'Mr. Turner' Review

With Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year and now Mr. Turner, writer-director Mike Leigh has been on a 10-year hot streak. His latest is his long-in-the-works portrait of 19th century artist J.M.W. Turner, which stars a singular Timothy Spall. I loved this movie -- and if you can see it on the big screen, do it. I reviewed Mr. Turner for Paste.

SAG Foundation: My Conversation With Timothy Spall

On December 4, I sat down with Timothy Spall, the star of the mighty Mr. Turner, to discuss the film at a SAG Foundation screening. We only had about 25 minutes, but he was terrific. This is one of those Q&As where my guest does all the heavy lifting: Spall spoke at length, and articulately, about his approach to playing the painter J.M.W. Turner and his relationship with writer-director Mike Leigh, whom he refers to as a "forensic filmmaker." Needless to say, I was honored to get to speak with him. The video is below.