Welcome to the inaugural broadcast of The Cinematical Roundtable, our latest podcast here at the site, where we'll speak with writers and readers alike about the latest in film offerings. Our first episode has Drew McWeeny of Hitfix fame and our own Scott Weinberg joining you and I on the road as we discuss March's The Haunting in Connecticut, April's Observe and Report, May's Drag Me to Hell, and June's The Hurt Locker following their respective SXSW premieres in Austin, Texas.
Please pardon our dust as we get this puppy off the ground, please brace yourself for some mild profanity, and please tell your friends. Especially that one cute redhead. She's not seeing anyone, right?
Robert Siegel made his directorial debut with Big Fan (reviewed by Erik Davis) at this year's Sundance Film Festival; comedian Patton Oswalt (interviewed here) stars as a lonely sports talk radio caller and New York Giants fanatic whose only love goes horribly wrong. Siegel spoke with Cinematical in Park City about his acclaimed script for The Wrestler, directing a comedian, why he's not worried about the wrath of the NFL, why Big Fan wouldn't have worked with George Clooney in the lead, and what he was hoping to explore with the film: "Sports radio can be very wonderful and joyous and spirited, but other times it can just be this forum for bitter ... it's a lot like the internet, you know? There are good blogs and bad blogs ... so in that way, (the world of sports radio) is kind of like the proto-blog, where you can just vent and take out all your frustrations ... but there's definitely this kind of angry White male hostile undercurrent to a lot of sports radio; it wouldn't be interesting to me if that was the only thing it had going for it, but that thing definitely gives it an extra layer. ... "
You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Getting ready to interview director Ondi Timoner and subject Josh Harris about the documentary We Live in Public (reviewed here) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, I sat with my recorder and got ready with my questions as Timoner offered me a T-shirt for the film. A nice gesture, and a casual one -- but the fact that Timoner, Harris and I were being filmed at the time by a camera capturing their Sundance experience for future use turned a gracious, friendly gesture into a curiously weighted proposition: What if I didn't take it? What if I didn't want it? And how long would my reaction endure?
Revolving around Harris' spectacularly failed internet art projects Quiet and We Live in Public, Timoner's film uses Harris as a case study in the perils of our over-broadcast age and offers an examination of the numbing, overwhelming possibilities the internet offers. Timoner and Harris spoke about the film, why the subject of the film refuses to watch it, information theory and the power behind pointing a camera, plus much more.
You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
In Shrink, screening in the Premiere section at the Sundance Film Festival, Kevin Spacey plays a psychiatrist whose boutique L.A. office, A-list clientele and best-selling pop psychology books form a thin layer of respectability over his ruined personal life, insurmountable grief, serious pot problem and a host of other crises. Spacey developed the film with his Trigger Street production company, with Jonas Pate directing Thomas Moffet's script, and Spacey part of an ensemble cast that includes Robin Williams, Saffron Burrows, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts and Keke Palmer. I asked Spacey if doing so many scenes revolving on just two people talking is an actor's dream, or an actor's nightmare: "As compared to? Explosions, and cars flying through the air? I think it's an actor's dream, and I also think it's an audience's dream; there's noting quite like being able to go to to a play or the cinema and watch people exchange as human beings, I think."
Spacey spoke with Cinematical about smoking fake weed, how Sundance has changed the movies, how Hollywood eats its young, his voice-over role as the supercomputer GERTY opposite Sam Rockwell in the Sundance selection Moon, and much more.
You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Writer, director and actor John Krasinski isn't knocking himself out trying to be cool about the debut of his film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (which Scott Weinberg reviewed here) in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance: " Being at Sundance, I think, is the greatest honor I could ever have for this movie, truly. Sundance has always been -- before I got the show (The Office), before I came to Sundance -- it's always been to me, that place where film making is done for film lovers. There's a feeling here that people appreciate taking chances and doing bold things, and I think my cast and crew took big chances. ..." Krasinski spoke with Cinematical in Park City about adapting a seemingly unadaptable book, his respect for the late David Foster Wallace, casting Julianne Nicholson (Flannel Pyjamas) as the woman facing an army of Hideous Men, and much more.
You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
As Paul Auferio, the title character in Robert Siegel's Big Fan (which Erik Davis reviews here), Patton Oswalt didn't have a chance to fall back on the skill set he's honed through the years as one of the best stand-up comics working today: "As a comedian, your instinct is you tag everything with a joke or a look or a take; this guy, this character ... this is not one of those movies where the writer and director is looking at the characters ironically or in a post-modern sense where it's implied You all know that we're better than that, we're way smarter than this, that we're all looking down on this character, aren't we? This is a character that has no irony about himself ... and just unabashedly loves what he loves, to the detriment of having a real life. ..."
Oswalt spoke with Cinematical about the challenges facing a movie and comics obsessive in the part of playing a sports obsessive, how he sees Paul as an 'imploding" character, some of his favorite independent films and how he sees Big Fan as a tribute to some of the classic 'lonely man' dramas of the 1970's, plus much more.
