Declare Your Independents — Vol. 39
GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome back to Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film!
This week…
The 20 Breakthrough Directors of 2014
Chris Rock on Racism in Hollywood
THR’s Oscar Forecast: What Mattered (and What Didn’t) During a Week Packed With Awards News
Scott and I encourage any of you who go to see an independent movie to post your reactions to the film in these posts. Good, bad, indifferent, whatever. If there’s a film you want to recommend, do it. Use your words to inspire readers to transport themselves into a local cinema.
INDIE SPOTLIGHT: MOVIES TO SEE IN THEATERS THIS WEEK
OPENING FRIDAY (12/5)
With the dissolution of her marriage and the death of her mother, Cheryl Strayed has lost all hope. After years of reckless, destructive behavior, she makes a rash decision. With absolutely no experience, driven only by sheer determination, Cheryl hikes more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, alone. WILD powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her.
Watch an interview with the film’s writer, Nick Hornby, here.
Miss Julie depicts a fierce battle between a man and a woman, a struggle for power and dominance enacted through a cruel and compulsive game of seduction and repulsion. A country estate in Ireland in 1880s. Over the course of one midsummer night, in an atmosphere of wild revelry and loosened social constraints, Miss Julie and John, her father’s valet, dance and drink, charm and manipulate each other. She, all hauteur longing for abasement he, polished but coarse — both united in mutual loathing and attraction. By turns seductive and bullying, savage and tender, their intimacy leads to desperate plans and vision of a life together… Unsure if the morning brings hope or hopelessness, Julie and John find their escape in a final act as sublime and horrific as anything in Greek tragedy.
Watch THR’s interview with writer/director Liv Ullmann here.
Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage ignites a powder keg of action in this electrifying cloak-and-dagger thriller. Evan Lake (Cage), a veteran CIA agent, has been ordered to retire. But when his protégé (Anton Yelchin) uncovers evidence that Lake’s nemesis, the terrorist Banir (Alexander Karim), has resurfaced, Lake goes rogue, embarking on a perilous, intercontinental mission to eliminate his sworn enemy.
Justin Long and Emmy Rossum are star-crossed lovers whose relationship blooms and unravels over the course of six years in this mysterious, dazzlingly original romance. When a chance encounter brings together the cynical Dell (Long) and the quick-witted Kimberly (Rossum), the stage is set for a tempestuous love affair that unfolds like a puzzle. As the film zigzags back and forth in time-from a meteor shower in LA, to an encounter in a Paris hotel room, to a fateful phone call-an unforgettable portrait of a relationship emerges. Sumptuously shot and boasting incredible chemistry between the leads, Comet is a one-of-a-kind cosmic love story.
Watch ScreenSlam’s interview with writer/director Sam Esmail here.
At 29, the most long-term relationship Sasha (Leighton Meester) and Paige (Gillian Jacobs) have ever been in is with each other, using their co-dependent friendship as an excuse not to venture out into the dating world alone. But when Paige meets nerdy Tim (Adam Brody) and starts to get serious for the first time, the nature of their friendship begins to shift. Fearing she’s being cast aside, Sasha tries to keep their relationship the same, but does growing up also mean growing apart?
A good kid at heart, Nick got caught up in the street lifestyle he was exposed to while growing up in Boston’s North End. He began running with the wrong crowd and was soon fully immersed in a life of petty crime. The eldest son of two first generation Italian parents, Nick always felt the pressure to contribute to the family’s American dream, especially once that dream stopped making ends meet. After his mother passed, his father (Paul Ben-Victor) refused to accept his help financially, even though it was needed to help support his younger brother Vitto (Kenny Wormald). Nick never gained acceptance from his father, who looked down on Nick for his lifestyle.
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women’s movement from 1966 to 1971. SHE’S BEAUTIFUL takes us from the founding of NOW, when ladies wore hats and gloves, to the emergence of more radical factions of women’s liberation; from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH (Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell!).
Watch MSNBC’s interview with Mary Dore, the film’s director, here.
In this twisted thriller, a young detective is caught in a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse when he is kidnapped and tormented by a masked serial killer. In order to survive, the rookie must use the wisdom imparted to him by senior detectives on their regular poker night.
Clinton Moisey is an iconoclastic, artisan action-figure designer who still lives in his mom’s basement, and is, by the standards of the world, a full-blown loser. But Clinton doesn’t have time to care about what others think of him; he’s too busy running a yard sale where he promotes his hardboiled detective toy line with his pet cat and best friend, “Mouser.” When Clinton wakes up one morning to find Mouser impaled by a crossbow arrow, he is devastated. Realizing that the local Sheriff is only interested in flirting with his mom, Clinton sets off on his own to find out who killed Mouser and why. As Clinton delves deeper into the case, he encounters a free-spirited weed dealer and part-time hair stylist to the elderly, a squeaky-clean Korean store clerk with a dark side, and a local celebrity on the verge of a nervous breakdown, ultimately uncovering a town-wide conspiracy far greater than he ever imagined. The comedic film is a modern-day film noir set in the mundane world of the suburbs.
Watch a Q&A at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival with the film’s writers, cast, and crew here.
From the director of The Black Power Mixtape comes a bold and fresh visual narrative on Africa, based on newly discovered archive material covering the struggle for liberation from colonial rule in the late ’60s and ’70s, accompanied by text from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.
NOW IN THEATERS
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of ‘gross indecency’, an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality — little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany’s World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives.
Watch Fresh Fiction’s interview with Graham Moore, writer of the 2011 Black List script, here.
Shocking family secrets shatter a woman’s quiet country life in this psychosexual thriller. Young couple Kaia (Gitte Witt) and Andrew (Christopher Abbott) spend their days restoring her family’s sprawling rural estate. Their peace is upended one night when Kaia’s emotionally disturbed sister Christine (Stephanie Ellis) shows up unexpectedly, followed by her distraught boyfriend (Brady Corbet). As Christine’s behavior grows increasingly unhinged-including an unsettling incident of sleepwalking-long-buried traumas resurface. With a haunting score by Sondre Lerche, director Mona Fastvold keeps the tension mounting as this provocative nerve-jangler reaches fever pitch.
Watch The Playlist’s interview with director Mona Lerche and writer Brady Corbet here.
What defines our identity, our family of origin or the family that raises us? How do we come to terms with the sins and mistakes of our parents? Lacey discovers that answering those questions means understanding her parents’ own stories as well as her own. She pieces together her family history and the story of her dual identity using home videos, archival footage, interviews, and episodes from her own life. Little White Lie is a personal documentary about the legacy of family secrets, denial, and the power of telling the truth.
Watch an interview with director Lacey Schwartz here.
FOXCATCHER is a psychological drama directed by Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (MONEYBALL) and starring Golden Globe winner Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller. The film was written by E. Max Frye and Academy Award nominee Dan Futterman. FOXCATCHER tells the story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave (Ruffalo) and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Carell) to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Desperate to gain the respect of his disapproving mother, du Pont begins “coaching” a world-class athletic team and, in the process, lures Mark into dangerous habits, breaks his confidence and drives him into a self-destructive spiral. Based on actual events, FOXCATCHER is a gripping and profoundly American story of fragile men who pinned their hopes for love and redemption on a desperate obsession for greatness that was to end in tragedy.
Watch an interview with the film’s screenwriters E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman here.
Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons ), an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability-and his sanity.
Watch TIFF’s interview with Damien Chazelle, director and writer of the 2012 Black List script, here.
Many thanks to Wendy for today’s post. Remember to Declare Your Independents by going to a theater or use V.O.D. to watch an indie feature this weekend.