Molly Gordon makes everything better. She was a stand-out among stand-outs in films like Good Boys, Booksmart, and Shiva Baby. Then she showed her talents on the other side of the camera, co-writing/directing the hilarious indie hit Theater Camp. Now she plays Claire on the beloved series The Bear, which is about to drop its third season. On this episode she talks about why she loves improv, how her parents unintentionally formed her comedy sensibilities, getting “buzzed” from in-person auditions, “locking in” with Jeremy Allen White, why she’s always aspiring to a child-like lack of self consciousness, and much more. […]
The Story of Souleymane follows an undocumented delivery worker as he prepares for an asylum application interview while pedaling through the Paris streets. But belying the innocuous title and unassuming premise, this latest narrative feature from veteran filmmaker Boris Lojkine is actually a fast-paced thriller. And also a logistical feat as Lojkine’s lens races to keep up with his less than honest protagonist (played by dazzling newcomer Abou Sangare, an immigrant from Guinea who, unlike his titular character, is a mechanic by trade) as he literally cycles through a Kafkaesque EU system in which even the most mundane move might […]
American independent filmmaker Sean Baker was, for us at Filmmaker, the thrilling winner of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or for his forthcoming NEON release, Anora, a comedy about a sex worker, played by Mickey Madison, and her relationship with a Russian oligarch’s son. “This literally has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years,” Baker said on accepting the award from the Greta Gerwig-led jury, “so I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. But I do know that I will continue to fight for cinema because right […]
When I last interviewed Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints it was to discuss her Sundance 2023-premiering Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, which would go on to win the World Cinema Documentary Competition Directing Award. (It also nabbed Best Documentary at the 36th European Film Awards on its way to becoming Estonia’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars.) The film offers quite a unique peek into a UNESCO-designated tradition that for centuries has allowed women like those the director (and contemporary artist and experimental folk musician) respectfully lenses to bond, heal and reveal in a safe space of smoke and sweat. And […]
For decades, Paul Schrader’s taste in cinema has been widely known, particularly the Bressonian proclivities he’s repeatedly worked over—and, especially since becoming a Facebook poster, he’s provided an open invitation to make his problems ours as well. Watching Oh, Canada knowing of his recent health scares, my guess was that the topical draw of Russell Banks’s source novel Foregone was death; indeed, after several hospitalizations for long COVID, Schrader told himself, “If I’m going to make a film about death, I’d better hurry up.” Thus Oh, Canada, which reteams Schrader with his American Gigolo star Richard Gere (the writer-director jokes […]
She was on Game of Thrones when she was a child, but Nell Tiger Free hit her stride in the M. Night Shyamalan series Servant, and now her absolutely incredible performance in the hit horror film The First Omen has solidified her as one of the great young actors working today. On this episode, she discusses her “total non-process” process, which means every aspect of her work takes place between “action” and “cut” and literally nowhere else. She talks about why she only reads the script once, finds all backstory that isn’t on the page “cringe,” doesn’t like to rehearse […]
Renny Harlin is closing in on 40 years in the movie business and still committed to his craft. He has worked all over the world on films at the top and bottom of the box office charts, but still gets a twinkle in his eye when discussing how a score can tweak the tension of a scene. He dreamed of being a Hollywood action movie director since childhood, and is best known for his bombastic 1990s blockbusters like Die Hard 2 (1990) and Cliffhanger (1993). But after Hollywood ejected him for younger models, he maintained a furious productivity elsewhere, working […]
Dune: Part Two picks up directly following the events of its predecessor, with young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) taken in by the Fremen after being marooned in the desert of Arrakis. However, cinematographer Greig Fraser was not content to merely continue where he left off. After winning an Oscar for the first film, Fraser shuffled his tool bag by adding the Alexa 65, an assortment of colorful new glass and an infrared sequence set in a gladiator arena on Giedi Prime. It’s not surprising considering Fraser’s history of experimentation, which includes pioneering virtual production work on The Mandalorian and reintroducing […]
Sarah Friedland made Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces list last year as her she finished her Movement Exercises trilogy of short films and was completing production on her debut feature, Familiar Touch. Now, as Familiar Touch finishes post, Video Data Bank is streaming Movement Exercises for free on its website until June 11. From my 25 New Face profile: Realized from 2017 to 2022, Friedland’s Movement Exercises Trilogy consists of three short films exploring the ways in which movement contextualized within specific settings encodes personal, social and political meanings. The first of the trilogy, Home Exercises, depicts older adults navigating the […]
Set shortly before 9/11, Trương Minh Quý’s Viêt and Nam begins underground with two coal miners, their bodies soaked in sweat and caked in dirt. As they wait for instructions, they talk about a dream — one concerning water, plastic bags, and drowning. In the silence, they comfort each other by caressing each other’s faces. Suddenly, a bell rings. They rebutton their clothes. Moments later, a bomb can be heard exploding in the distance. Only above ground do the details surface: Viêt and Nam are lovers who are on the brink of separation as Nam, influenced by Vietnam’s migrant boom […]