Columns
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“Once in a While You Go, ‘My Vision is Enough’”: Scrambled‘s Leah McKendrick, Back To One, Episode 278
Leah 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 […]
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“This World That Molly and the Team Created For Us, is the Dream as an Actor”: How To Have Sex Star Mia McKenna-Bruce, Back To One, Episode 277
Mia 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 […]
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112 Days in Iceland: DP Florian Hoffmeister on True Detective: Night Country
The 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 […]
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“There’s a Lot in This Heart”: Sallieu Sesay, Back To One, Episode 276
Sallieu Sesay is a Sierra Leonean-American actor who has had recurring roles on CBS’ Seal Team and HBO’s Barry, and, in his latest, delivers an incredible supporting performance in John Trengove’s nihilistic thriller Manodrome alongside Jesse Eisenberg. On this episode he talks about doing tons of research before taking on that part, having so little in common with the character and facing the pressure of being at the center of a movie’s most pivotal scene. He gives us a glimpse at his dedication to this craft, his continuous training with some of the best acting teachers around such as Ivana […]
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“You Want It To Be So Familiar That You’re Not Thinking”: Jack Huston, Back To One, Episode 275
Jack Huston has worked with Scorsese, Ridley Scott, David O’ Russell, The Coens, had meaty roles on series like Mayfair Witches, Fargo, and, maybe most notably, Boardwalk Empire, where he played Richard Harrow. His latest project is Lulu Wang’s Amazon series Expats. On this episode he talks about gaining 30 pounds for that part (which wasn’t as much fun as it sounds), why it all starts with the voice for him, writing and directing his passion project The Day of The Fight for Michael Pitt and Joe Pesci, and he reveals a common trait of all great directors he’s known. […]
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“I’ve Never Had a Director Give Me a GIF as a Reference Before”: DP Cristina Dunlap on American Fiction
Music videos have been good to Cristina Dunlap. As a photography-obsessed high schooler, a chance meeting landed the L.A. native a gig shooting stills on a music video. It happened to be for Death Cab for Cutie, leading to a run of jobs with influential directors like Hiro Murai and Ace Norton. After working her way up to the role of cinematographer, a Coldplay video collaboration with Dakota Johnson led to Dunlap shooting a pair of features starring the actress, Am I OK? and Cha Cha Real Smooth, both of which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. A music […]
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“David Initially Said, ‘What if We Do the Whole Movie Handheld?'”: DP Erik Messerschmidt on The Killer
The Killer begins with an assassin (Michael Fassbender) in a half-completed WeWork office awaiting the arrival of his latest target. As he waits, he details his vocational mantras for the audience in voiceover: stick to the plan. Don’t improvise. Never yield an advantage. Forbid empathy. Fassbender proceeds to miss his shot and spends the rest of the film breaking each and every one of those tenets in the chaotic aftermath. Many of the pieces written about the film have pointed out perceived similarities between the film’s methodical, detail-oriented titular character and the perfectionist reputation of its director, David Fincher. However, […]
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Filmmaker‘s 20 Most Read Articles of 2023
My annual exercise in what our audience — as well as our “audiences,” the latter term used to refer to the concoction of first and possibly last-time readers driven to our site by algorithmic determinism and SEO “best practices” — is always a mixture of the predictable and the unexpected. Regular features like our 25 New Faces series and Vadim Rizov’s survey of 35mm production always show up, as do articles by our excellent columnist Matt Mulcahey and podcaster Peter Rinaldi. I was particularly happy to see this year on the list two pieces that were especially deeply researched and […]
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“I Just Wanna Play the Good Guy, But Not the Boring Good Guy:” Spenser Granese, Back To One, Episode 274
You know Spenser Granese from memorable roles on Better Call Saul, Fear of the Walking Dead, Pam & Tommy, and, perhaps most memorably, the character of Bevel in the final season of Barry. On this episode, he talks about landing that role after trying hard to get on the show for three seasons and the incredible working environment he found on set. He opens up about his unique approach to the craft having no formal training, why he keeps the lines barely memorized, avoids expectations, operates on his instinct, and much more! Back To One can be found wherever you […]
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“If I Had Been Working in the 1970s [But With Today’s Technology], I Would Have Used Digital, I Would Have Used LED Technology”: The Holdovers Cinematographer Eigil Bryld
In The Holdovers, a professor, a student and a grief-stricken cook are stranded together at a New England boarding school over the holidays. The story takes place in the early 1970s, an era whose films are beloved by both Holdovers director Alexander Payne and cinematographer Eigil Bryld. However, they took opposing philosophical perspectives in imbuing their movie with the spirit of that epoch. Though he looked at the work of Hal Ashby for inspiration – particularly The Landlord and The Last Detail – rather than attempt to replicate it, Payne’s approach found him imaging what kind of film he himself […]
