The Sundance Film Festival is a time for movie watching, deal making, talent scouting and, often, much soul searching about the state and future of the independent film industry. This year in particular there was no shortage of media coverage and conversations about distribution and the sustainability of the independent business. As Sundance CEO Joana Vicente told The Ringer’s “The Town” podcast, “Everyone is thinking about solutions… How can we help and figure out how all these films find a home, and what’s our role in the distribution exhibition piece?” For Sundance’s more commercial films—of which there were several this […]
by Anthony KaufmanFrom the late aughts until pre-pandemic times, Apple’s presence in my life seemed concise and easy to recognize. It manufactured the phone in my pocket and the laptop I worked on. I picked an iPhone and a MacBook over the alternatives for the usual reasons: because Apple products were reliable and well-designed with intuitive user interfaces. The company, as a product manufacturer, appeared to have a vastly different purpose than the neighboring Silicon Valley empires extracting and monetizing data like Google and Facebook. Something changed in recent years. Now, when I think of Apple, I think of the AirTags I […]
by Joanne McNeilA crowd of people, animals and AI-generated beings sleeps in a movie theater. Faces are lit by the explosions of an atom bomb on screen. All we hear is the loud snoring of hundreds of people and the sounds of their bodies moving; a nondescript rodent crawls on the floor. We cut to the 70mm IMAX projection room, where the projectionist is also sleeping. The camera moves very slowly, but each shot morphs within itself at a faster pace. These two visual rhythms are layered on top of each other. The explosions on screen intensify; a panic sets in. We […]
by Deniz TortumThe Brooklyn-based actor Anastasia Olowin stars in Shaun Seneviratne’s Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts, which just had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. She has such a command of the screen and brings so much life to her character, it’s hard to believe this is her first feature film. On this episode, she takes us back to her training at NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing, her eight years producing and acting in new work for the stage, and the 10-year journey to bring Ben and Suzanne to the screen. She talks about the collaborative process at […]
by Peter Rinaldi25 years ago, Pi—a $70,000 indie about an obsessive mathematician shot on 16mm black and white reversal stock—put cinematographer Matthew Libatique on the map. In the intervening quarter century, Libatique has earned three Academy Award nominations and shot multiple films for Spike Lee, Jon Favreau, Joel Schumacher and Darren Aronofsky. He helped inaugurate the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man and dipped into the D.C. sandbox with Birds of Prey. He’s shot horror movies, westerns, sci-fi flicks, war dramas, biopics and whatever genre mother! falls into. But what Matthew Libatique hasn’t done since Pi is shoot a film in black […]
by Matt MulcaheyAs an actor, Hugo De Sousa had breakout leading roles in We Used to Know Each Other, Mister Limbo, and Everything in The End. I was introduced to his work as an actor/filmmaker, with the celebrated shorts he made in collaboration with Frank Mosley—The Event and Good Condition. On this episode he talks extensively about the making of those films, and his latest, which might be of particular, cathartic interest to listeners of this podcast, the absurdist short Je Ne Suis Pas Une Star De Cinéma. Plus he discusses the importance of feeling “out of balance in front of the […]
by Peter RinaldiJohn Magaro has been delivering consistently stellar performances in films like Not Fade Away, The Big Short, Carol, First Cow, and Showing Up, to name a few. This past year he played Arthur, husband of Greta Lee’s character Nora, in Past Lives. On this episode he talks, spoiler-free, about the last scene of that film and why it makes people emotional. He explains how receiving books, music, photos from directors helps in his preparation. He makes the case for experience over academia, takes us back to a big breakthrough that came to him from the legendary acting teacher Howard Guskin, […]
by Peter RinaldiLeah McKendrick wrote, directed, and stars in the hilarious, super smart, and intensely personal new film Scrambled. It’s about a perpetual bridesmaid who, realizing she isn’t quite willing or able to settle down, decides to freeze her eggs. McKendrick doesn’t shy away from depicting her character’s sex life, the frustrations involving family and friends, and the true loneliness that enveloped her when she decided to do the same procedure in real life. It’s that rare film that will have you belly laughing one minute and crying hard the next. On this episode, we find out what elements were at play […]
by Peter RinaldiMia McKenna-Bruce is an English actress. Her performance in the film How To Have Sex is, rightfully, being spoken about with many superlatives. Subtle, controlled, thoroughly alive, deeply impacting, it is a star-making turn. There’s a scene where her character, Tara, is simply walking down the street, and it’s something of a revelation. It won her the BIFA for Best Lead Performance. On this episode, she breaks down the ingredients that helped her deliver this work—an extensive audition process to find her co-stars that allowed her time to play; complete trust in the director, Molly Manning Walker, and everyone on […]
by Peter RinaldiThe diversity of cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister’s output makes it difficult to typecast him. The German DP won an Emmy for his work on a BBC version of Great Expectations and followed with the Rowan Atkinson spy spoof Johnny English Strikes Again. Then, in succession, he lensed the Scott Cooper horror flick Antlers, the Apple prestige drama Pachinko and Todd Field’s Tár, picking up an Oscar nomination for the latter. But with True Detective: Night Country, Hoffmeister returns to a previous specialty–unsettling subzero horror. Hoffmeister’s work on AMC’s The Terror followed an ill-fated 19th century artic expedition. He’s back to frigid […]
by Matt Mulcahey