Talking with SXSW Breakout Mallory Everton: Star, Writer, and Director of ‘RECOVERY’

March 23, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Interviews, Mallory Everton, Recovery, Steven Meek, SXSW, SXSW 2021, Talking With..., Whitney Call 1 Comment

Look, just about the last thing on earth that anyone is craving nowadays is more COVID-19 talk. No one wants mask jokes or commentary on toilet paper shortages nor do they want to deep dive into the horrors of having lost 550,000 Americans and counting to a pandemic that quickly became a hot-button political issue. And yet, Mallory Everton has managed to make a pandemic-set COVID comedy that feels rejuvenating and alive, maybe disproving the age-old adage that laughter is the “best” medicine (vaccines still probably have it beat) while underscoring enduring importance of comedy in a time of crisis. Read More

‘WRONG TURN’ Director Mike P. Nelson Talks ‘Temple of Doom’ Nods and Cuts to Avoid an NC-17 Rating

February 22, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Horror, Interviews, Mike P. Nelson, Talking With..., Wrong Turn 1 Comment

It’s sometimes in the strangest places that the sweetest things lurk. Or such is the case with Mike P. Nelson’s 2021 sequel/reboot of the Wrong Turn franchise, a film series which began in 2003 and went on to spawn five sequels. Despite a dedicated fan base, the backwoods inbred cannibal horror franchise never managed any notable critical or commercial success but in flipping the script and starting basically from scratch, Nelson and writing partner Alan B. Elroy have breathed new life into a series that now shows no sign of running out of gas and a whole new highway of ideas to explore. Read More

David Oyelowo of ‘DON’T LET GO’ Talks Which Phone Call He Would Place to the Past

August 28, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged David Oyelowo, Don't Let Go, Interviews, Talking With... 1 Comment

Sometimes a good performance comes in a, well, not so great package. Such is the story of Don’t Let Go, a hacky police procedural with loose sci-fi trappings. Leave it to David Oyelowo of Selma and Rise of the Planet of the Apes acclaim to leave a positive stain on an otherwise floundering film, his dedicated performance the only interesting thing of note. I spoke with the Nigerian-British-American actor about his career, which phone call he would place to the past to prevent some future tragedy, finding the emotionality of time travel, his favorite time travel movies, a long-awaited directorial debut and what’s next for the rising star. Read More

Writer-Director Paul Downs Colaizzo Talks the Long Road of ‘BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON’

August 27, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Amazon, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Interviews, Paul Downs Colaizzo, SIFF, SIFF 2019, Talking With... Leave a comment

Coming from the world of theater, Paul Downs Colaizzo makes his directorial debut with Brittany Runs a Marathon, a somewhat-inspired-by-a-true-story about an NYC party-girl reclaiming her life by strapping on sneaks and going jogging. Starring a very game Jillian Bell, Brittany Runs a Marathon is a fitness and lifestyle glow-up for the “Yass queen” generation that is both humorous and human, an aspect that Colaizzo found essential in his telling of the story. The writer-director discussed his motivation for directing for the first time, how he hopes to inspire audiences to become the best versions of themselves, the challenges of “learning the technical stuff” and Jillian Bell’s intense physical transformation. Read More

Writer-Director Lulu Wang Talks The 8 Truths of ‘THE FAREWELL’, a Family Movie About One Big Lie

July 17, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged A24, Interviews, Lulu Wang, Talking With..., The Farewell Leave a comment

*The following interview contains spoilers for the movie ‘The Farewell’, as it is based on the real life story of Lulu Wang and, in a suiting intersection between art and artist, to speak about one is to speak about the other.

The single thought I had exiting A24’s The Farewell, a semi-autobiographical drama about writer-director Lulu Wang’s family’s choice to keep the family matriarch in the dark about her terminal cancer diagnosis, was “What does Nai Nai think of all this?” Wang’s film, a certifiable critical darling and indie box office stunner, reveals in the closing moments that, despite doctoral pessimism, her grandma is still alive and kicking today. The real shocker though came when Wang admitted that even though her Nai Nai is still with us, she still is completely in the dark when it comes to her health. Despite that fact that she visited the very film set where her granddaughter was making a movie about the whole, deeply personal experience. Read More

Lynn Shelton Talks ‘SWORD OF TRUST’ And The Politics of Conspiracy

May 16, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Interviews, Lynn Shelton, SIFF 2019, Sword of Trust, Talking With... Leave a comment

”I wanted to give myself permission to make a comedy caper.”

