Columns
-
“To Be Able To Play a Flawed, Complex, Messy Woman Who Is Morally Ambiguous …That To Me Is the Juicy Stuff”: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Back To One, Episode 332
The celebrated period drama Belle marked the arrival of Gugu Mbatha-Raw and since then she hasn’t stopped impressing audiences in films like Motherless Brooklyn, Misbehaviour and series like Doctor Who, Black Mirror (San Junipero episode), Loki, The Morning Show, and Surface, which is now releasing episodes from its second season. On that Apple TV+ series, Gugu plays Sophie, a woman who has lost her recent memories and must piece them together. She talks about the “liberating” feeling she got playing someone with a missing back story and how it forced her to be present. She explains how she utilizes her […]
-
“It’s About Self Exposure and Allowing Someone to See” Caveh Zahedi, Back To One, Episode 331
Caveh Zahedi is one of the most influential independent filmmakers of our time. Jay Duplass, Lena Dunham, Richard Linklater, Greta Gerwig are all big fans of his 30+ years worth of ultra-autobiographical work (five features, I am A Sex Addict perhaps being the most popular). His magnum opus, The Show About The Show, started out as a “self-reflexive TV show about its own making” for BRIC TV and has continued despite lawsuits, loss of distribution, re-castings, and many more obstacles, thanks to Zahedi’s dogged determination to simply tell the story, mostly through re-enactments using the actual people in his orbit […]
-
Considerations: Some Final Predictions
-
“1.66 Just Felt Good”: DP Jarin Blaschke on Nosferatu
Over the course of his four feature films, Robert Eggers has gained a reputation as a filmmaker obsessed with meticulous period accuracy. After listening to Jarin Blaschke talk about moon size as a mathematical equation, it’s easy to see why Eggers has enjoyed working with the equally meticulous cinematographer for almost two decades. “I’m kind of a stickler about how big a moon is when a CG moon is in frame,” said Blaschke. “It needs to be 1/80th the width of the screen, because the moon is a half a degree wide and our lens takes in 40 degrees. So, […]
-
“I Want Everyone to be Jarred by It…Especially the Men on Set”: Lucy Boynton, Back To One, Episode 330
Lucy Boynton is known for delivering exceptional performances in films like Sing Street, Bohemian Rhapsody, Chevalier, and The Greatest Hits. Her latest is the BritBox’s limited series A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, about a woman convicted of killing her abusive lover who then became the last woman to be hanged in the UK. On this episode, she talks about why the challenge she faced portraying Ellis “wasn’t an actor issue,” but more about facing the traumas women are still dealing with decades later. She ponders how acting as a child served her into adulthood, explains why over-direction is […]
-
Considerations: Anora, Acting Frontrunners and Other Post-Weekend Fallout
Every Tuesday Tyler Coates publishes his new Filmmaker newsletter, Considerations, devoted to the awards race. To receive it early and in your in-box, subscribe here. While this Sunday was the Super Bowl (and, because I’m always rooting for Bradley Cooper, I’m thrilled the Eagles won), Saturday was just as important for the awards race. If you had asked me on Saturday what would win best picture—and many people hounded me for an answer—my reply would have been: “I don’t know!!!” Hours before both the Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards, NEON hosted a toast to Anoraand Sean Baker […]
-
“It Doesn’t Have to Always Cost $200 Million”: DP Lol Crawley on Shooting The Brutalist (Mostly) in VistaVision
-
“I’m Really Good at Getting a Laugh Out of Terrible Circumstances”: Griffin Dunne, Back To One, Episode 329
Griffin Dunne has balanced acting, directing, and producing for over 40 years in this business. Chilly Scenes of Winter, An American Werewolf in London, After Hours, Practical Magic, This is Us, to name just a small handful of his credits. For his latest, Ex-Husbands, he delivers a performance revelatory in its ease, miraculously blending lightness and dread. It’s so much fun, and even inspirational, to simply watch him walk around as this character, carrying this load. Hopefully, this is the start of a new chapter: Dunne as the contemplative man of a certain age who has seen it all. On […]
-
Considerations: The Gascón Press Tour
Every Tuesday Tyler Coates publishes his new Filmmaker newsletter, Considerations, devoted to the awards race. To receive it early and in your in-box, subscribe here. In October, I told (warned?) a publicist friend that it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw some old-fashioned, Weinstein- and Rudin-style opposition campaigning this Oscar season. Back then, the prominent narrative was that the field was wide open without a clear frontrunner, and most of the studios and marketing agencies were operating with smaller budgets. By this time last week, the only controversies were about the use of AI to perfect the Hungarian accents in […]
-
“Being Clean with the Words Gave Me More Freedom than Anything”: Margo Martindale, Back To One, Episode 328
In movies like Million Dollar Baby, August: Osage County, Blow The Man Down, and series like The Americans, Justified, and Sneaky Pete, “esteemed character actress Margo Martindale” loves to play people much different from herself. And she’s been so good at it for so long that she only started to get truly recognized for her work in her 60s. Three Emmys later, she’s able to pick and choose what she wants to do. Her latest, the Amazon series The Sticky, finds her number one on the call sheet and having a blast playing the bombastic maple syrup farmer Ruth Landry. […]
