Q&A: Young Directors, Male Actresses, Awesome Marisa
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 11:58PM 
My apologies straightaway that this week's Q & A is so late. A particularly nasty bout of insomnia derailed me for over a day. I was without rail. Back on track now and the time has come to answer your questions, 10 of them at any rate.
BBats: What young director (3 or less films) are you most excited about seeing over the next decade?
Nathaniel: This is a great question but difficult because then you have to really stop and think about who made which pictures when and you have to set aside people you've been rooting for forever that will seemingly be 70 before they birth a third feature (I'm talking to you Jonathan Glazer and Kimberly Peirce). It'd be weird to say John Cameron Mitchell since he's been making great movies for a decade now but in fact he's only made three. Still it's hard to argue with that diverse, unique and cathartically vivid trio: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Shortbus (2006), and Rabbit Hole (2010). I would follow him anywhere though I might be shoving him from behind while doing so because he's too freaking slow.
My list would have to include 34 year-old Cary Fukunaga who has made two features but already has a great sense of the camera's place in storytelling as well as a place's place in storytelling (Sin Nombre) if you get me. On top of that he's got a steady hand with strong actors (Jane Eyre).
Cary Fukanaga, Xavier Dolan, and Steve McQueen
I'd also go with 22 year-old Xavier Dolan who sure can make pretty pictures (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats) and can also act inside of them. His influences are super apparent but he's very young and it should be thrilling to watch that already glorious image-making while on the soundtrack a filmmaking voice find itself. I'm very curious as to how Andrea Arnold's career will develop. She already has an Oscar from that gritty compelling short film Wasp (2003) and Fish Tank was so special. Finally, there are two filmmakers who are about to unveil their sophomore feature after a startling debut: 37 year old Joachim Trier (will Oslo August 31st equal Reprise or prove too similar?) and 42 year-old Steve McQueen (will Shame top Hunger... but then how could it?) which means that my list is already up to five and your question was singular so I'll stop there. But the three names in bold are the ones I can't stop thinking about this year.
Roark: What's your favorite movie in your least favorite genre?
Nathaniel: I'm not crazy about westerns but I love Howard Hawks's Red River (1948). I was going to say "horror" but then when I stop to recall how many I do love (Psycho, Carrie, Rosemary's Baby being the holy trinity) it becomes clear that I far prefer horror to westerns.
Luke and Adrian: Best Post Oscar move for Natalie Portman?
Nathaniel: Laying low now that she's had her money-guzzling year. Wait it out until something challenging but different than Black Swan comes around. I'm guessing it would be a lot easier for her to find her next Closer than her next Black Swan so if I were her management team I'd be looking for a high profile prestige ensemble drama... or even a highly stylized but lighter something... She was terrific in Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier and the short treated her like a star. Directors who know how to frame her spectacular face and amp up her sexuality in deeper than surface ways tend to get the best rewards; too many Your Highnesses and Friends With Benefits and that Oscar win won't age well.
Evan: What three movies are you most looking forward to from the remainder of 2011?
Nathaniel: Shame for the McQueen/Fassbender reunion, The Skin I Live In for the Almodóvar/Banderas reunion, and I Don't Know How She Doe.... KIDDING! and A Dangerous Method for the Cronenberg/Mortensen reunion. Look at me all Director/ACTOR things instead of actresses. Where am I? WHO AM I?
Mr W: And are you going to revive you reader spotlights any time soon?
Nathaniel: Yes. The new fall season of The Film Experience kicks off on September 13th and we'll also go back to honoring you... the collective you, I mean. Not that Mr. W isn't worth honoring :)
Tom M: Which Male Actors (past and/or present) come closest to having careers/images/appeals like the actresses you love? (Not necessarily asking about your favorite actors but if there are any actors that trip your actressexual wire...if that makes any sense.)
