Declare Your Independents: Volume 11
GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome to yet another edition of Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film.
This week…
The Late James Gandolfini’s Enough Said Dominates the Specialty Box Office
Trailers from Hell: Part One
The Hamptons Film Fetival Announces Its Official Lineup
2014 Oscar Predictions: Best Original Screenplay
The 5 “Inside the Actors Studio” Episodes Every Filmmaker Should Watch
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s 5 Best hitRECord Shorts and How They Formed His Vision For “Don Jon”
A REMINDER:
- 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.
- When you go to the theater, why not whip out your cellphone and snap a shot of something that demonstrates you were there? A photo of the movie poster in the lobby. A shot of your ticket stubs. An image of the movie theater itself. You and youriconoclastic indie film freaks.
- For any conversations on Twitter re: this initiative, let’s use these two hashtags: #independents and #declareyourindependents
- While we’re at it, why not add our photos to CydM’s fantastic Pintrest page for everyone to enjoy?
- And if we come up with a nifty Declaration of Independents, we could try to make it go viral. If you were going to write a Declaration of Independents, what would you include? What if we made it a video manifesto?
We can’t make this work without your participation. Share your experiences with the community so we can open up readers to the fantastically diverse, exciting and evolving world of independent film. We’ll all be extremely grateful that you did!
INDIE SPOTLIGHT: MOVIES TO SEE IN THEATERS THIS WEEK
OPENING FRIDAY (9/27)
Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to “pull” a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn’t compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she’s determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Watch SXSW’s interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt here.
Q&A with actor/director/writer Joseph Gordon-Levitt and crew to come.
Robert Reich is an economist, author, and educator who was U.S. Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and who teaches a course on wealth and poverty at the University of California Berkeley. Since the mid-1980s, Reich has been outspoken on the issue of the growing divide between America’s rich and poor; in his book Aftershock, Reich presents his argument that this gulf is slowly but surely wiping out the middle class, and will lead to an economic catastrophe if left unchecked. Filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth presents a powerful look at Reich and his theories in the documentary Inequality for All; featuring footage from Reich’s lectures to students as well as interviews with the author and his conversations with Americans from many walks of life, the film provides disturbing evidence of the roles stagnating wages, growing personal debt, an economy based on consumer spending, and the decline of manufacturing are playing in the weakening of the American economy. Inequality for All received its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Watch IAmRougue’s exclusive interview with economist Robert Reich and director Jacob Kornbluth here.
Q&A with subject Robert Reich to come.
In his “stunning” (Stuart Fischoff, Ph. D., Psychology Today) and “powerful” (San Francisco Chronicle) feature debut as writer/director, actor Leland Orser (“ER”, Taken) and Jeanne Tripplehorn (“Big Love”, “Criminal Minds”) star as a married couple reeling from the tragic death of their only child. For each of them, grief becomes a private torment that threatens to destroy their world. Driven apart by sorrow, they try to find their way back to each other and the chance to love again. Laura Linney (“The Big C”, John Adams), Elliott Gould (Contagion, “Ray Donovan”), Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights”, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty) and Jason Ritter (“Parenthood”) co-star in this devastating but ultimately hopeful look at heartbreak, healing and the strength of the human spirit to defy darkness and embrace the light of MORNING.
Read an exclusive interview with writer/director/actor Leland Orser here.
Q&A with writer/director/actor Leland Orser and actress Jeanne Tripplehorn to come.
Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America’s most creative and defiant music. Under the spiritual influence of the “Singing River,” as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama’s cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. He is responsible for creating the “Muscle Shoals sound” and The Swampers, the house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio, known as Muscle Shoals Sound. Greg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals’ magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.
Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank (Bill Sage) rules his family with a rigorous ferver, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost. As a torrential rainstorm moves into the area, tragedy strikes and his daughters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner) are forced to assume responsibilities that extend beyond those of a typical family. As the unrelenting downpour continues to flood their small town, the local authorities begin to uncover clues that bring them closer to the secret that the Parkers have held closely for so many years.
