Climate of the Hunter director Mickey Reece never considered a move to Hollywood. A musician-turned-indie filmmaker, he started making at least two low-budget films a year, on average, with a cadre of friends from around Oklahoma City. "I'm just hanging out with people who are into the same things as me," he says. "It's like playing in a band." Reece has a wonderful way with understatement. His hangouts have produced a catalogue of films now gaining attention from revered film festivals like Fan...
Sep 11, 2020•39 min•Ep. 40
Charlie Kaufman's new film I'm Thinking of Ending Things returns to two of his most familiar subjects: the struggle to communicate clearly, and the failures of memory. "Obviously, we live in memory, and it's essential to our sense of self — to our understanding of the world and our understanding of ourselves — and it is elusive and it is inaccurate," he says. But Kaufman explains how inaccuracies in memory can help us create new ideas. The writer of Being John Malkovich , Adaptation , and Eterna...
Sep 03, 2020•39 min•Ep. 39
Fugitive Dreams , the new film from Jason Neulander, is an allegorical road movie that follows two homeless people across a timeless American landscape. It touches on mental health, addiction — and love. Primarily black and white, the film is intended as a kind of Waiting for Godot . A large section of it takes place on board a train, and we talked with Neulander about all the challenges that that entailed. The film, which stars April Matthis, Robbie Tann, Scott Shepherd, O-Lan Jones and David P...
Sep 01, 2020•26 min•Ep. 38
Chemical Hearts star and executive producer Lili Reinhart and writer-director Richard Tanne set out to make a quiet, meaningful high school film that isn't bubbly or past for short attention spans. The result is a teenage love story for introverts. In the film, based on a novel by Krystal Sutherland, a high school senior named Henry (played by Austin Abrams) is assigned to edit the school paper with a new student named Grace (Reinhart), who walks with a cane, dresses in typically male clothing, ...
Aug 21, 2020•28 min•Ep. 37
Spree director and co-writer Eugene Kotlyarenko says there's thing we all have in common: "We wake up in the morning, and we kind of look at our phones first thing to see if we got any notifications, any sort of news that could be pertinent to how much people care about us, right? It’s the perfect sort of like narcissism-like reflection machine. And it gives us dopamine hits we need to make us feel loved.” Spree examines the extreme lengths some of us will go to in search of that love — while mo...
Aug 19, 2020•37 min•Ep. 36
Before the Fire director Charlie Buhler and writer-star Jenna Lyng Adams didn't have millions of dollars for their sci-fi drama, but they did have access to a few things they knew could be very cinematic — planes, Humvees, a farm, and a house that needed burning down. In the purest DIY, indie filmmaking fashion, they reverse-engineered Adams' script, using what they had. And ended up predicting COVID-19. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Aug 14, 2020•44 min•Ep. 35
Daryl Davis is a Black musician who befriends white supremacists to try to get them to give up their old ways. He's led more than 200 to renounce racism, and more than 50 Klansmen have surrendered their robes to him. Years ago, he was playing piano in a Maryland truck stop when a man who turned out to be a Klansman said Davis was the first Black man he'd ever heard who could play like Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis corrected him, asking: "Where do you think Jerry Lee Lewis learned to play?" He's been ed...
Jul 31, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 34
The Rental , the directorial debut from actor Dave Franco, is about two couples who find a beautiful vacation rental that isn't as idyllic as it seems. There's a very engrossing build in the script, when things get almost impossibly suspenseful, and one of the reasons it's so effective is because of Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand, our guests today. They bring a grounded, can't-look-away dynamic to the film. Vand ( Argo, A Girl Walks Home at Night, Triple Frontier ) and Stevens ( Downton Abbey, Beau...
Jul 24, 2020•27 min•Ep. 33
Gina Prince-Bythewood broke through as a director 20 years ago with Love & Basketball , which us returning to drive-ins this summer. But she'd always wanted to make an action movie, and finally did it with Netflix's The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a band of warriors trying to do good in the modern world. Spoiler alert: They're hundreds of years old. We talk about how Hollywood is all about overcoming no, and how working with one Marvel team — Cloak & Dagger — may...
Jul 10, 2020•22 min•Ep. 32
Joe and Anthony Russo are the hosts of Russo Brothers Pizza Fillm School — and the directors of Avengers: Endgame , the biggest movie ever. The Russo Brothers talk to us this episode about how the 1980 cult film Flash Gordon helped inspire them through a tough time for their hometown, Cleveland,. They also talk about how the film's very unconventional middle section made an impression that informed the cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War . The Russos also discuss their new ABGO producti...
