nolan film serving as the first major blockbuster to screen since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered productions across the globe? That’s wild. And as we’ve written here before, the blessedly little we do know about Tenet has reinforced the notion that Nolan is going for something in the spirit of his 2010 sci-fi epic Inception, only even more ambitious. And in pure Nolan fashion, the man who burst onto the scene with his deliciously twisted mind-bender Memento has engineered his new film in such a way that even his own actors aren’t entirely sure how it will play out, and what their own roles will ultimately be.

If you’ve devoured all the trailers as we have, you’ve likely assumed that Kenneth Branagh is the film’s villain. He’s the one with the Russian accent being casually menacing to the film’s protagonist, John David Washington, who plays a member of an elite team that seems capable of literally inverting time in order to try and stop armageddon before it happens. In the latest trailer, Branagh’s character asks Washington’s how he imagined dying, and when Washington says “as an old man,” Branagh tells him he’s picked the wrong line of work. This conversation is intercut with scenes of extreme danger—a highway car chase that appears to be happening in reverse, for example. The implication seems to be that Branagh’s character is the one threatening to annihilate the world, and he’s the man that Washington’s The Protagonist (his name in the film) is trying to stop. But Branagh’s not so sure.

In an interview with Total Film (via SyFy Wire), the veteran actor and director says that Tenet will likely upend your expectations, as it did his. “Given the nature of it, as Chris to some extent sort of reinvents the wheel here, a lot of people start engaging with John David Washington’s character in both expected ways…so you might expect me to be an antagonist…but then [the story] doesn’t quite follow what you might expect as the story plays out.” Because Tenet posits a world in which the characters can potentially manipulate time, the characters themselves aren’t totally stable. Branagh continues: “In the playing of it, and in the scenes, he keeps upturning, or playing forward and backward, our expectations of what the character should be. So my conversations with [Nolan] about my character were constant because the character’s evolution was not set. It was a series of constant surprises.”

Yet Robert Pattinson told GQ that the film is not about time travel. So, yeah, everyone seems confused. Or they’re pretending to be confused to keep us on our toes.

Meanwhile, Branagh goes on to say that he read Nolan’s script for Tenet more than any other script he’s ever worked on—and that’s saying something considering he’s had a long and very busy career. “It was like doing the Times crossword puzzle every day,” he told Total Film, “Except the film and the screenplay didn’t expect you, or need you, to be an expert.”

It’s also worth remembering what John David Washington said in an interview on Twitch TV on the gaming platform Fortnite. He said that Tenet was far ahead of even Nolan’s past features:  “We’re familiar with [Nolan’s] films, but this seems like something different,” Washington said. “It seems like this is where he’s about to take us for the next 10, 15 years of filmmaking.” 

Nolan’s ambition has been evident from the start, but not even he could have predicted where his career would go, or that one of his time-and-mind bending epics might possibly be the film to welcome us back into the theater after our own epic, destabilizing drama. We can’t wait to see what he’s cooked up here, and then to confirm whether his stars are playing yet another part for him; confused participants dazzled by his narrative trickery.

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON and ROBERT PATTINSON and in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action epic “TENET,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon. 

Keanu Reeves & Carrie-Anne Moss on The Matrix 4

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It was in mid-May when we heard the hopeful news that the cast of The Matrix 4 had signed 8-week extensions, suggesting that Warner Bros. was feeling optimistic that the cast and crew could get back to filming in the near future. Principal photography had begun on Lana Wachowski’s fourth installment in her groundbreaking sci-fi saga back in February, starting in San Francisco and then moving to Berlin in mid-March. You know what happened next—production was halted on this and essentially every other film due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now that we’re inching towards a return to production, hopefully, a new interview with the film’s returning stars, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, reveals what brought these two back to the franchise.

Empire has an exclusive with the two actors, in which they reveal that it was the incredible script that brought them back into the fold. “Lana Wachowski wrote a beautiful script and a wonderful story that resonated with me,” Reeves told Empire. “That’s the only reason to do it. To work with her again is just amazing. It’s been really special, and the story has, I think, some meaningful things to say, and that we can take some nourishment from.”

Moss concurred: “I never thought that it would happen. It was never on my radar at all,” she told Empire. “When it was brought to me in the way that it was brought to me, with incredible depth and all of the integrity and artistry that you could imagine, I was like, ‘This is a gift.’ It was just very exciting.”

The details of the script are, of course, unknown. The little we do know is about the cast and crew—Reeves and Moss are reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity respectively (it appears Jada Pinkett Smith is also returning as Niobe) and will be joined by newcomers Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Brian J. Smith, Jonathan Groff, Priyanka Chopra, and Neil Patrick Harris. The talent behind the camera is equally impressive. Chad Stahelski and David Leitch are returning to the franchise after directing second unit for the original trilogy to help with some of the action set pieces. These two have gone on to become successful directors in their own right, helming John Wick and Deadpool 2, respectively. Oscar-winning cinematographer John Toll will lens the film.

The Matrix 4 is currently slated for a 2021 release, but like all films that were halted mid-production (or never got out of the pre-production phase), the release schedule is fluid. Thus far, Warner Bros. hasn’t specified an exact release date for the film, but excitement about a return to the world of The Matrix remains robust. When the news broke that The Matrix 4 was happening, last August, Warner Bros. Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich said this to Variety: “We could not be more excited to be re-entering The Matrix with Lana. Lana is a true visionary — a singular and original creative filmmaker — and we are thrilled that she is writing, directing, and producing this new chapter in The Matrix universe.”

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss agree.

Featured image: Carrie-Anne, Moss Laurence Fishburne, and Keanu Reeves standing against brick wall in a scene from the film ‘The Matrix Reloaded’, 2003. (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)

Arielle Kilker On Assembling a Largely Female Crew to Create Her Netflix Series Cheer

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Arielle Kilker brings pretty much everything she’s learned in her career to bear in her Netflix‘s Cheer, the series she co-created, co-directed, edited, and produced. That includes the Emmy-nominated work she put in as editor on Chef’s Table and a supervising editor on the Peabody nominated Last Chance U. She’s also edited and written crime docuseries on projects for MSNBC, A&E, and PBS. For Cheer, Kilker decided to move away from stories about women who had been victims of crimes—with the focus often on the men who’d harmed them—to focus on a series that put women front and center. In the case of Cheer, which is now streaming on Netflix, those women are often airborne, too.

Cheer follows the competitive cheerleaders of Navarro College in Corsicana, TX. This small junior college has won an astonishing 14 National Championships since 2000, led by irrepressible coach Monica Aldama. We talked to Kilker about how she crafted the six-episode docuseries, forming deep relationships with the Navarro College cheerleaders as endure personal setbacks, injuries, and more in their run-up to National Championship.

You are really all over this production, producing, directing, and editing. Tell me about taking on that many roles for Cheer.

It was a lot of work! I always put all of myself into any project that I work on, but this was a whole different level. Being a part of this project from inception through delivery was incredibly satisfying. Having a background in editing gave me a lot of confidence in the field. I knew how we would need to cover a moment and what material we should pursue to make sure that we could tell a complete story in the edit. You can learn a lot about filmmaking while working as an editor and I took everything I had absorbed over the years and applied it to my work directing a camera unit.

Arielle Kilker on set for CHEER
Arielle Kilker on set for CHEER. Courtesy Netflix.

You’ve got a background of editing crime docuseries, why was taking on Cheer important to you.

Getting my start as an editor in the crime genre was great because it was like boot camp for writing in the docuseries format. It’s all about controlling how and when information is revealed to an audience so that it’s engaging and surprising while being truthful and enlightening. Something that bothered me when I was an editor for crime docuseries though, was that the only time that I got to tell the story about a woman was if she was dead. And then the story became about the man who killed her. So to be able to create a show like Cheer where the audience experiences the female perspective has fulfilled a career dream of mine. On top of that, we met some incredible male athletes at Navarro, and the stories of young gay black men are even less represented in the media. All in all, this project met a lot of the standards for the kind of work I want to put my energy into.

R-L: La'Darius Marshall and Monica Aldama in CHEER. Courtesy Netflix.
R-L: La’Darius Marshall and Monica Aldama in CHEER. Courtesy Netflix.

I’m curious what it was like to get to know your subjects at Navarro College, about getting to know their personal stories. What was it like behind-the-scenes as you were crafting this series?