Although she has traveled all over the world, flight attendant Montana Moore (Paula Patton) has yet to find a man with whom she wants to settle down. However, her sister’s upcoming wedding and pressure from her often-married mother force her to calculate that she has a month to find a fiance of her own. Montana’s best friends and fellow flight attendants conspire to help her re-encounter her exes as they travel across the country, but the right man may be closer than she thinks.
Watch an exclusive interview with director David E. Talbert here.
As the rock band Metallica performs a roaring live set for fans in a sold-out arena, a young roadie named Trip (Dane DeHaan) is sent on a mission to meet a disabled truck and retrieve a particular item. However, the routine task turns into a surreal odyssey when Trip’s van is hit by another vehicle and he subsequently finds himself up against a death-dealing horseman. As Trip flees through desolate streets, he has only his wits to help him avoid the deadly horseman and deliver Metallica’s cargo.
Alice is forty years old. She’s dynamic, beautiful, and crazy about contemporary art. She works in a Parisian bank with her two best friends, Pénélope and Isabelle. Life would be perfect for Alice, if only her husband hadn’t been stupidly killed in a motorbike accident a few years earlier, leaving her as alone as she is lost. Pénélope and Isabelle firmly believe that it is time that Alice turned over a new leaf and began a new life. Alice believes that she can’t close the most beautiful chapter of her existence and rejects all the men introduced to her by her well-meaning friends, who’ve decided to make her happy whether Alice likes it or not. They offer her a weekend at Hotel Normady, a dream palace where it will be difficult for Alice to refuse her new destiny. All bets are on…
Director Matthew Porterfield’s indie drama I Used to Be Darker is a film about family, love, and learning to be our best selves. When Northern Irish runaway Taryn (Deragh Campbell) takes refuge with her estranged Aunt Kim (Kim Taylor), Uncle Bill (Ned Oldham), and cousin Abby (Hannah Gross) in Baltimore, they each are forced to deal with life’s challenges. Taryn runs into trouble in Ocean City and escapes to the safe harbor offered by her Aunt Kim and Uncle Bill in nearby Baltimore. Former bandmates, Kim still makes her living as a musician, but Bill has moved on to other pursuits. This tension has taken a toll on their marriage, but they’ve been trying to keep it together for the sake of their daughter, Abby. But, when Abby returns home from school for the summer, this patchwork clan must finally deal with their very real problems that neither music nor wine can wash away. Filled with music (including two full-length original songs that help to anchor the narrative), Porterfield’s I Used to Be Darker is a film about old problems, new beginnings, and the lingering notes of the past.
In THE SECRET LIVES OF DORKS, Payton (Gaelan Connell) is a pathetic dork, a comic book geek whose high school career is one hopeless faux pas after another. Yet he’s a dreamer and madly in love with the head cheerleader Carrie (Riley Voelkel), who he is determined to win over. But she is wise to his desperate advances, so to get off his radar she creates a plan to push him into the arms of a dorkette at the school, Samantha (Vanessa Marano).
A crime thriller that was inspired by a real-life scandal in which prison inmates were temporarily released from prison to work as contract killers on behalf of corrupt politicians.
Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark met in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and, despite leading very different lives, remained close friends ever since. Shepard became a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Buried Child) and an Academy Award-nominated actor (THE RIGHT STUFF), while Dark was a homebody with a penchant for letter writing, photography, and supporting himself with odd jobs from dog-catcher to deli worker. Through the decades, they stayed bonded by family ties. Dark married an older woman named Scarlett and Shepard married her daughter. For years, the two couples lived together, until Shepard broke away for a relationship with Jessica Lange in 1983, leaving Johnny to help father his first son. Nevertheless, he and Dark continued writing to each other, amassing hundreds of letters.
Directed by Oscar-nominated James Franco from a screenplay by James Franco and Matt Rager, As I Lay Dying is adapted from the 1930 classic American novel by William Faulkner. The story chronicles the Bundren family as they traverse the Mississippi countryside to bring the body of their deceased mother Addie to her hometown for burial. Addie’s husband Anse and their children, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and the youngest one Vardaman, leave the farm on a carriage with her coffin — each affected by Addie’s death in a profound and different way. Their road trip to Jefferson, some forty miles away, is disrupted by every antagonistic force of nature or man: flooded rivers, injury and accident, a raging barn fire, and not least of all — each individual character’s personal turmoil and inner commotion which at times threaten the fabric of the family more than any outside force.