Jul 08, 2020•17 min•Ep. 31
Werner Herzog has directed more than 70 films, but Family Romance LLC is the first he's directed in Japanese, a language he doesn't speak. The film is about a real-life Japanese company, Family Romance LLC, that rents out fathers and other loved ones to families in need. Herzog himself was fatherless from a very young age, but he says that isn't what attracted him to Family Romance LLC. In fact, he says, he and his brother appreciated not having a father. He also tells fathers how to talk with t...
Jul 03, 2020•25 min•Ep. 30
David Dobkins got back to his roots for Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, in which Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams play an Icelandic musical duo who dream of winning Europe's continent-wide annual music competition. Dobkins got his first directing job on the video for Tupac Shakur's video for "I Get Around," and went on to shoot the Ridley Scott-produced Clay Pigeons , his debut film. From there, he worked with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan on Shanghai Knights before scori...
Jul 02, 2020•26 min•Ep. 29
Babyteeth, the new film from Shannon Murphy, sneaks up on you. The film follows Milla, a seriously ill teenager played by Eliza Scanlen, who falls for a small-time drug dealer and pill poppr named Moses — played by Toby Wallace, who perfectly captures the too-beautiful-for-this world charisma of so many addicts with a gravitational pull on those around them. Milla's parents are played by the excellent Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn. Babyteeth is based on a play by Rita Kalnejais, who also wrote ...
Jun 19, 2020•21 min•Ep. 28
With You Don't Nomi , filmmaker Jeffrey McHale uses thoughtful voiceover and deft editing to take Showgirls seriously. Is Paul Verhoeven's 1995 bomb, starring a very committed Elizabeth Berkley as aspiring topless dancer Nomi Malone, truly as bad as critics claimed at the time? Or is it a misunderstood satire? Or both? Whatever the case may be, McHale shows how Showgirls belongs now to its audience — who embrace it for its camp, its wildness, and an LGBTQ message that many have found after the f...
Jun 12, 2020•30 min•Ep. 27
Becky stars Lulu Wilson as a 13-year-old battling neo-Nazi prison escapees led by a very awful guy plays by Kevin James. It's not for everyone. We talked with directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion about what kinds of conversations you need to have when your lead actor is a child surrounded by cinematic gore. If you like this episode, or even if you don't, consider giving to these charities . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 05, 2020•30 min•Ep. 26
"At the Drive-In," the new documentary from our guest Alexander Monelli, is about a band of movie lovers who saved a local drive-in. At the start of the story, the Mahoning Drive-In theater in Leighton, Pennsylvania, is dying because it can't afford a new $50,000 digital projector. Then a group of young movie lovers sweep in and start showing classic movies — often while dressed as their favorite characters — and the parking lot starts drawing more and more cars. One of them belongs to Mark Nels...
May 22, 2020•35 min•Ep. 25
Today our guest is Kyle MacLachlan, one of our favorite actors ever. He's one of the stars of Capone , in which Tom Hardy plays legendary gangster Alphone Capone, rendered almost helpless by the syphilis that racked his body and brain in his later years. Much has been made of how supposedly weird Capone is, with its extended fantasy sequences, courtesy of writer-director Josh Trank. But in terms of Kyle MacLachlan movies, this one's pretty straightforward. He's a master at playing committed, dec...
May 15, 2020•23 min•Ep. 24
Blood Quantum , from writer-director Jeff Barnaby, is a crackling zombie set on tribal land — where indigenous people are immune from whatever is turning white people into zombies. It works as a straight-ahead, cheerfully grisly horror movie, or as a meditation on colonialism and capitalism. In this episode, Jeff discusses his influences, from Evil Dead to Night of the Living Dead , and how he used and reversed traditional zombie movie tropes. (He also points out some symbolism in Robocop you mi...
May 08, 2020•37 min•Ep. 23
The late screenwriter Blake Snyder famously originated a concept called Save the Cat to describe the moment when a film's protagonist wins viewers over — when he or she saves a cat, for example. The creators of the new horror film 1BR are well-aware of the Save the Cat concept, and rejected it in almost every way possible. If you've seen the trailer for 1BR , (and if not, a minor spoiler ensues) you know that it's about a young woman named Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) who moves into a new apartme...
May 06, 2020•38 min•Ep. 22
We're in the golden age of online film festivals: For the first time, movie lovers can watch brand-new, lovingly curated films from the comfort of home, without having to look for parking, stand in line, or beg for tickets. Are we looking for the bright side in a sad situation? Well, yeah. But if you're going to watch — or host — an online film festival, you'll want to be conscious of these online film festival dos and don'ts. Festivals are doing their best to make the viewing experience as grea...