As intense as the practices and injuries were to watch from your sofa, I can tell you my heart stopped daily while we were filming with them. With all the risk and commitment involved, a big question we were constantly trying to answer was: why on earth would anyone do this? We knew it would take a lot of time and the right people on the crew to be able to build relationships and achieve a level of trust with the team in order to properly tell their stories. Thankfully, Netflix and Boardwalk Pictures helped us get what we needed to make this happen. We knew this series would be about more than just the sport of cheerleading. Although each athlete’s story was unique, they shared both a common pain and healing process. What Cheer is really about, is overcoming past trauma. A lot of the issues these athletes faced are universal issues that are incredibly important to talk about as a society. I’m forever grateful to the team for trusting us with their stories and giving a voice to others who have had similar traumas.

CHEER. Courtesy of Netflix
CHEER. Courtesy of Netflix

Cheerleading is a pretty film-friendly sport and has been captured in series and films before. Did you and your team have a sense going in on a specific way you wanted to capture the performances?

Definitely. We spent a lot of time developing a style and tone to make sure that we would illustrate the true grit behind all the rhinestones and makeup. And just as important as the visuals was making sure that we captured the raw audio of bodies clashing together and the exhausted grunts of landing a tumbling pass. Our sound mixers, Kerri Kuebler and Nick Kelly were total champs when it came to figuring out how to mic the team and make the audience feel every piece of those practices.

 

You hired two great female DPs—how do you think this affects the production and the way your crew interacts with your subjects?

Yes, our core crew was almost entirely women. It was really important to me and the rest of the producing team that we hire this way. We knew we wanted to take a fly-on-the-wall approach, having as little influence on the Navarro team as possible, to achieve a high level of intimacy. So really, we just became friends with the team. As they practiced, or did their homework, or hung out in the dorm, we weren’t a film crew, we were a bunch of girls (and a few guys) just hanging out. Our DPs, Melissa Langer and Erynn Patrick, were incredible at creating a space where the team felt comfortable both emotionally and physically.

L-r: Arielle Kilker with cinematographers Erynn Patrick & Melissa Langer. Courtesy Netflix.
L-r: Arielle Kilker with cinematographers Erynn Patrick & Melissa Langer. Courtesy Netflix.

Why was having a predominately female crew important to you? Can you share any specifics from filmmaking that highlighted why this is so crucial?

Why not hire a bunch of women? People hire a bunch of men all the time. Early on we realized we had something really special, and we knew we had to knock it out of the park. We recognized how rare this situation was with all these women on the crew, and we felt like we had something to prove. So we constantly pushed one another to do better. My producing partner Chelsea Yarnell and I had some sleepless nights because we were obsessive about making sure we were prepared for the next day and would be able to make good snap decisions. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and there was no way I was going to let this project be anything but the best work I could do. Because of that, post-production almost killed me. Like the cheerleaders, we all really bled for this one.

What moments from production, or during your edit, stand out for you? Where there times when you thought, yes, this is precisely why I wanted to make this series?

When a cut is working really well it feels so right that it seems like there was no other way it could have been put together. All the decisions seem to have been simple and obvious, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Of all the roles that I had on Cheer, the editing was by far the most challenging and demanding. There’s a sequence in the middle of episode 4 that, to me, is one of the most crucial in the series, and it was also one of the most difficult to get right.

We knew we wanted to address how cheer culture has changed over time and we wanted to frame it with Monica’s views on LGBTQ+ issues. We were fascinated by the way Monica fuses the sport’s past with its present, channeling traditional American values to empower non-traditional cheerleaders to self-actualize. At times this seems to be at odds with her conservative, small-town Texas lifestyle, but the reality is far more nuanced. We wanted to capture that dynamic as faithfully as possible, painting a multi-layered portrait for the viewer, so the sequence we put together is comprised of 7 or 8 different parts and is kind of sprawling. The boys watch Bad Girls Club in their dorm, we meet Monica’s father, and there’s even an archival section. We trashed many failed attempts and the final version is the product of a group effort. The story team, and particularly Claire Onderdonk spent a lot of time on this section, and the sequence was passed between me and the other supervising editor, David Nordstrom, who also happens to be my spouse. This idea was definitely worth fighting for and it’s one of the sections I’m most proud of. I think Cheer is actually a really challenging series to watch and may make people uncomfortable at times, but the fact that it did so well is proof that audiences are hungry for material that allows them to think for themselves and broaden their perspectives.

Featured image: CHEER. Courtesy of Netflix

Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Ferguson Documentaries Will be Made Available for Free

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If ever there was a time for American citizens—specifically white Americans—to learn about the history of racial segregation, oppression, and the reasons and uses for protest, that time is now. Actually, that time was decades ago, but for the purposes of this post, let’s focus on today. Tens of thousands of people all across the country have been in the streets protesting police brutality and systemic racism after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was asphyxiated, while handcuffed, by officer Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, while three other members of the MPD watched. Sadly, Floyd’s death—which was caught on camera—is only but one reason for the outrage that has people eschewing city and state-mandated curfews to stand with Black people from New York to Los Angeles and literally every state in between. The names of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery are now known to American citizens far and wide; they are two more innocent, unarmed Black people shot and killed in the past few months.

With this in mind, Variety reports that the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and O Cinema has partnered with Magnolia Pictures to make three crucial documentaries free, starting this Sunday, June 7. The three documentaries cover two of America’s greatest writers and thinkers and the protests that sprung up in Ferguson, Missouri, after the unarmed teenager Michael Brown was murdered by police officer Darren Wilson. The films are I Am Not Your Negro, from director Raoul Peck, which focuses on the legendary writer and Civil Rights leader James Baldwin and his efforts to write a book about the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, from director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, which is a meditative look on the singular life of one of the most celebrated writers in American history. And finally, Whose Streets, from filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, which examines the systemic police abuses that led to sustained protests and nation-wide anguish after the murder of Michael Brown.

The three films will be available starting on June 7 in eight cities through community partners: Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; Macon, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Jose, California; and St. Paul, Minnesota. There will also be virtual discussions on the Monday following each screening to help educate people on how to support anti-racism initiatives and social justice reforms in their communities.

Here’s a snippet of the statement from Alberto Ibarguen, the president of the Knight Foundation, which is covering the rental costs of the films:

“Informed, equitable, inclusive, and participatory communities are as essential to a strong democracy as an informed citizenry. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis is a terrible affront to that ideal – and this weekend is a reminder of how tough it will be to rise to the moment. But our democracy depends on our willingness to try.”

The films will be free each Sunday for a 24-hour window, with Magnolia, Knight Foundation, and O Cinema sending out information to their mailing lists. You can subscribe to their lists on their websites—Magnolia, Knight Foundation, and O Cinema. There will also be a landing page where you’ll be able to access the films, coming soon. I Am Not Your Negro will stream on June 7, Whose Streets? will be available on June 14, and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am will be made available on June 21, with the virtual discussions the following Monday of each film. Magnolia produced each of the films. Knight Foundation supports the arts, journalism, and cities where the brothers’ John S. and James L. Knight published newspapers. O Cinema is a non-profit, mission-driven independent art-house theater in Miami.

If you haven’t seen these films, they are excellent and necessary even at the best of times. Now, they are essential viewing.

Featured image: Toni Morrison in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM, a Magnolia Pictures release. ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders / Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

The Trailer For HBO’s Lovecraft Country Reveals a Series That’s Sadly Perfectly Timed

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We all can see with our own eyes what’s happening in America right now. In the middle of a global pandemic that has devastated the world and the country, taking the lives of more than 100,000 Americans and disproportionately affecting Black, Hispanic, Latino and Indigenous communities, we are also witnessing protests against police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. In the entertainment industry, it’s for this reason that Warner Bros. has made their January release Just Mercy, about trailblazing civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, free to rent. It’s for this reason why major stars like John Boyega, who was born in London to parents of Nigerian descent, have made their voices heard loud and clear. And it’s into this reality that HBO has revealed the teaser for Lovecraft Country, a series that follows three Black Americans driving cross-country in 1950s Jim Crow America in search of a missing father.

Lovecraft Country is based on the book by Matt Ruff and tracks the journey of a young veteran named Atticus (Jonathan Majors), his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett), and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) as they search for Atticus’ missing father (Michael K. Williams) through the Jim Crow-era South. Hardly just a (dangerous) road trip show, Lovecraft Country digs beneath the rotting foundations of America and brings up the ghosts, monsters, and more.

Considering the book and series’ title namechecks H.P. Lovecraft, the legendary and highly problematic author of some of the most disturbing cosmic horror stories ever published in America, you can bet Lovecraft Country will get weird. With Jordan Peele on board as co-creator and executive producer, you can be sure this series will be ambitious and fearless. The trailer reveals that the story of Lovecraft Country isn’t merely about Atticus’s search for his missing father, but about the family’s secret birthright and America’s history of racism, all twisted into one tale. The suggestion here is that racism is the monster America cannot outrun and that it’s baked into the very foundation of the United States. So yeah, Lovecraft Country is coming at a particularly fraught time.