Watch The Hollywood Reporter’s interview with writer/director/actor James Franco here.
NOW IN THEATERS
Rush
The epic action-drama stars Chris Hemsworth as the charismatic Englishman James Hunt and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) as the disciplined Austrian perfectionist Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack epitomized the contrast between these two extraordinary characters, a distinction reflected in their private lives. Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed — handsome English playboy Hunt and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Lauda. Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die.
Watch an interview with director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan here.
Enough Said
A divorced and single parent, Eva (Julia Louis Dreyfus) spends her days enjoying work as a masseuse but dreading her daughter’s impending departure for college. She meets Albert (James Gandolfini) — a sweet, funny and like-minded man also facing an empty nest. As their romance quickly blossoms, Eva befriends Marianne (Catherine Keener), her new massage client. Marianne is a beautiful poet who seems “almost perfect” except for one prominent quality: she rags on her ex-husband way too much. Suddenly, Eva finds herself doubting her own relationship with Albert as she learns the truth about Marianne’s Ex. ENOUGH SAID is a sharp, insightful comedy that humorously explores the mess that often comes with getting involved again.
Read an interview with director Nicole Holofcener here.
Prisoners
How far would you go to protect your child? Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is facing every parent’s worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect’s release. Knowing his child’s life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. The desperate father will do whatever it takes to find the girls, but in doing so, he may lose himself, begging the question: When do you cross the line between seeking justice and becoming a vigilante?
Listen to KCET’s Q&A with director Dennis Villeneuve here.
Q&A with producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson to come.
Blue Caprice
The striking feature film debut of writer-director Alexandre Moors, BLUE CAPRICE is a harrowing yet restrained psychological thriller about an abandoned boy lured to America into the shadows of a dangerous father figure. Inspired by true events, BLUE CAPRICE investigates the notorious and horrific Beltway sniper attacks from the point of view of the two perpetrators, whose distorted father-son relationship facilitated their long and bloody journey across America. Marked by captivating performances by Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond, lyrical camerawork, and a unique and bold structure, BLUE CAPRICE documents the mechanisms that lead its subjects to embrace physical violence. BLUE CAPRICE paints a haunting depiction of two cold-blooded killers and a riveting portrait of 21st-century America.
Q&A with stars Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond to come.
COG
Adapted from an autobiographical short story by Grammy-nominated humorist David Sedaris, writer/director Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s gently humorous comedy-drama stars Glee’s Jonathan Groff as a young, self-righteous writer who learns more about life than he ever thought possible while spending a summer working on an Oregon apple farm. David (Groff) and his best friend Jennifer (Troian Bellisario) were planning to spend their summer working together on the farm when Jennifer cancelled on him at the last possible moment. Determined to carry on with the trip regardless, David eventually arrives at his rural destination, where he quickly discovers that his new coworkers seem to resent anyone with the ability to think independently. But in time things start to change; David wins the friendship of an amiable forklift driver named Curly (Corey Stoll), and encounters Jon (Denis O’Hare), a compassionate born-again artist with genuine concern for David’s well-being. By the time David’s soul-searching summer draws to a close, his arrogance has been eroded by the kindness of the people he once saw as inferior, resulting in a series of life-altering epiphanies.
Q&A with director Kyle Patrick Alvarez to come.
Wadjda
WADJDA is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn’t be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda’s mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. At first, Wadjda’s mother is too preoccupied with convincing her husband not to take a second wife to realize what’s going on. And soon enough Wadjda’s plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school.
Watch The Guardian’s interview with director Haifaa Al-Mansour here.
Salinger
SALINGER features interviews with 150 subjects including Salinger’s friends, colleagues and members of his inner circle who have never spoken on the record before as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never been seen. Additionally, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal and Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank talk about Salinger’s influence on their lives, their work and the broader culture. The film is the first work to get beyond the Catcher in the Rye author’s meticulously built up wall: his childhood, painstaking work methods, marriages, private world and the secrets he left behind after his death in 2010.
Read The Huffington Post’s interview with director Shane Salerno here.
Q&A with director Shane Salerno to come.