my answer, plus Woody Allen and an ode to Marisa Tomei if you click-to-continue
Nathaniel: I'm not entirely sure it does... make sense. I was just about to list my "favorite" actors. The best explanation I've ever read of why actresses are more fascinating than actors was written by my friend Nick. He wrote:
...men are so saddled with responsibility for narrative and action that they aren't often asked to shade the character emotionally, or not in ways that seize my imagination. I love subtext and implication, and because men often have the centerpiece parts, they don't have the same burdens (i.e., opportunities) or the same skills at inventing or implying subtext. The scales are often very gendered: "vulnerability" itself, to any degree, can count as "shading" in a lot of male-hero performances, whereas the logic of Hollywood sexism presumes "vulnerability" in women, so they've got to dig further than that to layer the character or build in some surprises. Male star vehicles, which often privilege action over character work, aren't anywhere near as emotionally expressive as female star vehicles...
When he wrote that, to explain why he chose to do a Best Actress Project rather than Best Actor it was honestly like a very bright lightbulb turning on. It explains so much. It also explains why male movie stars who do win my obsessive fandom tend to lose it over the long haul because the more famous they get the less interesting their roles become. Yay for generalities!!! I'm currently living in abject fear that this will happen to Michael Fassbender who is the current actor who for all intents, purposes and love levels is basically an actress to me. Like Jude Law before him or maybe Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. But usually when I "love" an actor -- like, oh, Bridges, Mortensen, Gyllenhaal, Fiennes, McGregor, McKellen -- it's more deeplike than madlove.
Derreck: You throw a dinner for Nicole Kidman, but she calls and cancels at the last minute because she sees the Bazmark signal in the sky and knows she is needed. She decides to send someone else in her absence, you open the door and it is Renée Zellweger. What do you guys talk about?
Nathaniel: Sneaky, Derreck. You so thoroughly won me over visually in that first sentence --a Bazmark beacon? *adds to wish-list* -- that I didn't even see the cruel punchline coming. I know that Zeéeeee and I have had a rocky (one-sided) relationship for well over a decade now but I'm actually a nice person in real life so I would continue my hosting duties as if it had been for her honor all along. Since it's a dinner party I'm assuming it's not "professional" so I'd definitely try to lubricate her with some alcohol and hear about all the incredible co-stars, which include four of my all time favorite stars: Pfeiffer, Law, Streep and McGregor.
If we both got very very drunk there would definitely be a little "Hot Honey Rag" action and the conversation would inevitably turn to Bradley Cooper. I'm not proud of this.
P.S. A Bazmark signal sounds wondrous but there's a big problem with it conceptually. It's not like Baz Luhrmann would ever come running when you need him... even if you lit up the whole sky to urge him on. Laziest filmmaker ever -- YEARS and YEARS between projects!
Bassett (Exhale) and Turner (Roses). Hide your valuables! They will fuck your shit up. Mallinckrodt: Explain which career trajectory hurts you more: Kathleen Turner, or Angela Bassett. Two amazingly gifted strong actresses both with Oscar noms, but who will probably (sniffle) never get nom'd again due to Hollywood not knowing what to do with them.
Nathaniel: This one's easy. Angela Bassett's career is more depressing. While it's true that filmmakers lost interest in Kathleen Turner long ago, she had a challenging, high profile and varied run for a whole decade from Body Heat (1981) to War of the Roses (1989). And now she's recreated herself as a formidable stage actress. Your career is not at all a waste if you can do what she did in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on stage, you know? Bassett only had a few years of good roles before she got shoved into thankless parts for no reason that I could discern whatsoever. She's trying her hand at the stage soon and I hope that goes well for her but would she even know what to do with a meaty role at this point? Waiting to Exhale was like a 100 years ago!
Ed: There are some rumours about where the next Woody Allen movie will be placed - Munich. What kind of movie do you want to see from Woody this time: another comedy, a crime movie, a sexy movie like VCB or a family drama à la Hannah and Her Sister?