Lovecraft Country was created by Peele and Underground creator Misha Green. Joining Peele as an executive producer is J.J. Abrams. We’re still waiting on word for the official premiere date, but for now, you can feast your eyes on the trailer:

Here’s the official synopsis from HBO:

HBO’s new drama series, LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff of the same name, debuts this August. The series follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he joins up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father (Michael Kenneth Williams). This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

Featured image: Courtney B. Vance, Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett. Image courtesy HBO.

Director Josephine Decker on Capturing American Gothic Writer Shirley Jackson’s Complex World

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Layers of creative output communicate the enthrallingly choleric New England household and inner world belonging to mid-century American gothic and horror writer Shirley Jackson in Shirley, which screened at Sundance and the Berlinale prior to its streaming release on June 5. Working with Sarah Gubbins’ script based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel of the same name, the filmmaker Josephine Decker (Madeline’s Madeline, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely) catapults her audience into the dark Vermont home shared by Shirley (Elisabeth Moss) and her philandering professor husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) and two young lodgers, newlyweds Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman).

The primary Shirley Jackson work referenced in Decker’s film is The Lottery, a 1949 short story that appeared in The New Yorker, in which a small New England town gathers for its annual lottery to see which resident will be stoned to death. Cruelty for its own sake is centered in the story, as it is in the Shirley-Stanley household Decker gives us. Stuck within the limitations of late 1950s social norms — by any era’s metrics, both marriages appear failing, yet divorce hardly seems to be on the table — Stanley undermines his wife even as he insists she produces new work for him to edit. Shirley refuses to get out of bed, and when she does, her presence is laced with acid. Stanley plots to destroy Fred professionally at the college where they both teach and treats Rose to the kind of one-sided affection that would now be outed as harassment. For Rose, the film’s conscience and, despite the title, its star, her frustration shows through in weird little ways, like quietly pushing eggs to the floor in the kitchen, the room where both Stanley and her husband have relegated her.

L-r: Michael Stuhlbarg is Stanley and Elisabeth Moss is Shirley in 'Shirley.' Courtesy Neon.
L-r: Michael Stuhlbarg is Stanley and Elisabeth Moss is Shirley in ‘Shirley.’ Courtesy Neon.

When the bright young ingenue couple arrives in the middle of a chaotic party, Shirley testily holding court to a group of standing admirers, they have no idea what’s in store. Shirley initially rebuffs Rose’s introductory politesse, but as the younger woman comes around to helping her hostess dig up records on Paula, a recently murdered college student at the center of the writer’s latest work, they grow into a mutual and then romantic confidence. Rose and Fred’s tenure as lodgers is time-stamped against Rose’s growing pregnant belly and the birth of her daughter, an occasion Decker presents as secondary to the tension within and between the two couples and to Shirley’s all-or-nothing relationship to her work.

L-r: Logan Lerman is Fred and Odessa Young is Rose in 'Shirley.' Courtesy Neon.
L-r: Logan Lerman is Fred and Odessa Young is Rose in ‘Shirley.’ Courtesy Neon.

Decker’s DP, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, uses a Lensbaby to delimit reality from flashbacks to Paula’s final trip into the nearby woods. The audience is led into Shirley’s hazy mental take on what happened to the young woman, with Decker and Grøvlen contrasting the visual difference between past and present with a casting choice that makes it hard to quickly separate Paula from Rose. The effect is to feel a beat behind understanding whether you’re watching reality or what’s going on in Shirley’s head, a sensation in line with the way readers experience Jackson’s own writing, says Decker: “You suddenly realize you’re inside of someone’s first-person experience, it’s maybe not reality, and you don’t know how you got there.”

 

Decker describes Jackson’s stories as “delicious spirals toward a weird hell,” and, depending on how you view the way Gubbins ends her script, Shirley is the same. Despite the nastiness of Shirley and Stanley’s co-dependent relationship, Shirley manages to produce her greatest work. Stanley’s a cheat, but Shirley knows, and there’s joy in witnessing her drunkenly feed her final glass of wine at a fatuous faculty party to the sofa in front of the hostess, one of Stanley’s paramours. Rose’s hell, framed by a shotgun marriage to a total weenie whom, as it is clear to everyone but Rose, is following in his mentor Stanley’s philandering footsteps, seems more concerningly inescapable. It’s obvious this marriage will never “work,” but life and friendship with Shirley give Rose the tools to deal with it on her own terms. “I think there’s a bunch of different interpretations of the ending and it really depends on if you are, as a viewer, connecting to Rose or to Shirley more,” Decker points out. “Both endings could be seen as positive and both could be seen as negative.” As Rose is slowly remade in Shirley’s image, the extent of her bad marriage comes to light, but there’s comfort in the Schadenfreude that at least Fred won’t be let off easy.

In Jackson’s works, Decker points out, “a lot of her characters never get to leave the wicked space they end up in.” This is what happens, literally, to Rose, but the film is ambivalent as to whether that’s necessarily a bad thing. As they grow close, Shirley tells her pregnant young tenant to pray for a boy. “The world is too cruel to girls,” she tells Rose. The baby turns out to be a girl, of course, but with the complex luck to be born into Shirley’s world, you wonder if, for this little one, things might turn out different.

Featured image: L-r: Elisabeth Moss is Shirley and TK is TK in ‘Shirley.’ Courtesy Neon. 

Warner Bros. Has Made Just Mercy Available to Rent For Free

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When we interviewed Just Mercy director Destin Daniel Cretton back in January, we, of course, had no idea that the world was going to change so drastically shortly after the film’s January 10 release. First, it was the spread of COVID-19, which has taken the lives of more than 100,000 Americans, disproportionately affecting Black, Hispanic, Latino and Indigenous communities. Then, it was the murder of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by members of the Minneapolis Police Force, leading to widespread protests that have sprung up all across the country against police brutality. Floyd’s murder was, crucially, caught on camera. A little less than five months after we spoke to Cretton, his film has gained even more resonance. Resonance Just Mercy didn’t need, quite frankly, considering the reality of police brutality and the inherent racism of our judicial system have been issues in America for as long as there have been police, district attorneys, judges, and juries.

At the time, Cretton told us about the moment he learned about Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and the man the film is based on. It was way back in 2015, several millennia ago, when Cretton came upon Stevenson’s incredible book.

“I was sitting in a coffee shop in LA called the Bourgeois Pig when I opened up a book called Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson,” he told our writer Chris Koseluk. “As soon as I started reading, I couldn’t put it down.” At the time, Cretton was building a name in Hollywood as the writer/director of Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle, and once he read “Just Mercy” he said he knew he had to bring Stevenson and his work to movie audiences. “I was never expecting that a book about incarceration and slavery would leave me feeling so connected to humanity and inspired to get involved. I immediately wanted to do whatever I could to help tell this story.”

That was only a few months ago—but another lifetime ago. America is now facing, yet again, a reckoning with another murder of an unarmed Black man, which came on the heels of several other high profile murders of unarmed Black people—Breonna Taylor shot in her home by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery shot by a former officer and his son while jogging in Satilla Shores, Georgia, to name two.

To that end, Warner Bros. is making Just Mercy free to rent. Considering the film is focused on Stevenson’s early career (played by an excellent Michael B. Jordan), and his defense of an innocent Black man on death row, Just Mercy serves as a vivid portrait of the rot in America’s justice system. Here’s the statement from Warner Bros.:

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Repost @justmercyfilm – For more information visit www.justmercyfilm.com @eji_org

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If you’re Instagram-averse, here is their full statement:

“We believe in the power of story. Our film Just Mercy, based on the life work of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, is one resource we can humbly offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society. For the month of June, Just Mercy will be available to rent for free across digital platforms in the US. To actively be part of the change our country is so desperately seeking, we encourage you to learn more about our past and the countless injustices that have led us to where we are today. Thank you to the artists, storytellers and advocates who helped make this film happen. watch with your family, friends and allies. For further information on Bryan Stevenson and his work at the equal justice initiative please visit eji.org.”

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) JAMIE FOXX as Walter McMillian and MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Bryan Stevenson in Warner Bros. Pictures’ drama JUST MERCY, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: JAKE GILES NETTER

How Space Force Production Designer Susie Mancini Channeled Stanley Kubrick

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Steve Carell is at the center of the new 10-episode Netflix series Space Force, which he co-created with Greg Daniels (The Office) and is streaming now. The inspiration for the show is the real US Space Force that was formed last year to ensure American military supremacy in space and was the brainchild of Donald Trump. The series, which also stars John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, and Ben Schwartz, is part political satire and part workplace comedy. Carell plays General Mark Naird, the commander of the new Space Force, which is tasked with achieving  ‘boots on the moon’.

