Since the dawn of man, there have been anthropomorphic recreations of the lives of primates (they are our evolutionary ancestors, after all). And since the legend of the Sasquatch was first told, there have been numerous recorded sightings of the elusive “Bigfoot,” albeit with most footage deemed a hoax carried out by opportunistic fraudsters in possession of hairy full-body suits. The most infamous came in 1967 in the form of footage shot by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin in Northern California—fleeting frames that, depending on whom you ask, could either be easily debunked or serve as ineffable proof of the […]
by Erik Luers on Apr 19, 2024“You know animals are hairy?,” sang the Talking Heads David Byrne. “They say animals don’t worry…” Well, in David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, forthcoming from Bleecker Street Pictures, the latter statement is definitely not correct as the filmmakers — Filmmaker 25 New Faces from back in 2008 — wring wonder and joy but also anxiety and fear of encroaching humankind in their story of a family of Sasquatch living undetected in the wilds of Colorado. Bleecker Street’s redband trailer leans hard into Sasquatch sex while cleverly underlining that there’s name talent (Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough) in this movie. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2024Gaining access to an underrepresented community comes with a great amount of responsibility. There are countless examples of a director visiting a site for a few days, getting what they need, then hightailing it out only to use their subsequent press tour to emphasize the “raw grittiness” they observed while filming on location. It’s crucial to question who benefits from this exchange. Does the filmmaker gain authenticity for their work merely by virtue of who they put in front of the camera? Does the portrayed community benefit from being used to confirm an outsider’s predetermined perception? Gina Gammell and Riley […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 4, 2023The Girlfriend Experience put Riley Keough on the radar, and she’s been giving us multi-layered, deeply rooted, captivating performances ever since, mostly in indie films like American Honey, Under The Silver Lake, The House That Jack Built, and now this year’s Zola, where she brilliantly walks the line of authentic nuance and absurdity in the role of Stefani. In this episode, she talks about the touchy endeavor of building the right approach for that character with director Janicza Bravo, the importance of knowing when to tighten up on prep or leave it loose, why she hates auditioning, how her spirituality […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Dec 14, 2021As two, aunt and nephew Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala hope to disperse the ego of the moviemaking machine. They split the single mindedness of the one-director show and harness twice the fighting power in their creative battles against the industry’s business end. Moving to a US production for their sophomore feature: The Lodge, the two saw the ugly head of commerce rear itself more than it ever dared in Austria, where they shot their debut Goodnight Mommy. The Lodge begins with a bias for its young siblings Aidan (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) who have lost their mother […]
by A.E. Hunt on Feb 7, 2020A 25 New Face from 2006, So Yong Kim’s Lovesong premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and opens today in New York from Strand Releasing. The below interview was originally published during the film’s Sundance premiere. While continuing to make subtle, emotional, character-based stories, So Yong Kim’s cinema has been one of change and evolution. Her debut feature, 2006’s In Between Days, spent several days surveying the burgeoning first love of two Korean teenagers living in Toronto. Largely filmed in Korean, and shot on a micro budget with non actors, the film landed Kim on our 25 New […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2017Shot in New York City during the 2008 financial crisis, Steven Soderbergh’s feature The Girlfriend Experience was a cool movie about a hot topic. Ostensibly about a “new” kind of prostitution, where escorts would simulate the casual intimacy of a real relationship, it starred real-life porn star Sasha Grey even as it contained virtually no sex. But what began as a look at how the Internet enabled a new kind of solo entrepreneur sex worker — “As we were making the film, I didn’t consider [prostitution] as a metaphor for anything,“ Soderbergh said then — wound up a trenchantly austere […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2016Commissioned by the designer Miu Miu as part of a series of seven films, “Women’s Tales,” Spark and Light is a lovely and wonderfully executed short by Treeless Mountain director So Yong Kim. Riley Keough, in a sensitive, affecting performance, plays a motorist stranded in snowy Iceland as she’s on her way to visit her dying mother in the hospital. Dreams, memory and reality all merge as Keough’s character turns her moments alone into a hypnotic emotional journey. Special mention to Eric Lin’s subtly expressive cinematography.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2014