Nathaniel: I was all set to combine your multiple choice and say "a family drama that's also a crime movie" and then I realized that that was what Cassandra's Dream was and no one liked that, right? I'd prefer that he would move away from comedy, actually. His jokes just aren't as sharp anymore. The best thing about Midnight in Paris (and Match Point before it) was the concept and its rich dramatic riptide... which Woody almost capitalized on but sort of didn't. And when it comes to elevating material that's not quite all the way there, if you know what I mean, I think it's easier for dramatic actors to elevate material with their own understanding of subtext and character building than it is for comic actors to be funny without jokes.
Question of the Week
Juliette as "Rain" in Husbands and WivesMatthew: Woody Allen has chosen a new, unexpected muse (BYE Scarlett Johansson...) and is planning to develop several films solely around her a la ANNIE HALL, ALICE, and ANOTHER WOMAN. Pick the actress.
Nathaniel: Can I have two answers? I can since it's my column! I'm not selecting Dianne Wiest because we've already talked about that collaboration in a previous column. My answer from within Woody's filmography is Juliette Lewis. She was so unexpectedly perfect both nestled inside his upscale intellectual bubble and eager to pop it in Husbands and Wives (1992). So much so in fact that I've never stopped thinking about that character since. Her taxi cab scene as she just tortures mouse Woody like a delighted bloodthirsty cat over his lost manuscript is easily one of my favorite scenes in the entirety of Woody's huge filmography. I'd love to see what they could do together now that she's nearing 40. Plus, this pairing shakes both of them from their comfort zones which is often a good thing.
Since Woody has an unfortunate obsession with very young women (despite the fact that his best work has always been with women his own age), I think he could do a lot worse than building pieces around Emma Stone who has such effortless charisma and humor. But mostly I'm mentioning her because she deserves her own Annie Hall and so far her films haven't been up to her level, even when they've been good. On the other hand her comedy is so bright and full of delight she's practically descended from Julie Andrews (don't tell Anne Hathaway). So maybe she needs a director with a lighter soul and sharp mind to build funny vehicles for her?
But my final answer is Marisa Tomei because she's unusually versatile and Woody, for all his familiar themes and plots, likes to genre hop. Tomei's dramatic moments can sting as hard as a Spacek slap (In the Bedroom) but she can also stretch out their effect until they're as hard to shake as years of humiliation in strip clubs (The Wrestler). And with comedy, forget about it. She can hit you sideways, putting a big dumb grin on your face to warm you up for the headliners (very generous that way) but when a filmmaker centers a scene around her she's not afraid to go big for laughs whether she's stomping her feet to illustrate her point (My Cousin Vinny) or playing squealing/screeching sides of girlish delight/womanly scorn (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) She rarely plays the kind of upper class intellectuals that populate Allen films but she's a smart woman so my guess is nobody has asked her to.
Thus concludes my "Ode to Marisa"!
Or maybe not. (Nathaniel, He Loved Too Much) My longwinded point is this: She has been surprising audiences ever since she made the leap from sitcom TV to the big screen twenty long years ago. My guess is that she has still more surprises, for the right director and role, as she enters her third decade in the movies ... which starts right now.
Your turn.
Feel free to answer any of these questions yourself. I know we have a lot of Tomei fans in these parts but what about Juliette + Woody -- can I get a second? And which directors are you most eager to watch develop?
Reader Comments (12)
Marisa Tomei needs some STARRING vehicles because she's just so good. She literally stole the Crazy, Stupid, Love from her costars. I had wished she was in so much more of that movie.
For Woody, I'd love to see him get back with Chloe Sevigny--she seems perfect for this films and I liked her in Melinda & Melinda. Maybe a French actress, too, like Anna Mouglalis or Melanie Laurent.
Sigourney Weaver's career trajectory is the most depressing. She needs an advocate in Harvey Weinstein or Scott Rudin. Some smart young autuer to write something specially for her. I would love for Susan Sarandon to come back but she's too much of a grown-ass sexual woman for the general audience and Hollywood
Woody Allen needs color. S. Epatha Merkerson is the African-American equivalent to Dianne Wiest.
About the last question, I HATED Juliette Lewis in Husbands and Wives. I don't dislike her, but I think she was awful in it. And it's weird, because I've heard either love or despise for that performance, but not indifference. It just didn't work for me.