We chat with production designer Susie Mancini about how the aesthetic was inspired by Dr. Strangelove and Sean Connery’s James Bond, celebrating Carell’s manly side and the challenges of creating a show that is so firmly of the moment.       

 

How did you end up joining Space Force?

I was recommended by someone I used to work with and had a meeting with Greg. He was my biggest idol I couldn’t believe that I could even meet with him for breakfast. I could never even imagine that I had a shot to get the job. I told him, ‘You can have all the designers in the world with Emmy awards and whatnot and I just want to have breakfast with you.’ We had a great breakfast and he still wanted to hear my ideas. We were on the same page and we kept on talking and from there to five days later, I had the job.

What were some of those initial ideas that you discussed?

The first time we spoke he didn’t say much, he really wanted me to give my approach to the concept. My dream in terms of architecture and design was to create a world where I could explore the architectural side of it. And the idea of creating a whole new world which is present-day and could really exist. It’s so technical, it’s such a challenge. I didn’t want to go too much into fantasy land. I know his comedy pretty well as a spectator, so I knew his comedy doesn’t work with fantasy. It works with reality. He also mentioned that for this one he wanted it to have a hint more design and create a world that was slightly enhanced, so the first thing I thought of was Dr. Strangelove. And he was completely on the same page. Kubrick has always been my favorite for references and I could never find a project where I could explore in that direction.

SPACE FORCE (L TO R) JOHN MALKOVICH as DR. ADRIAN MALLORY, STEVE CARELL as GENERAL MARK R. NAIRD, ALEX QUIJANO as STEVEN HINES, ROY WOOD, JR. as ARMY LIAISON BERT MELLOWS, JOHN HARTMANN as CHAMBERS, NOAH EMMERICH as KICK GRABASTON, and BRANDON MOLALE as CLARKE LUFFINCH in episode 105 of SPACE FORCE Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020
SPACE FORCE (L TO R): John Malkovich as Dr. Adrian Mallory, Steve Carell as General Mark R. Naird, ALex Quijano as Steven Hines, Roy Wood. Jr. as Army Liaison Bert Mellows, John Hartman as Chambers, Noah Emmerich as Kick Grabaston, and Brandon Molale as Clarke Luffinch. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020

We’re also literally seeing a different side of Steve Carell—he’s still hilarious—but tell me about placing him in a military world.

I always thought of Steve Carell as an incredible comedian and actor but also as a very attractive man. I wanted for this role to embrace that part of him as the general of a military branch, rather than just the comedian side of him. I pulled as a reference for him, and all of his environments, the old James Bond – the Sean Connery James Bond. Especially You Only Live Twice. And so using the brutalist architecture for the Space Force headquarters, I embraced those elements of a really cool, really manly, kind of retro guy.

Steve Carell as Mark R. Naird in episode 101 of SPACE FORCE Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020
SPACE FORCE: Steve Carell as Mark R. Naird in episode 101 of SPACE FORCE Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020

The brutalist buildings are so striking with the desert as the backdrop. It’s not a style you usually associate with American government buildings. How did you end up there?

We thought, what would the government be able to afford in terms of opening up a whole new branch that would cost this much because you were sending shuttles off into space? Maybe they could find a structure that was preexisting, somewhere in the desert where they have a lot of land around them? I liked the idea of using brutalism because of the lines of that type of architecture, on top of being really cool and not being overdone in movies, I thought it married really well with how the new branch related to politics and pop culture. So we embraced the idea of having architecture that was that lavish and maybe iconic or loud but then the interiors are barely decorated and if they are it’s with older furniture or stuff that the government would be able to afford. We tried to create a bridge between design and practicality.

SPACE FORCE (L TO R) STEVE CARELL as GENERAL MARK R. NAIRD and BEN SCHWARTZ as F. TONY SCARAPIDUCCI in episode 105 of SPACE FORCE Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020
SPACE FORCE (L TO R) Steve Carell as General Mark R. Naird and Ben Schwartz as F. Tony Scarapiducci in episode 105 of SPACE FORCE Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020

You’ve also got that injection of classic American patriotism with the polished wood, and the red, white and blue and eagles etcetera. Was that a tricky balance to find?

It was. My queen is my set decorator Rachael Ferrara, who is a super hard-working lady. For example in Naird’s backstory, he was in the Air Force for many years, and then he was transferred into the Space Force. He’s a very strong military guy, he comes from a military family, he strongly believes in it and he’s very patriotic. He’s not a guy who would lose his time thinking, I have a beautiful office. Every little flag and every framed article that is Army-related is real and has been recreated and studied, so it would actually reflect a career of 20 years in the Air Force. So there’s a lot of research involved. Greg is a great proponent to use reality. He would come to set and he would have questions for the set decorators – like, ‘What is this?’ So you would never have a random object that you thought just looks good there. Every time it was five minutes of terror when Greg would come and do the interrogation on every object.

SPACE FORCE (L TO R) STEVE CARELL as GENERAL MARK R. NAIRD and JOHN MALKOVICH as DR. ADRIAN MALLORY in episode 106 of SPACE FORCE Cr. AARON EPSTEIN/NETFLIX © 2020
SPACE FORCE (L TO R) Steve Carell as General Mark R. Naird and John Malkovich as Dr. Adrian Mallory in episode 106 of SPACE FORCE Cr. AARON EPSTEIN/NETFLIX © 2020

And it was a very interesting situation because there were these strange parallels between the real United States Space Force and the show, which were both being created at the same time. Greg Daniels has credited your research with the accuracy of the show. How did you approach that?

We did a lot of research and consulted with engineers who are actually working on shuttles for space launches, which was amazing and we learned so much. First of all, we learned that the cockpits of these space shuttles are empty. The idea of this room filled with buttons and levers and whatever else, the technology has changed so much and now everything is concentrated in one single screen that looks like an iPad. And the rest of the seats are simple pilot seats. It’s a very empty and simple environment done with a lot of recycled materials. And they want to be cheap and effective, so if you have that magical and grand idea of these astronauts and these amazing spaceships it kind of falls apart, but we wanted again to embrace realism. The idea of simplicity was most inspired by SpaceX and all the work that they do.

It must have been strange to work on a show that’s inspired by the real Space Force, as information about it is trickling out. Can you tell me a little bit about that experience?

That is the most terrifying part honestly. Because we don’t know what that’s going to be. When their flag with their logo was revealed, it was honestly a relief because our logo, I think, is cooler. We spent a really long time on logos and that was such an important element of the show that would influence the costumes and so many other elements of the world that we created. I  spent almost two months to create the logo and we did such extensive research on so many military fields and whatever else we could find to create something that would look legit. Something that could be a real seal next to the Air Force, and the US Army and the Navy logos. It has specific colors, there’s no shading, it’s very flat, it’s very simple. It evokes the general idea that the Space Force represents the eye in the sky. When I saw their actual logo and the elements of the Star Trek logo it had, I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a meme at first. And then I realized, it’s real. So I thought we worked harder than them, that’s for sure.

Featured image: SPACE FORCE (L TO R) STEVE CARELL as GENERAL MARK R. NAIRD, JIMMY O. YANG as DR. CHAN KAIFANG, and JOHN MALKOVICH as DR. ADRIAN MALLORY in episode 101 of SPACE FORCE Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2020

Judy & Punch Writer/Director Mirrah Foulkes Turns the Tables on Her Infamous Puppets

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Judy & Punch kicks off with a male marionette thrashing a female doll-on-strings as a crowd of 17th-century tavern goers roars with delight. The camera soon shifts to witches, hangings, infanticide, beatings, magic brews, and lies as filmmaker Mirrah Foulkes bloodily re-imagines how the western world’s most famous pair of hand puppets got their start.

Set in and around an English village shortly after the Bubonic Plague, Judy & Punch (June 5, digital download available here) casts Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass) and Damon Herriman (Dewey Crowe in TV’s Justified) as the doomed title couple whose lives fall apart before they get a chance to conquer Ye Olde Show Business. The script comes courtesy of director Foulkes, who worked mainly as an actress before teaming with Vice Entertainment on the short film Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke and this subsequent collaboration.

Filmed entirely in Australian, Foulke’s darkly fantastical debut draws on a quirky score from composer Francois Tetaz and costumes by Edie Kurzer (Picnic at Hanging Rock) that outfit even the most wicked characters in dandy capes and caps. Judy & Punch wowed crowds at Sundance and last fall picked up nine nominations, including Best Picture, from The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. On lockdown in her home down under, Foulkes spoke via Zoom about her modern movie about ancient entertainment.