You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Playing himself -- or, rather, a kind-of version of himself who volunteers to have his soul removed -- in this year's Sundance Dramatic Competition entry Cold Souls (see our review here), Paul Giamatti faced some fairly unique challenges: "I kind of forgot that I was playing myself in this ... I kind of felt that (director Sophie Bart) captured, in a funny way, an archetypal type of neurotic New York self-involved actor ... I kinda forgot I was playing myself; and I don't mean that to sound disingenuous about it, but I really did. ..." Giamatti spoke with Cinematical about how much he enjoyed Shoot 'Em Up, tapping into Russian melancholy for Cold Souls through facial hair and headgear and which midnight zombie film he'd most like to catch while in Park City. ...
You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Cinematical spoke with Brooklyn's Finest director Antoine Fuqua on a sunny Saturday afternoon; within hours, Fuqua's gritty police drama would have sold to Senator Entertainment, the first distribution deal made at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Of course, as Fuqua talked with Cinematical about his exemplary cast, how exactly you make a cops-and-crooks film in the wake of The Wire and the challenges of shooting in New York, the film's sale was in the future. Fuqua also defended the film's controversial final shot, even as he noted he was willing to entertain discussions about changing it; "The whole point of the movie is that they don't have the proper help in the police force, and there's a huge piece in The New York Times about more police killing themselves than dying in the line of duty that just came out a few months ago ... and when you read that, it's so sad and heartbreaking, and you go "You gotta show that. ..."
You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Which year-end lists are really worth caring about? What films got a boost from the Broadcast Film Critics and Golden Globe nominations, like Happy-Go-Lucky, and which ones got lost in the shuffle? What's Iron Man doing on the AFI Top Ten Films List, anyhow? And what long, epic films are perfect for enjoying with a turkey sandwich on Boxing Day? Joining James this week to talk about all these topics and more is Kris Tapley of the weblog In Contention. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Best known as the writer of The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie has an impressive number of films on his resume (including his criminally overlooked directorial debut, The Way of the Gun), but Valkyrie -- opening nationwide this week -- saw him also serve as a producer alongside director Bryan Singer and star Tom Cruise. A thriller about the 1944 plot inside the German military to try and assassinate Adolph Hitler, Valkyrie turns one of history's nightmares into a taut modern thriller -- a tricky balancing act that the film pulls off: "What we tried to do was to always maintain the focus that this was a movie about an event, that this was a movie about the events of July 20th (1944), and remain focused on that. We weren't making a bio-pic, we weren't making a film about the Holocaust -- all of those things were happening ... (but) this movie is about this incredible event that happened. ... And at the same time, maintaining a sense of responsibility."
McQuarrie spoke with Cinematical from New York about working alongside the German government, how producing a mega-million war film was like "drinking from a firehose," forgoing German accents, his possible future take on superheroic franchise The Champions and much more. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
What's going on with Summit Entertainment pulling Catherine Hardwicke off of the Twilight films? And who should they get to replace her? Does The Day the Earth Stood Still work as 'hard" science fiction, or is it just hard to watch? And what can cooking with pork tell us about modern leading men? Joining us to talk about these topics and much, much more on The Rocchi Review this week is writer and editor Devin Faraci of Chud.com, who shares his thoughts on the Oscar race and why, precisely, Punisher: War Zone works for him and a wide variety of other topics. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Asked what she would tell theatergoers who have no interest in vampires that might make them want to see Twilight, her new film adapting Stephenie Meyers' best-selling story of immortal longings and teen love, director Catherine Hardwicke laughs: "I would say that when you come out of the theater you might be in danger of whoever went with you ... just grab(bing) you and start making out with you. ..." The director of gritty urban fare like Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, Hardwicke also explained how she truly identified with Twilight's teen heroine and got into the supernatural series: "When I read the book, I just got drawn in, and ... as I read the book I just started becoming Bella, and just breathing and hyperventilating, like her, and getting mezmerized by the whole experience. ..." Hardwicke spoke about undead romance, adapting a much-loved book, the classic vampire visions she avoided, and much more with Cinematical in Los Angeles. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
What does Daniel Craig get right in his new outing as James Bond? What does Quantum of Solaceget wrong? Can Marc Forster really direct action? Is Olga Kurylenkoreally the "hottest Bond girl ever?" Which directors could and should take on Bond's 23rd outing? And above and beyond all these topics, what does this week's guest Kevin Kelly, of Joystiq and Spout, think needs to happen to save Bond from both his corporate overlords and world-destroying villains? You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
What does Zack and Miri Make a Porno get right, and wrong, about the world of adult films? What do adult films get right, and wrong, about sex? Why are most Hollywoood films so very, very un-sexy? What's the MPAA's problem with sex? And, with it being Halloween, what does this week's guest Violet Blue -- author, San Francisco Chronicle sex columnist and horror fan -- find scary about Ils, Dead and Breakfast and Daughters of Darkness? You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Can J.J. Abrams boldly go where many have gone before to relaunch Star Trek? Why is The Road being pushed back? How will Ridley Scott's planned adaptation of The Forever War be different from any sci-fi film in the history of the genre? And what Spanish film has sci-fi fans waiting with bated breath? Joining James this week to talk about all things sci-fi is Annalee Newitz, Editor-in-chief of the science fiction, fantasy and comics blog io9. Cinematical's podcast is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
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