Seattle native Lynn Shelton has been steadily making films since the mid-aughts, championing mumblecore tenements, giving her performers a vast opportunity for creation in the moment. Films like Humpday and We Go Way Back set the stage for her burgeoning talent but the writer-director touched a nerve in the independent film community with her 2011 film Your Sister’s Sister, which starred Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, and Rosemarie DeWitt and involved a messy familial love triangle triage in a far-flung cabin. Shelton cranked out Touchy Feely, a comedy about the powers of physical touch, and Laggies, about late-onset adulthood, working with actors like Ellen Page, Sam Rockwell, Chloe Moretz, and Keira Knightley. Over the second half of the decade, Shelton has poured herself into television work, directing episodes for shows like GLOW, The Good Place, Maron, Master of None, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Shameless, and a long stretch on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat. Read More

‘HER SMELL’ Writer/Director Alex Ross Perry Talks Misanthropic Characters, Universality of Rock Band Break Ups

May 2, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Alex Ross Perry, Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell, Interviews, Talking With... 1 Comment

Alex Ross Perry has been making movies for a decade now, even if his name only really registers with the festival crowd or dedicated indie connoisseurs. The filmmaker behind such critical darlings as Queen of Earth, Listen Up Phillip and The Color Wheel has a very distinctive taste and rarely shies away from nerve-wracking, challenging characters and with his latest, Her Smell, a daring punk-rock character study that circles Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss), is his greatest and most difficult work yet. I spoke with Alex about team effort, Elisabeth Moss’ singular talent, inspiration from Axl Rose and Charles Manson, tight shooting schedules, building a breakdown, influence from 70s horror movies, and the universal experience of bands breaking up. Read More

Mads Mikkelsen Talks Surviving ‘ARCTIC’, How He Would Fare in a Crash, and Whether He’s Actually That Intense in Real Life

February 11, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Arctic, Interview, Mads Mikkelsen, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, Talking With..., The Hunt Leave a comment

Mads Mikkelsen might not be a household name but the Danish actor has haunted some of the biggest Hollywood properties in the known universe, from playing Jyn Erso’s father in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ’to featuring as big bad Kaecilius in Marvel’s Doctor Strange to starring opposite James Bond in Casino Royale. The distinctive-looking actor is also known for playing the titular cannibal in NBC’s deliciously macabre (and unfairly cancelled) horror serial Hannibal in addition to offering up a should-have-been-Oscar-nominated role in Thomas Vinterberg’s outstanding drama The Hunt. For me, it’s Mikkelsen’s turn as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale (for my money, the best villain 007 has faced) that both showed the actor’s vast potential and represented his promise best – playing a calculating, wildly intelligent baddie is Mikkelsen’s bread and butter and no one does it quite like him. Even flipping the script and playing on the light side of the spectrum, the actor is undeniably magnetic. Read More

Talking with Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher of ‘EIGHTH GRADE’

July 23, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade, Elsie Fischer, Interviews, Talking With... Leave a comment

Festival darling Eighth Grade is another critical, and now low-flying commercial, score for studio A24 as well as a massive coming out party for writer-director Bo Burnham and star Elsie Fischer. Telling the story of Kayla, a perfectly average 13-year old girl with an unvisited YouTube channel and a quiet streak at school, as she navigates coming out of her shell. Awkward, tender, and, most of all, real, Eighth Grade is a triumphant piece of storytelling that lives and dies by its earnest depiction of the traumas and triumphs of middle school. Seconds of social interchange are filmed as if a horror movie, with Burnham’s film making for a horrifyingly transportative experience, pimples and all, in bringing one back to the woebegone young teenage angst. Read More

Talking with Andrew Haigh of ‘LEAN ON PETE’

April 10, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged A24, Andrew Haigh, Interviews, Talking With... Leave a comment

Yorkshire native Andrew Haigh has worn many hats in the entertainment industry. He cut his teeth in the early 2000s working as an assistant editor on a number of big budget blockbusters including Gladiator, The Count of Monte Cristo, Black Hawk Down, Reign of Fire and Kingdom of Heaven. In 2009, shortly after his last editorial gig, he released his first directorial debut, Greek Pete which he followed up two years later with Weekend. Neither made a huge splash at the box office but with his next feature, 45 Years, Haigh erupted on the art house scene, directing Charlotte Rampling to an Oscar nomination. He’s since lent his talents to the small screen, directing a number of episodes of the HBO sleeper gay drama Looking as well as a feature version of that same show. Read More