 

How did you come up with your take on the infamously violent puppets Punch and Judy?

When Vice Studios brought me the project, I landed on the idea quite quickly that I wanted to make a revisionist origins story. It takes place at a particular time and place, 17th century Europe, but didn’t want it to be historically accurate. I wanted the film to feel like a world-building exercise where I could break rules when needed and not be historically accurate.

The film portrays violence against women in ways that seem to resonate in our current cultural climate.

Given Punch and Judy’s violence and misogyny, there’s no way you can look at this story without examining that through a contemporary lens. My idea of putting it into this historical context was partly about having the freedom to play around with contemporary parallels as seen through the prism of this almost fantasy world.

L-r: Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska in 'Judy & Punch.' Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films
L-r: Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska in ‘Judy & Punch.’ Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films

Before you started the project how much did you know about the Punch and Judy puppet tradition?

Not much. I knew it had these stock characters and that it was very English, but I didn’t know Punch and Judy was derived from Italian Commedia dell’ Arte, which I uncovered in my research. I really wanted the movie to play well for audiences who don’t have any background knowledge about Punch and Judy.

This is your first feature-length movie. What was your biggest challenge in doing something of this scale? 

Logistically, Judy & Punch was a short shoot with limited resources and a lot of moving parts—animals and kids and set pieces. But the most difficult thing for me was making a film that treads a very delicate tonal line. In a sense, Judy & Punch is sort of like total tonal acrobatics.

L-r: Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska in 'Judy & Punch.' Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films
L-r: Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska in ‘Judy & Punch.’ Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films

SPOILER ALERT

You juxtapose tragedy and comedy, for example in the sequence where a “baby”—clearly a doll—sails out the window to her death.

Totally. It’s the most slapstick sequence in the whole movie, followed by the film’s most violent moment. I’m trying to take the audience on a ride that leaves them questioning something they’ve just laughed at, as a way of examining what it is that we find enjoyable in terms of entertainment. It’s tricky but also weirdly fun because comedy and tragedy often are so close anyway.

Your stars go a long way in selling these different moods, especially Damon Herring as Punch, who behaves very badly throughout the film.

Mia and Damon have very different processes. Damon’s totally OCD. He does his homework, then begs you for another take and another take and another take, always giving you seething different. “Let me try this, let me try that.” He brings a humanity to dark characters like Punch, which was great because I needed him to be strangely likable despite all the horrendous shit that he’s doing.

L-r: Damon Herriman and Benedict Hardie. Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn
L-r: Damon Herriman and Benedict Hardie. Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn

Mia seems well suited as the resilient Judy since she’s often portrayed formidable characters in films like Alice in Wonderland and Crimson Peak.

Mia has one of those remarkable faces that’s endlessly compelling, even in stillness. She’s much more of an intuitive actor, and emotional, like me, approaching character from a very instinctual place. So Mia and Damon are sort of polar opposites in the way they work, but I think their chemistry on screen is fantastic.

Mia Wasikowska in 'Judy & Punch.' Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Mia Wasikowska in ‘Judy & Punch.’ Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films.

The film’s closing credits play over old archival footage of school kids freaking out as they watch an old Punch and Judy puppet show.

That footage defines the very fine line between laughter and tears that children demonstrate so readily, which is essentially the same kind of reaction I hope to elicit from our audience for Judy & Punch. Something can be frightening and also totally delightful. It’s why pop culture has such an obsession with violence, isn’t it? There’s something very dramatic about it.

You belong to the Blue Tongues Film Collective, whose members have directed movies including Boy Erased and Animal Kingdom. What’s it like being part of this group?

We’re a bunch of mates that work on each other’s stuff and spend a lot of time on each other’s sets. I started out acting in their shorts, and now that I’m directing, I’ve gotten incredible support. David Michôd is a member of the Blue Tongues and my boyfriend as well, so just being able to watch him go through the process of making a film four times has been great. I never went to film school. For me, getting to hang on their sets and watch these guys work has basically been my film school.

Early in the movie, Judy asks Punch why their puppet show keeps getting more and more violent.

And Punch says “That’s what people like, my love. Punchy and smashy. That’s what people like.” It’s interesting to reflect on that in the film. I enjoy it just as much as the next person.

Featured image: Mia Wasikowska in ‘Judy & Punch.’ Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Josh Gad & Kristen Bell on Their New Animated Musical Series Central Park

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Before he was an adorable singing snowman named Olaf, Josh Gad was a Tony-nominated Broadway star (“The Book of Mormon”) and before that, he was a devoted fan of old-fashioned Broadway musicals, you know, the kind that begin with a big “I wish” song and use the music to reveal character and move the story along. He was also a fan of New York’s Central Park. And the animated TV series Bob’s Burgers. So he sat down with the people behind it and proposed bringing it all together with something that had never been done before: an animated television series set in Central Park with a full Broadway musical-level score in every half-hour episode and top Broadway talent to provide the voices, including his Frozen co-star and fellow musical theater nerd Kristen Bell. Plus, as the voice of the show’s villain, a tiny, vastly wealthy, elderly lady named Bitsy who wants to take over Central Park for real estate development, Stanley Tucci (really).

Bob’s Burgers producer Loren Bouchard responded like Mickey Rooney to Judy Garland: “Let’s put on a show!”

Gad and Bell met with a small group of journalists to talk about Central Park, now available on Apple TV+.

 

This really is a show for the whole family. Children will enjoy it and their parents will, too. Even people without children!

Josh Gad: That was the motivation. I wanted a show that I could celebrate with my kids. Something akin to Bob’s Burgers, which my co-creators Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith both also had a hand in crafting. And I wanted it to be a show that celebrated life, that celebrated passion, that celebrated perseverance in the face of adversity. A show that celebrates all those things that make us so human, and we didn’t feel the need to rely on crass humor. There’s the occasional poop joke, I’m not gonna lie, but we felt like we wanted something that really could be the essence of co-viewing. At a time when there are fairly limited options, where you love something but your kids don’t, or your kids love something but maybe you don’t, we wanted something for everyone to love, and I hope we accomplished that. I can tell you in my household, there has definitely been a sense of excitement for the past two years, as my kids have been watching these episodes. Kristen, what about you?

Kristen Bell: Well I wanted to jump in because it’s always more fun when someone else brags about you. I think Josh hit the nail on the head. I signed onto this project knowing nothing about it. I signed on because Josh said, “Hey, do you want to do a cartoon with me?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “OK, bye.” And then a year later, I get told what the plot is, that he hired all our friends. Listen, I have a 5 and a 7-year-old, and we love hanging out, but we are not often agreeing on TV. There are a lot of great shows that they love, but if I watch another PAW Patrol, I will pull my hair out. It’s not because I think it’s a bad show. It’s a wonderful show. I’ve just seen Ryder do it all, right? Chase is on the case, I get it. I need something a little more complicated to keep my interest. It is hard to find things because even going back and watching the ‘80s movies like Back to the Future, things that we think would be super appropriate, even if they’re appropriate there might be something in them that spooks my child. It is harder than you think to create a show that is true co-viewing, and I trust Josh’s comedic and show-running integrity implicitly. I sat down and watched this with my kids, I was incredibly engaged, my kids have been singing the songs, they love it, there’s nothing I’m nervous about. It is the essence of co-viewing, and it makes me so happy that at a time when a lot of us are still at home, we are able to have this joyful snuggle party in the evenings.

The show really celebrates the underdog, like Kirstin’s song, “Weirdos.”

KB: Well I want to start off with one comment about [my character] Molly, and the superhero song. One reason I love playing Molly is that a lot of people who write adolescents on television, in cartoons or live-action, and they can fall into a lot of clichés.  You can fall into a lot of places where they’re just rebellious, or they just hate their parents, all these things that aren’t necessarily realistic. They’re dramatic, but they’re not realistic. Molly is an awkward adolescent, as they all are, but in Central Park, she’s shown with this big beautiful brain that she has, and this lightning world inside her head, that she can only draw about. In that world, she has confidence and power, and I’m very grateful to play her.

 

JG: I think so many people right now feel like an underdog, and I don’t know that there’s anything that celebrates the underdog as much as we’ve tried to with this show. It’s not just Molly. It’s Owen, it’s Paige, it’s Cole, it’s even Birdie. It’s everybody except for Bitsy who literally and metaphorically looks down on the world. And we loved leaning into that because, again, I think this family shows you how important the power of perseverance is, and also being a family unit.

It is remarkable that you found different composers for each episode. How do you find them and how do you keep it consistent?

