June 23, 2006
Reeler Podcast: 'Great New Wonderful' Director Danny Leiner
I cannot remember exactly what I said in my introduction to my podcast interview with The Great New Wonderful's director Danny Leiner, but I vaguely recall intoning something about its alchemy of mourning and irony as well as the more conspicuous chemistry of an ensemble cast fusing the film's five story threads. Which is totally abstract, I know, but so is Wonderful, which follows its storylines through the emo-cultural haze of post-9/11 New York--mostly without specific reference to the date and its tragedy.
Piece of cake: Danny Leiner coaching Maggie Gyllenhaal on the set of The Great New Wonderful (Photo: Juliana Thomas / First Independent Pictures)
Instead, Leiner and screenwriter Sam Catlin posit the attacks' first anniversary as a barometer of middle-class anxiety. Beyond an unspoken dread of the calendar once again reading Sept. 11, the characters in Wonderful seem stunned by the reality that the day changed everything and nothing. "Are we happier?" Olympia Dukakis's reticent, routinized hausfrau seems to wonder. "Are we safer?" wonder a pair of Indian bodyguards whose own emotions represent their worst enemies. "Have we grown?" asks an ambitious pastry chef (Maggie Gyllenhaal) desperately scaling the professional ranks. "Do we still know each other?" is the question that plagues a 30-something married couple struggling with their violent, asthmatic 10-year-old son, while Tony Shalhoub's droll therapist confronts his patient with the query 9/11 provoked in all of us: "Do you even know yourself?"
All important questions, of course, even if, in the end, Wonderful's implications are a bit too fragile to effectively spread this thin (you almost sense that were it not for the priceless Stephen Colbert cameos at its center, Leiner might have cut the frazzled-parents storyline). Shalhoub and Gyllenhaal's sangfroid case studies generate much of the film's momentum; in particular, the latter's exchange with cake competitor Edie Falco exquisitely frames the New Yorker's immediate post-9/11 dilemma of balancing hard-driving nature with banal, disingenuous unity. In Dukakis's case, her loveless marriage and discreetly roving eye seem too easy a metaphor for life's brevity; it is not until her heartbreak provokes her to rage that Leiner calculates the opportunity cost our institutions (brick-and-mortar and otherwise) impose on individuals.
It might have taken 9/11 and its aftermath to get Leiner and Catlin to evaluate such phenomena, but their emphasis on character effectively sidesteps exploitation and gimmickry. It also lightens the viewer's emotional load: They probably could just as easily remove the sporadic shots of a WTC-less Lower Manhattan and title cards featuring the anniverary date, and the film would still present an essentially engaging, bittersweet model of New Yorker malaise. Yet with the attacks and their subsequent wars so heavily anchoring the 21st-century experience, their inclusion--however allusive, abstract or flawed--reflects a risk worth taking. And, for that matter, worth viewing.
Anyway, I guess this is an exceedingly long-winded, inefficient way of saying that Leiner has his own ideas about all of this, and he talks about them with me right here. Thank you for listening.
RELATED: Great New Wonderful Premiere Has its Cake and Eats it Too (June 21, 2006)
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June 15, 2006
Shortz Circuit: 'Wordplay' Premieres, Subject Sits Down For Reeler Podcast
As an avowed fan of the film and a sucker for yesterday afternoon's circulating rumor that Bill Clinton might stop by, I made the trip to Wednesday night's Wordplay premiere party at IFC Center. In the end, Clinton was a no show, but to hell with him; who needs an ex-president when you have New York Times crossword editor (and Wordplay hero) Will Shortz making the celebrity rounds?
Taking one with the team: Will Shortz (center) celebrates Wordplay's opening night with producer Christine O'Malley and director Patrick Creadon (Photo: STV)
Everyone who was anyone in the puzzle doc joined Shortz under the billowy IFC big top: Tyler Hinman, kicking back vodka tonics in his crossword puzzle necktie; champion solver Ellen Ripstein, looking resplendent in a black ball gown; Trip Payne, who said Wordplay might win the documentary Oscar if it adds the subtitle, "The Long March to Freedom"; and the married directing/producing team of Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley, who were excited as they were anxious about their film's upcoming opening weekend.
I do not think they have much to worry about, especially here in New York and especially with a mascot as beloved as Shortz doing his part to get the, ahem, word out. He even took a few minutes yesterday to speak with me for yet another Reeler podcast, which you can find linked below. This is required listening for anybody who wonder how Shortz himself might do on one of his puzzles or if he has considered seeking a restraining order against Jon Stewart.
Actually, it is required listening for everybody, dammit, just because I say it is:
Will Shortz podcast -- June 14, 2006
Oh, and Wordplay opens Friday, June 16, at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza.
Posted by stvanairsdale at 11:07 AM | TrackBack
June 14, 2006
Reeler Podcasts: Have Lunch With James Toback and Nicholas Jarecki
The latest Reeler podcasts are now available, featuring Nicholas Jarecki and James Toback discussing their partnership on the new documentary The Outsider. I listed a few highlights Monday, all of which pale (now that I have re-reviewed our chats) to Toback eating lunch in the listener's ear. But like so many of Toback's films, I am all about the new experience over any kind of staggering quality, so let us just do our best to deal with it and move on with our lives.
Listening tip: Bump up the volume by about 30 to 40 percent after the introductions; a mixing miscalculation left things a wee bit quiet. I promise it will be fixed for next time.
James Toback podcast -- June 8, 2006
Nicholas Jarecki podcast -- June 8, 2006
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June 06, 2006
Kerrigan, 'Keane' Podcast Now Available for Your Listening Pleasure
Thanks so much for your patience as my anxious, tearful struggles to embrace new technology have finally yielded the first-ever Reeler podcast, featuring Keane writer/director Lodge Kerrigan. I guess that it is not technically a podcast since you cannot download it yet, but I am working on it. At any rate, your boss should not care if you listen at the office, so crank it.
The 30-minute chat includes the panel-ish discussion between me, Kerrigan and my bloggy collleagues Karina Longworth and Lawrence Levi that followed last week's well-received screening of Keane; a spirited Q&A is in there as well. For the most part, we achieved a respectable sound quality, although we did experience a mic shortage that might require you to bump up the voulme to hear the majoriity of audience inquiries.
And lest you think those lulls suggest the crowd was not engaged, check out this distribution memo an attendee went home and threw together for her bosses at New Yorker Films (and then quite brilliantly uploaded to MySpace):
The Proposal:
I propose that New Yorker Films/MHE offer Lodge Kerrigan a ... "tenured" position with the company. This would be a guarantee to distribute 6 completed films of his over a similar timeline, in the same manner as the Magnolia /Cuban / Wagner/ HDNet/2929 Entertainment has agreed to do with (Steven) Soderbergh's films, with one catch. The films will not be in HD, they will be either video or film.
The Action Plan:
The first step is to propose the idea to Mr. Kerrigan.
The second step, if he is in agreement is to have a meeting with the Magnolia/Cuban/Wagner/HDNet/2929 Entertainment collective and let them know our plan and see how they would like to work with us.
The third step is to let the battle of the two geniuses, Mr. Soderbergh and Mr. Kerrigan (one's the father, the other's the underdog), begin.
Great idea--but only if they let me podcast it.
LINK: Lodge Kerrigan at the Pioneer Theater--May 30, 2006
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