Apr 28, 2020•33 min•Ep. 21
Extraction is the best action movie of the year. Granted, it's a weird year. But even in a normal one, it's hard to imagine a more impressive sequence that the 12-minute, seemingly continuous shot in Extraction in which Chris Hemsworth leads a young boy through unbelievable carnage, unbelievably quickly, doing stunts that would be impressive even with lots of editing and fixes in post. The reason that sequence is possible is our guest today, Sam Hargrave, who makes his directorial debut with Ext...
Apr 24, 2020•33 min•Ep. 20
When Rachel Mason was growing up in West Hollywood in the 1980s, her parents, Karen and Barry Mason, went to work each day at a bookstore — but not any bookstore. It was Circus of Books, which became an iconic LGBTQ location by selling erotica, magazines and sex toys at a time when homophobia ran rampant. At one point, her parents became targets of a Reagan Administration hellbent on locking people up over porn. They're the subject of her fascinating new documentary, Circus of Books . In this ep...
Apr 22, 2020•29 min•Ep. 19
We Summon the Darkness and My Friend Dahmer , two of prolific director Marc Meyers latest films, unfurl almost opposite takes on serial killers. Dahmer is a sober, anti-sensationalist exploration of how a confused teen became a reviled cannibal. Darkness turns a Satanic Panic-era killing spree into a headbangers' ball of dark comedy. Meyers, as you can probably guess, has a lot of range. We Summon the Darkness opens with three young women (Alexandra Daddario, Maddie Hasson and Amy Forsyth) road-...
Apr 10, 2020•44 min•Ep. 18
If you're getting through our global quarantine by playing video games, you're in good company: Alexandre Amancio, the former Ubisoft artistic director who headed up on Assassin's Creed: Revealations and Assassin's Creed: Unity , has been playing with fans online. Amancio spoke to us for the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast, where he talked about his new company, Reflector Entertainment, and telling stories across platforms. He also told us that fans have hit him up on Twitter to play Assass...
Apr 07, 2020•48 min•Ep. 17
Paul Scheer is one of the best people on screen ( Black Monday ! The Disaster Artist !) and in podcasting ( Unspooled ! How Did This Get Made ?) This week, he talks us through this crazy situation we're all in — and about how talking and a sense of humor will keep us sane. He's hosting a live episode of Unspooled with Amy Nicholson on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 ET on Earwolf's YouTube channel , and also a group watch of Showtime's Black Monday o n Sunday at 10/9c. Follow him for details ...
Mar 20, 2020•34 min•Ep. 16
Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler says when he first released images of Sonic — and fans savaged them online — he wallowed through “a good hour of feeling sorry for myself.” But only one hour. Then he got back to work, and made changes that led to a massive hit. He says in the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast that Sony and Paramount, the film’s distributor, quickly agreed that they needed to make the fans happy. “The fact that the message was so clear really made our job kind of easy. ...
Feb 21, 2020•26 min•Ep. 15
"Horse Girl," now in theaters and on Netflix, stars Alison Brie as a young woman who loves horses.That's as much as we can tell you without ruining the film, which Brie and director Jeff Baena co-wrote. Spoilers follow. The film, which premiered at Sundance last week, isn't what it at first appears to be. Baena doesn't care about genre or classification. What he and Brie do care about is committing completely to the perspective of their main character, Sarah, as she begins to question her percep...
Feb 07, 2020•20 min•Ep. 14
Christina Hodson, writer of Birds of Prey and Bumblebee, talks to us about what makes the Clockwork Orange- influenced girl gang movie tick. She also talks about the Lucky Exports Pitch Program (LEPP) in which she and Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Entertainment helped six female writers break into the action genre. She also talks about mapping out fight scenes with some help from YouTube and True Romance, and says absolutely nothing about the possibility of a Wonder Woman-Harley Quinn crossover. He...
Feb 07, 2020•29 min•Ep. 13
Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as a young woman who goes to nightclubs and acts too drunk to stand. When nice guys take her home, they realize she isn't as helpless as she seems — and that they aren't very nice. That's just scratching the surface of the wickedly funny, brilliant Sundance debut for writer-director Emerald Fennell, who tells us she designed the film to feel like a great first date gone terrible awry. Fennell is an actress and novelist as well as a screenwriter-director...
Jan 27, 2020•23 min•Ep. 12
Three Christs director Jon Avnet has one of the most impressive IMDb pages in Hollywood: He produced films from Risky Business to Black Swan , and has worked with everyone from Tom Cruise to Joan Didion. He's also faced a lot of rejection — and figured out how to get past it. Three Christs , which Avnet co-wrote as well as directed, stars Richard Gere as a psychologist in the 1950s trying to treat three schizophrenic men who all believe themselves to be Jesus Christ. They’re played by Peter Dink...
Jan 23, 2020•37 min•Ep. 11