JG: I’m what some might call an unhealthy devotee of the musical form. I got my start on Broadway and then went on to do a lot of musical films including Beauty and the Beast, and of course the Frozen films with the brilliant Kristen Bell. But I wanted to bring that love of the musical form to television in a way that I hadn’t necessarily seen it done before. I didn’t want it to be pastiche, I didn’t want it to send up musicals, I didn’t want it to be a show with music. I wanted it to be a show where the characters had no choice but to break out into song, to express themselves emotionally, to create a tapestry of songs that would interconnect thematically from episode to episode, and seasonally as well, maybe even series-wide. That was a very ambitious task, and when I first pitched Loren the idea of doing four songs a show, I thought he was gonna kill me. I knew that that responsibility could not fall on the shoulders of one or even two composers. We started off with the most incredibly gifted composers that I knew, and Kristen knew of, but not many people did, Kate Anderson and her partner Elyssa Samsel, who wrote the songs for Olaf’s Frozen Adventure that Kristen and I did a few years back. Their music was extraordinary. We started with them and then brought in this incredible composer that Loren knew named Brent Knopf. And Sara Bareilles. Then from there, we built out this amazing list of guest composers who were willing to come in and write for people like Kristen and Titus Burgess and Leslie Odom Jr. and Daveed Diggs and Stanley Tucci and Kathryn Hahn. And we’ve been really blessed, it’s been an extraordinary collaboration.

Bitsy (voiced by Stanley Tucci) and Helen (voiced by Daveed Diggs) in “Central Park,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Bitsy (voiced by Stanley Tucci) and Helen (voiced by Daveed Diggs) in “Central Park,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

What relationship do you have with Central Park?

JG: I can recall a very vivid memory of being in the spring of ‘99. I was going into my final semester in high school, and I had applied to Carnegie Mellon drama, where I would actually meet my co-star Leslie Odom Jr. who was my classmate. I left my audition in New York City, and I put everything on that audition. That was going to be my lifeline, and if I got into the school I was set, and if I didn’t, I was ruined, in my mind. I left the audition and my mom said, “What do you want to do?” And I said to her, “I’d love to take a stroll through Central Park.” We walked into the park, and I kid you not, it started sprinkling snow as I took a step, left the border of this concrete jungle and entered the border of this magical natural wonderland. It really made me feel like everything was going to be OK. And the thing that I’m obsessed with about Central Park is it’s the great equalizer. You can be the richest person in the world or the poorest person in the world, but when you’re in that park, you’re on an equal playing field. The park shouldn’t exist. And yet here it is, in the midst of steel. You’re taken to this place where anything is possible. That, to me, felt like the magic that we wanted to bring to this series.

KB: That’s such a beautiful way to say it, Josh. I went to NYU, so I went to school in the city. There’s something very special about this paradox that is Central Park, in that it shouldn’t exist there, and it is an equalizer, but you’re able to fulfill both parts of your personality, or at least I was. I was ready to be a working woman and live in a walk-up on the fourth floor, and yet I sort of yearned for a little bit more Michigan’s green spaces, and then I could go to the park and that could happen. To me, it’s a celebration, which our show is as well, a celebration of diversity because there are two different lands right next to each other, coexisting, and I dare you to find a person in New York City who can’t make an argument that you need them both.

JG: Beautifully said.

Featured image: Birdie (voiced by Josh Gad), Owen (voiced by Leslie Odom Jr.), and Glorious Gary (voiced by Chris Jackson) in “Central Park,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Mission: Impossible 7 Eyeing a Return to Filming in September

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The cast and crew of Mission: Impossible 7 have their own difficult mission ahead of them; restarting their massive, complicated shoot after production was shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking with the BBC (via Deadline), first assistant director Tommy Gormley said he believed that filming would begin again in September, and be wrapped by May 2021. The film is directed once again by Christopher McQuarrie, and stars, of course, Tom Cruise as the super spy Ethan Hunt.

“We hope to start shooting again in September,” Gormley told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “We were days from shooting in Venice — we were right at the epicenter when it all kicked off — so we had to shut down in Venice where we were four or five days from shooting. We hope to visit all the countries we planned to and look to do a big chunk of it back in the UK on the backlot and in the studio, so September through to end April/May is our targets. We are convinced we can do this.”

Meanwhile, one of the franchise’s stars, Simon Pegg, told Variety that the scenes they’ll shoot in September will be “the outdoor stuff.” “That feels fairly doable, and obviously there will be precautions put in place.”

Considering the Mission: Impossible franchise is legendary for its epic stunts, restarting production will mean tackling heady logistical and personnel issues to make sure the film is up to snuff, but also that everyone involved is safe.

“People that are involved in any close proximity stuff, it will have to be determined that they’re safe to do that,” Pegg told Variety. “I don’t know what the testing situation is, how that works, or whether they’ll be able to be tested regularly.”

Gormley told BBC Radio 4’s Today that the British Film Commission guidelines are “excellent” and that despite the major challenges of pulling off a huge film with a giant crew, this was a mission they could succeed in if they break down each procedure required very carefully.

“If we have the protocols in place and we break down all the procedures very carefully…we will get it going again,” Gormely told Today. “Some things are very challenging such as stunt scenes, crowd scenes, etcetera, but we can’t do a Mission: Impossible movie and not have a fight scene or car scenes in it.”

Gormely’s confidence that they can pull it off comes from his experience working in a highly adaptable industry. He brought up shoot for a Star Trek film in which they filmed in a brewery complex and the crew was outfitted in goggles, gloves, and other protective equipment.

“Because we were in a food factory, that’s what we did and we didn’t think twice about it,” he told Today. “We are incredibly agile and we’re used to working in the most extreme situations in the most extreme locations. We can basically tackle anything if we prepare it carefully enough. We have to get back to work for every person in the film industry, tens of thousands of us, we have to get back to work. We have to do it safely and protect our colleagues, but it is definitely possible and we’re working flat out to make it happen.”

Featured image: Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. © 2018 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.

Paul Dano Praises Matt Reeves Script for The Batman

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One of the (many) unusual byproducts of the COVID-19 pandemic suspending productions all across the globe is how it’s allowed the cast and crew to reflect on their projects before they’re even halfway done principal photography. This ability to assess a work-in-progress is not something filmmakers usually do publicly. This is what’s happened on Matt Reeves The Batman, and it’s led to some pretty intriguing quotes from Reeves himself, as well as members of his cast. You can now add Paul Dano to the list.

Dano plays Edward Nahston, better known as the Riddler, one of Batman’s most iconic villains and a member of the Rogues Gallery Reeves has assembled for his film. Speaking with The Playlist, Dano revealed some thoughts about what Reeves has cooked up for us. Dano had flown home from production to visit his wife (the equally talented Zoe Kazan) and their baby when production was halted. When asked what he felt about the film thus far and the script, Dano told The Playlist “I feel really good about it. I think Matt Reeves is the real deal. I was really surprised by his script, which I think is potentially really powerful.”

Dano’s the Riddler joins Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman and Colin Farrell’s Penguin as the film’s three main villains, at least as far as we know. While Dano notes he “legally can’t say anything about” the film, he reports that there’s “something fun in my character and in all the characters. It’s the kind of movie that we’re just desperate to share on the big screen in a big way. So, I hope we all figure this [coronavirus situation] out and get excited to see a Batman movie. It will be worth it. It’s going to be really cool.”

Colin Farrell also praised Reeves’ script when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! back in January (another lifetime ago, at this point). “He wrote a really beautiful, dark, moving script, really gorgeous,” Farrell told Kimmel. When asked if he’d read the entire script. “Yeah, with a chain around my arm and cryogenically frozen script, it’s all very hush-hush. But it’s a really beautiful script that he wrote and he has a real love for it, Matt.”

Previously, Andy Serkis, who plays Bruce Wayne’s beloved butler and moral conscious Alfred, shared that Reeves’ film will be “darker, broodier” than its predecessors. Serkis told LADbible that Alfred’s relationship with Bruce Wayne is an important piece of the puzzle. “It’s very much about the emotional connection between Alfred and Bruce,” Serkis told LADbible. “That’s really at the center of it. And it is a really exquisite script that Matt has written.”

Meanwhile, Reeves himself told Nerdist that his take on Batman will differ considerably from previous iterations in that we’ll be catching up with Bruce Wayne in the midst of becoming his alter ego, making The Batman neither an origin story or one that starts with the character completely established: “I just felt like well, what I’d love to do is to get a version of this Batman character where he’s not yet fully formed. Where there’s something to do in this context with who that guy would be in this world today and to ground him in all of these broken ways. Because at the end of the day, this guy is doing all of this to deal with trauma in his past.”

