Is Bill Murray more of an actor or a walking meme? I explore that question while discussing his latest film, St. Vincent, for Deadspin. (Also, I reveal a dirty secret: The man's recent misfires have featured some of his most nuanced performances.) You can read the piece here.
Yesterday, I conducted a Q&A with two of Boyhood's stars, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, for the SAG Foundation. This is actually the second time I've chatted with them in connection to this film. (Back in August, I moderated a panel with those two, as well as Richard Linklater and Ellar Coltrane.) So I already knew what to expect from them, which is that they're total pros who don't need much guidance. Just ask them a solid question, and they'll take it from there. This Q&A was a delight, and the crowd loved them. You can watch our talk below, where we discussed the challenges of making a film over 12 years, Linklater's creative process, and why neither actor really wanted to ever share Boyhood with audiences. (Also, Hawke pokes a little fun at Daniel Day-Lewis.)
Oh, and a personal highlight before our conversation: Hawke telling me he liked my outfit.
This week, I hosted a post-screening Q&A with Clara Mamet, the writer-director of the forthcoming Two-Bit Waltz, for the SAG Foundation. Our chat is now available online, if you're interested. We talked about life as a first-time filmmaker, writing out of vengeance and what it's like to have David Mamet and Rebecca Pidgeon as parents.
This morning, I taped an appearance on KCRW's Press Play With Madeleine Brand. Greg Ellwood and I chatted with Madeleine about all the weekend's worthwhile releases. (The more I think about St. Vincent, the less I like it.) You can hear our segment here.
Fury is a movie I respected more than I loved, but I respected it enough to recommend. Writer-director David Ayer has made a World War II film that's awfully familiar in its broad strokes, but on closer inspection it has its own peculiar rhythm to it. And I quite liked Brad Pitt in it -- and Shia LaBeouf, which may surprise some. My review is up at Screen International.
For Backstage, I profiled Matt Lauria, the go-to character actor who's been on Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. His latest endeavor is Kingdom, the gripping DirecTV MMA drama. We sat down to discuss the merits of having a thin skin and being endlessly self-deprecating. I enjoyed our talk, and I hope you do, too.
For the first time, I attended the Beirut International Film Festival. I'll have more to say about that soon, but in the meantime here's my review of the festival's opening night film. Clouds of Sils Maria premiered at Cannes and will be coming to the U.S. next year thanks to IFC. It's no surprise that Juliette Binoche is superb in it, but the big revelation is her costar, Kristen Stewart. (Between this and Still Alice, she's had a very good year.) My thoughts on this mysterious, somewhat ambivalent treatise on art and interpretation are over at Paste.
I had a blast joining Christy Lemire and William Bibbiani on What the Flick?! this week. On the show, we discussed two of the weekend's more notable releases, The Judge and Whiplash. You can see those video segments below. My wife informs me that I sounded smart, which is all I can ask.
R.E.M. fans can argue about what the band's best album is, but most agree what's their worst: 2004's Around the Sun. An oddly dispassionate, almost diffident record, Around the Sun was around the time that most observers decided that R.E.M. were "over." And yet, there are a few gems on it. Including this one.
Dan Snaith has never really blown me away. But the lead single from his project Caribou's latest album is a corker. It's called "Can't Do Without You," which is repeated approximately 10,000 times in the song.
In honor of the 20th anniversary of Nas's groundbreaking debut Illmatic, the documentary Nas: Time Is Illmatic will be opening this week. For Playboy, I wrote a little about the film, and why I think it can't do justice to the album that inspired it. Hope you enjoy.
When I was working on FilmCraft: Screenwriting, I spoke with Hossein Amini, who has one of my favorite chapters in the book. At the time, he was trying to get his directorial debut off the ground. Well, now it's out, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel The Two Faces of January. I reviewed the film, which is a stylish little treat, for Paste.
One of the most anticipated movies of the fall, Gone Girl, opens on Friday. I went long on my review for Deadspin, trying to capture all the different feelings I have about this fascinating film. (Specifically, I dug into the fact that director David Fincher divides his output into two categories: films and movies.) My review is here.
Yesterday, I appeared on KCRW's Press Play With Madeleine Brand with fellow critic Drew McWeeny to discuss several new releases: The Equalizer, The Boxtrolls, Two Night Stand, The Two Faces of January and Jimi: All Is by My Side. A fun time was had by all. You can hear it here.
Yesterday, Michael Douglas turned 70. A few years ago when he was diagnosed with cancer, reaching 70 didn't seem very possible. Happily, he's still with us. For Paste, the actor-producer is the latest subject of my series "The Greats": You can read it here.
Because Prince won't allow his songs on YouTube, it's very hard to feature the man's work on Friday Video. But, lo and behold, this duet from Janelle Monáe's The Electric Lady is there. And it's used so nicely in The Equalizer, too. So enjoy.
Lilting is a postage stamp of a movie. Small, intimate, delicate, it tells of the uneasy relationship between an older Cambodian woman and the young London man who was in a long-term relationship with her dead son. The complication: The mother never knew her son was gay, and the lover doesn't want to bring it up. It's an affecting, modest drama. My full review of Lilting is up at Paste.
I was quite taken by Jimi: All Is by My Side when I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Though flawed, it was a honest attempt to try new things with the conventional rock-biopic format. But watching the film again recently, I was struck by the fact that this Hendrix biopic is less about Hendrix than it is about its star. That would be Andre Benjamin -- or, as he's known in Outkast, Andre 3000.
Benjamin has mostly shied away from music in the last decade, and his acting career never quite took off. Jimi allows him to show off his dramatic chops, but it can also be read as a sort of self-portrait, which makes this film all the more fascinating. I dig into all of that over at Deadspin.
One of the most underrated films of this year's festival was The New Girlfriend, the latest from prolific French writer-director Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool, In the House). Romain Duris plays a husband and new father who's just lost his wife and as a result returns to an old habit: dressing up as a woman. What could be a bawdy farce instead turns into something darker, sexier and more thoughtful. I reviewed The New Girlfriend for Paste.
I need to stop seeing Kristen Wiig movies in Toronto. At three separate festivals, I've sat through clunkers from the very talented former Saturday Night Live star. First was Imogene (later titled Girl Most Likely). Then came Hateship Loveship. This year, I tried Welcome to Me, a dark, dark comedy about a woman with mental issues who wins the lottery. It's another misfire, lamentably. Here's my review for Paste.
