Columns
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“The Set is Home, and You Get to a Point of Where You Stop Pushing”: Steve Zahn, Back To One, Episode 347
Steve Zahn gained early attention for his breakout roles in the 1990s, including Reality Bites and That Thing You Do! He became a frequent scene-stealer in films like Out of Sight, Happy, Texas, and Saving Silverman, showcasing his offbeat humor and charm. In HBO’s Treme, he played a passionate music teacher navigating post-Katrina New Orleans. More recently, he appeared in the first season of The White Lotus, earning critical acclaim for his role as a troubled father on vacation. His latest is personal on multiple levels—the indie film She Dances, which he co-wrote with his producing partner Rick Gomez, who […]
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Filmmaker ‘s New Issue and News from Our Editor-in-Chief
Every Friday I write a free newsletter that’s a riff on various topics — filmmaker sustainability, the health of our ecosystem, new players and ideas, the plight of the producer, the rise of AI and more are frequent subjects. This week, I used the newsletter to announce two upcoming events, our new issue, and my news that after the next issue in September I’ll be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief after 33 years. Read all of this below, and if you’d like to sign up to the newsletter, which I’ll be writing for almost three more months, you can do so […]
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Hollywood Underground: Joanne McNeil on EZTV’s Inventive Body of Work
In 1986, ia Kamandalu showed up at the EZTV space in West Hollywood for a screening of video art by Doris Chase. People recognized her, even though it had been a few years since she was a dancer in music videos like “Super Freak” by Rick James and on variety shows like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, performing at the time under the name Kim McKillip. Michael Masucci, an artist and longtime participant in the EZTV community of video-makers, started talking to her. They kept up over the phone and made plans to work together. Kamandalu, who was living Phoenix at […]
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“If I Get Specific About What I’m Doing, Why I’m Doing It, the Humor Will Be There”: Tim Bagley, Back To One, Episode 346
Tim Bagley has so much experience doing comedy on television that his credits read like a comprehensive list of every sit com over the past 30 years. But his depiction of Brad Schraeder on the HBO series Somebody Somewhere is on another level. It’s beautiful, truthful, restrained work, that is often hilarious and sometimes very moving. Few performances on television this year have impacted me more. On this episode, he talks about how the collaborative nature of that show helped so much with his work, the big part logic plays in his comedy, why it’s important to keep challenging himself, and […]
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Space in 40mm: DP Christophe Nuyens on Andor Season Two
When it comes to streaming series, it’s better to have too little of a great show than too much. With a finite amount of time to work with before the events of Andor collide with their preordained conclusion in Rogue One, the Disney Plus prequel series opted not to spin its wheels for a superfluous three or four extra seasons like so many shows that lurch onward past what should be their expiration date. The second and final season of Andor picks up a year after season one, with each three-episode block then jumping another year into the future as […]
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“It Was Like Being on a Cliff and You Just Leapt Off It, with Whatever You Had to Give”: Ian McShane, Back To One, Episode 344
The legendary Ian McShane has been acting for more than 60 years, from The Wild and The Willing, The Last of Shelia, and Jesus of Nazareth to Lovejoy, Sexy Beast, and the John Wick films. His two latest films are Ballerina, set in the John Wick universe, and and the action comedy Deep Cover. On this episode he talks about what made his time as Al Swearengen on Deadwood (perhaps his most iconic role) so special, and tells a story about an unforgettable suggestion from creator David Milch. He explains what sets Wick’s Chad Stahalski apart as a director/producer, why […]
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Practical Magic: DP Aaron McLisky on Bring Her Back
In A24’s Bring Her Back, a grieving mother (Sally Hawkins) takes a pair of orphaned siblings into her secluded home with nefarious ulterior motives. It’s another slice of southern Australian horror steeped in trauma and grief from Talk to Me twins Mark and Danny Philippou, infused with ample gore and unsettling dental carnage. The brothers’ sophomore directorial effort reteams them with Talk to Me cinematographer Aaron McLisky, who spoke to Filmmaker about their latest venture on the eve of its theatrical release. Filmmaker: I saw Talk to Me in the theater when it came out and loved it, but I didn’t know anything […]
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“To Me All This is the Circus and I Get to Join this Family, This Tribe of People”: Bobby Naderi, Back To One, Episode 343
You know Bobby Naderi from his subtle and sometimes hilarious work in films like Bright and The Beekeeper. Now he brings that same aliveness to the new Amazon series The Better Sister, where he plays Detective Matt Bowen. On this episode, he talks about how his nomadic youth shaped his life and work, how failures paved the way for breakthroughs, why he stopped anticipating how a scene will play out, how his mother’s blunt criticism of his acting work helped him get better, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, […]
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“Not Everything Could Have Been IMAX”: DP Andrew Droz Palermo on Thunderbolts*
In the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry Thunderbolts*, a reluctant squad of antiheroes team up to save New York City. Behind the scenes, another superteam comprised of A24 alumni joined forces. As this trailer breaks down, Thunderbolts* is brought to you by “the writers and director of Beef, the cinematographer of The Green Knight, the production designer of Hereditary, the editor of Minari and the composers of Everything Everywhere All at Once.” That Green Knight cinematographer would be Andrew Droz Palermo, whose resume includes work for both Marvel (the Disney+ series Moon Knight) and A24 (David Lowery’s A Ghost Story and […]
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“The Nail Came Off, But We Got the Shot and That’s All That Matters”: Forever Star Lovie Simone, Back To One, Episode 342
The young but wise Lovie Simone is best known for Selah and The Spades and The Craft: Legacy. Now she stars in the hit Netflix series Forever, an adaptation of the Judy Bloom book. On this episode, she talks about the giant role music plays in her preparation, why having a Black hair & make-up person on set is crucial to her work, “importance over relevance,” “quality over quantity,” her love of words “and the weight of each word,” the “accidental” way she and Michael Cooper Jr. built their Forever chemistry, plus much more. Back To One can be found […]