Featured image: An image from writer/director Matt Reeves ‘The Batman.’ Courtesy Reeves/Warner Bros.

Joe Bob Briggs Declares This the Summer of the Drive-In

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Two summers before a nightmarish virus began sweeping across the globe and altering our reality like a horror B movie, Joe Bob Briggs revived his long-running campaign to keep the drive-in alive. The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs premiered in July of 2018 on AMC’s horror streaming service Shudder. The special was so popular, it crashed the site. Briggs said he was initially skeptical and envisioned the show airing once “for nostalgia sake.” Yet, there may be no one who has had a more successful career by tapping into a bygone era than Briggs. “Sure enough, people showed up in droves,” he reflected.

After a follow-up Thanksgiving and Christmas special that year, The Last Drive-In cinched a regular spot and is now in season 2 airing live on Friday nights. Joe Bob’s fans, lovingly called The Mutant Fam, tweet live along with Joe Bob’s side-kick, Darcy the Mail Girl. Horror legends like Barbara Crampton and Eli Roth even post their input. “The amazing thing to me is it’s a streaming service, but they want to watch the show in real-time,” Briggs noted. “We have appointment television on a streaming service, which is a contradiction in terms. It’s a longing for community, which is symbolized by the drive-in.”

Briggs earned his title of “America’s foremost drive-in movie critic” beginning in 1986 when he hosted Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on TCM for more than a decade followed by MonsterVision on TNT. His self-declared “redneck” commentary racking up body and blood counts spreads the love to lesser-seen flicks like Chopping Mall and Bloodsucking Freaks.

 

His selections are inspired by the history of real drive-in theaters. Briggs attributes smaller films hitting drive-in screens to the fact that studios didn’t supply blockbusters to the often independently owned outdoor theaters and they have only one good time for showings – sunset. “It was always a combination of high-brow and low-brow, but mostly low-brow because there was more money to be made,” Briggs explained.

So, is it sacrilege to watch a high-brow art film at a drive-in? “It’s actually not,” Briggs said. “[Drive-ins] sort of created what we know today as indie filmmaking. Among other things, Roger Corman distributed foreign art films. He distributed the films of Ingmar Bergman. Ingmar Bergman was delighted to know his films were being shown at drive-ins. He thought that was wonderful they were being appreciated by the common people.”

Despite the drive-in being an early avenue for many foreign films, they remained an American institution. “There are drive-ins in a few other countries like South Africa and Australia, but for the most part, 95% of the drive-ins in the whole world are in the United States and Canada. It’s a very American thing. It didn’t occur to the rest of the world to sit in your car and watch a movie,” Briggs laughed. “But Americans find that perfectly natural.”

Although the drive-in was most popular in the late 50s and early 60s with nearly 10,000 theaters running, there are still sites in operation today. “I always say, ‘The drive-in will never die.’ And it’s true. For 70 years, people have been writing these articles about the twilight of the drive-in, and yet they have never gone away. There’s always going to be drive-ins.”

Sure enough, although the circumstances were unforeseen, the drive-in does appear to be making a comeback in 2020. With social distancing guidelines in place to cut down on the spread of disease, the car is king once again. It’s private, it’s portable, and now it may serve as a movie theater seat. Who, if not Joe Bob Briggs, deserves a bizarre plot twist, anyway? “This is the year of the drive-in!” Briggs declared.

Doug Mercille’s family has owned the Starlite Drive-In in Cadet, MO since 1962 and he said they have been seeing a lot of first-time customers. The theater shows second-run films as double features. With most indoor theaters closed, audiences are realizing the benefits of drive-ins. “The main thing most people like is you can sit outside your car,” Mercille said. “It’s just a more family-oriented atmosphere where you can still congregate and not have to worry about everything that’s going on around you. You still have to watch some things, but for the most part, you have your own space.”

Despite not being enclosed and sitting right next to a stranger, the Starlite is still implementing social distancing safeguards. They’re operating at half-capacity allowing viewers to sit with their party in the space to the right of their car so there’s always at least a car between them and the next group. The concession stand is open to ten people or fewer, but staff will deliver your food to your car if you order on an app.

If you’re planning to hit the drive-in for the first time this summer, what should you know in advance? Mercille recommends you bring an FM radio to hear the film. Speakers no longer hook onto your car window like the old days, but the Starlite will rent you a portable radio if you don’t have one.

“The reason we know so many people have rediscovered the drive-in is they shine their lights directly on the screen, which is a big ‘no-no,’” Briggs warned. “They’ve never manually turned off their lights so they don’t know how to do it. It takes 100 cars honking at them before they can frantically figure out how to turn off the headlights on their car.”

Mercille laughed, agreeing that he was all too familiar with the problem. “That happens regardless. Every year we have those people because they buy new cars and they don’t realize it’s not the same. Whenever somebody is having trouble, we’ll go out and show them how to do it most of the time because they don’t know. For those we can’t figure out, we just get some black trash bags and we allow them to tuck it underneath the hood a little bit and over the lights and that will fix the problem.”

So what’s Joe Bob Briggs’ official pick for the best movie to watch at a drive-in? “Oh, that’s gotta be the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the original one. The 1973 one.”

Mercille says tornado alley harbors a different favorite. “I’ve been told it’s Twister. It has the scene with the actual tornado going through a drive-in movie screen.”

 

Although we’re all pained by the dimmed lights of indoor movie theaters this summer, the drive-in shines a little brighter by hosting a sense of community when it is difficult to gather. “Films were designed to be watched together,” Briggs said. “It’s so delightfully optimistic and heartwarming that people want to watch the film as a group. The drive-in is the symbol of that. The drive-in was always a place where everybody gathered. And it was all races, creeds, genders. That’s still true online as we prove every Friday night with our show. It’s a great thing and it’s an optimistic thing and I hope it helps the real drive-ins. The mom and pops that are still out there doing that good work keeping the drive-in alive.”

Featured image: Joe Bob Briggs. Courtesy Shudder.

The High Note Director Nisha Ganatra on the Importance of a Diverse Cast & Crew

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As a worthy follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2019 comedy Late Night, director Nisha Ganatra brings us The High Note, which was released this past May 29 for digital download. The film stars Dakota Johnson as aspiring producer Maggie Sherwoode, who works as personal assistant to iconic performer Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross). It’s a dramedy about women supporting each other as they reach for their highest goals and dreams. Ganatra spoke to The Credits about her new movie, perfect for movie lovers looking to watch something fresh, new, and decidedly hopeful in these profoundly difficult times.

Director Nisha Ganatra on the set of her film THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features
Director Nisha Ganatra on the set of her film THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features

The casting in this film is inspired. For Kelvin Harrison, performing as a musician onscreen is something new. He is also the romantic lead, which fans get to see for the first time.

Kelvin has it all. He’s funny, he’s charming, and he can do dramatic work, but I really wanted to see him as a romantic leading man. I think he could be a real rom-com star. He might be the new Hugh Grant we’ve all been looking for. He’s witty, and smart, and also a little self-deprecating and cocky. That’s a wonderful combination, so finding out that he could sing, on top of it all, was great. He has a really beautiful voice and a really strong work ethic. He worked really hard in the studio to make his songs as good as they are. He was a composing major in school, so he really knows what he’s doing. He knows so much about music, that he could help point out exactly the way it’s supposed to be, so every detail in the movie is spot-on for discerning musicians that might watch and take us to task if it’s not accurate.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. stars as David Cliff and Dakota Johnson as Maggie Sherwoode in THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features
Kelvin Harrison Jr. stars as David Cliff and Dakota Johnson as Maggie Sherwoode in THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features

Tracee Ellis Ross is so magnetic as Grace Davis. How did she take on the role? No one has ever heard her sing, and it had to be scary for her, given she’s Diana Ross’s daughter!

She had never been in a feature film before but also had never sung in public. She was very trepidatious and scared about letting anyone hear her voice. I’d cast her before I heard her sing, so I was a little worried. I figured if she couldn’t sing, there are tools to make people sound good, but it really would have been a shame. What wound up being captured was the emotion of her character as she was singing. Being able to be really present with all the emotion was really moving. It was really beautiful to watch her coming into her own. She had hidden her voice from the world, and we are so lucky she was able to share it with us now.

 

You make a point of hiring a diverse, gender-balanced cast and crew. Can you talk about your collaboration with production designer Theresa Guleserian and costume designer Jenny Eagan in creating the iconic looks that span Grace Davis’s career? 

If you don’t believe Grace Davis as a movie icon, the whole movie falls apart. That was our biggest challenge, getting that right, and making it believable. When I was just trying to get the job as director, I made a lot of album covers of Tracee Ellis Ross, just to see if people bought her as a music icon. I made them for fun, and it was really great because it really showed me how diverse her looks are, and that you really could track her throughout the years as a music icon. Theresa and I set about doing that in a much more professional way, with Theresa tracking her whole career. What was she wearing in the 80s? What about the 90s? What do her album covers look like now? We worked with Jenny to put together all those looks. We ultimately had one day to shoot all those album covers and take Tracee through a 20-year arc of her career as Grace Davis. We were lucky she was able to nail all those looks so quickly from her modeling experience. I think that day, as grueling and challenging as it was, was really key to finding the character in her head. She walked out of that photoshoot as Grace Davis from that day forward. I think that was an inadvertent but great rehearsal.

(l to r) Dakota Johnson stars as Maggie Sherwoode, Ice Cube as Jack Robertson and Tracee Ellis Ross as Grace Davis in THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features
(l to r) Dakota Johnson stars as Maggie Sherwoode, Ice Cube as Jack Robertson and Tracee Ellis Ross as Grace Davis in THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features

You also worked with female composer Amie Doherty, music supervisor Linda Cohen, and songwriter Sarah Aarons, which had to be valuable, since music and film run parallel in terms of the challenges to women in the business. 

It was really important to have a female composer, because who else could give voice to Grace Davis being an icon in a male-dominated field, and Maggie wanting to break into it, then a female composer who goes through that every single day? Amie’s music was so unique and beautiful. Linda Cohen and I have been collaborating since my very first film. She has since become a legend. After Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, she became the most sought-after music supervisor in the business. I knew I didn’t want to make this movie without her. Sarah Aarons came in during a stage when we were listening to thousands of demos. She came in, I met her, and every demo she sent sounded like a hit song on the radio. When she asked me which song I’d like to use, I said, “All of them!”

 

The High Note is full of risk, hope, and commitment. For those reasons and more, why do you think people should seek it out?

I guess it’s one of those old school studio movies that you watch, and you feel happy, and lifted, and hopeful. It’s definitely a movie that tells you to go after your dreams, and that everything’s going to be ok. You come away from it smiling and feeling joy. That might make it the perfect movie for this time. We could all use messages of hope, and this movie is a real feel-good ride.

Featured image: Tracee Ellis Ross stars as Grace Davis in THE HIGH NOTE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features

Join us For Our Second Film School Friday Event Featuring Creators From Insecure, Batwoman & More

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Join us today for our second Film School Friday event at 2 pm ET, which will feature leading Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) creators and continues our coverage of AAPI Heritage Month. Today’s virtual panel features creators from HBO’s Insecure, Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, The CW’s  Batwoman, and more. Your host is John Gibson, the Motion Picture Association’s Vice President for External and Multicultural Affairs. It’s that rare feel-good event in 2020, so please, join us and be part of the conversation. 

Your panelists are director Kabir Akhtar, whose recent work can be seen on Mindy Kaling’s new Netflix series Never Have I Ever; editor Nena Erb, an Emmy-winning editor based in Los Angeles whose work includes cutting Issa Rae’s fantastic HBO series Insecure; composer Sherri Chung, whose scores can be heard on CW’s hit series Batwoman and Riverdale; and composer Darren Fung, a two-time Canadian Screen Award winner and International Film Music Critics Association Award nominee, with more than 100 composition credits to his name. 

You’ll also hear from two special guests—Rep. Judy Chu, Chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus;, and Herb Wesson, Los Angeles City Council President Emeritus and Councilmember, District 10. 

To RSVP and watch the event, visit us at FilmSchoolFriday.com. You can join the conversation by using the hashtag #FilmSchoolFriday and @MotionPictures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Our last Film School Friday event featured The Letter for the King composer Brandon Campbell, Star Trek: Picard actress Tamlyn Tomita, Fear of the Walking Dead cinematographer Andrew Strahorn, and Watchmen writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour. We’re making Film School Friday an ongoing virtual series that will introduce you to the talented folks who help create the shows and films you love. We hope you’ll join us.  

Featured image: L-r and clockwise: Kabir Akhtar, Nina Erb, Darren Fung, and Sherri Chung. 

New Tenet TV Spot Highlights Christopher Nolan’s Pledge to Go “Somewhere New”

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When discussing the spy genre, within which Christopher Nolan’s new film Tenet is situated, the writer/director told Total Film (via IndieWire) that it’s “totally in my bones.” Therefore, while making Tenet, Nolan broke his own tradition; he didn’t have his cast screen the films that inspired the one they were working on. “And the reason was, I think we all have the spy genre so in our bones and in our fingertips,” Nolan told Total Film. “I actually wanted to work from a memory and a feeling of that genre, rather than the specifics.”

L-r: Robert Pattinson and John David Washington in Christopher Nolan's 'Tenet.' Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
L-r: Robert Pattinson and John David Washington in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet.’ Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

Nolan went on to say that his aim for Tenet, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson as two time-inverting agents attempting to stop armageddon, was to take the spy genre somewhere new, which was how he felt when he watched James Bond films as a child: “I don’t need to reference the movies and look at them again,” he told Total Film. “It’s about trying to re-engage with your childhood connection with those movies, with the feeling of what it’s like to go someplace new, someplace fresh. It actually has to take them somewhere they haven’t been before, and that’s why no one’s ever been able, really, to do their own version of James Bond or something. It doesn’t work. And that’s not at all what this is. This is much more my attempt to create the sort of excitement in grand-scale entertainment I felt from those movies as a kid, in my own way.”

This brings us to a brand new TV spot, which gives us a few more glimpses of Nolan’s time-bending mind-bender. As he did with Inception, Nolan is once again sending his characters into a malleable reality that’s no less deadly—in fact, it’s almost certainly more so—than the world they knew. We’ve already learned that Nolan used an actual jumbo jet for one of the film’s huge set pieces (rather than miniatures and CGI, as was the original plan). While the thrust of the plot is being kept under wraps, the latest trailer revealed that Washington and Pattinson’s operatives seem to be able to get ahead of time, as evidenced by the moment in which they pass the scene of a shooting that hasn’t happened yet. There’s a playful quality to what we’ve seen thus far. In a fun little bit of trivia, the working title for this film was Merry Go Round. Considering the story involves time manipulation, and being able to possibly save the world by skipping ahead to its future and working backward, that title is enjoyably cheeky.

It’s also worth noting that Nolan might be steeped in film history and have his own obsessions and style that he revisits, but he’s a relentlessly forward-looking filmmaker. To that end, it’s worth paying attention to what Washington said in an interview on Twitch TV on the gaming platform Fortnite. He said that Tenet was far ahead of even Nolan’s past features:  “We’re familiar with [Nolan’s] films, but this seems like something different,” Washington said. “It seems like this is where he’s about to take us for the next 10, 15 years of filmmaking,” he said.

Check out the new TV spot below. Tenet was originally slated for release on July 17, 2020, but that hasn’t been reconfirmed in a while, considering, well, everything that has and is happening in the world.

Featured image: JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON stars in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action epic “TENET,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon

Watch The Trailer for the Timely Bruce Lee Documentary Be Water

Posted on by babrams

Will Be Water be the next ESPN documentary sensation? It sure has the perfect protagonist. Riding high off the massive success of The Last Dance, which featured as its central protagonist the somehow still mysterious NBA legend Michael Jordan, ESPN’s vaunted 30 For 30 team have released the trailer for Be Water, which centers on the legendary martial arts expert and film star Bruce Lee. The doc, which premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim, will look beyond Lee’s status as just a martial arts icon and explore his role as a husband, father, an advocate for inclusion, and a vulnerable artist and athlete.

Directed by Bao Nguyen, Be Water premieres on June 7 at 9 pm ET. Nguyen had this to say to Deadline: “I hope the film shows that even someone as extraordinary and seemingly invincible as Bruce Lee had to battle a lot of rejection and internal struggles just because of what he looked like and where he came from. Even in the face of a racist system, built upon centuries of xenophobic attitudes and demeaning stereotypes, he was determined to change the old narratives and build this new myth of the Asian and Asian American as the hero.”

Considering the harassment Asian Americans are still facing today, especially with the deliberately spread misinformation surrounding COVID-19, the timeliness of Nguyen’s doc is hard to overstate.  “Nowadays, when many of us are under stay at home orders and unable to see others face to face, the stories and characters we present on TV are even more significant because that’s the ideas of one another we absorb as audiences,” he told Deadline. “This has become our main interaction with the world and so with Be Water, the aim is to not emphasize the ways we are different but try to bridge communities and learn from each other much like Bruce Lee did in his life.”

Check out the trailer here:

Featured image: A still from ‘Be Water,’ by Bao Nguyen, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.