And I totally agree about Marisa Tomei. I saw her in Crazy Stupid Love last week and remembered (how did I forget?) that she can be hilarious. That's one talented woman, and, sadly, it may be true that nobody has asked her to play an upper class intelectual, but I'm sure she could pull it off, and be funny, memorable, powerful and sexy while doing it.
Let's just make a petition for Woody asking him to do a "non-comedy-movie" with Marisa, some of his previous muses and a fresh face like Jessica Chastain.
We all know that Woody needs a break from "trying to write something really really funny" and what's bettern than a dramatic movie with a lot of inspiring, talented and beautiful cinematic estrogen? Can you imagine a movie with Diane&Dianne, Marisa, Jessica and Scarlett all in the same scene? What a delicious and inspiring vacations from comedy, don't you think, Woody?
Just to make it clear: we still love you, Woody, we just don't have a good laugh from you a long time ago, but we still love you and go to the movies because of you.
Hugs
about Juliette Lewis in H&W (as well as EVERYTHING she does) im on the LOVE wagon. this girl seem uncapable of being uninteresting!
That .gif from Chicago is like watching Goofus & Gallant do a musical. Zellweger's pretty good in the film, but it's clear that she's working really hard to get there, while The Zeta just breezes in and works that star mojo. I love hearing rumors that Zeta-Jones hated working with Zellweger, and for some reason I don't doubt them. Something about that "delightful" bitchness being played out on screen, with Zeta-Jones winning the cat fight and the Oscar, always makes me smile.
I would love to see Judy Davis and Juliette Lewis as mother and daughter in a Woody Allen movie. With Illeana Douglas as the aunt. They bring such authenticity to what they do...that would be explosive.
The taxi scene is becoming more and more of a classic one, you know. I always hear people talking about it...That is such an amazing feat for a movie that also has Judy Davis's telephone scene. The thing is, Rain was not passive. She was not the ingenue. She was in control. She controls the scene. I read an interview book in which Allen says he tried the scene in many different angles, but nothing really worked. He also says he would love to work with Juliette again. He says: "Definitely! She was great!". The role had to be re-shot with Juliette after they realized Emily Lloyd just didn't work in it. I think great art has to come from challenges and I think Nate put it so well when you said their partnership shakes them both from their comfort zones! I just want to see Juliette pop that bubble!
Debra Granik and Edgar Wright top my list for directors to watch. Granik's only done two films so far, but she's shown such terrific sense of establishing tone and creating compelling narratives that I can't wait to see what she does next. And Wright is so exciting and original and completely unafraid to just go all-out, even when it backfires.
Can you imagine Woody working with Catherine Deneuve? She's more than adept at both comedy and drama, and if he would center the film around her, maybe the Academy (and the rest of the world) will remember that she's one of the greatest living actresses around.
"That .gif from Chicago is like watching Goofus & Gallant do a musical. Zellweger's pretty good in the film, but it's clear that she's working really hard to get there, while The Zeta just breezes in and works that star mojo."
I can see that, but I feel like that really worked for the characters perfectly, so...like, it was kind of the point. Idk.
For director, my initial answer is Edgard Wright since his projects are always so exciting to me and I almost always end up loving them. But then I thought of Marc Webb. Loved (500) Days of Summer and despite the futility of it all, his involvement (as well as the cool cast) is one of the reasons I'm excited for The Spider-Man reboot. There's also the writing-directing team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden who have put out a few small and lovely films.
Steve McQueen and Andrea Arnold would be the young directors I'm looking forward to the most as well. Cannot wait to see their future work in this decade.
Yay we have the same least favourite film genre. I rarely sit through many since they all HAVE THE SAME COLOR PALETTE.
You know, Toni Collette wouldn't have seemed so 'aw, trying her damndest' next to CZJ. UGH, Rob Marshall and his weak will.
YES YES YES @ the Juliette Lewis in Husbands & Wives shout-out. And that taxicab closeup shot! Definitely one of the best in Woody's pantheon. I know I've mention her and that scene here before (and I don't wanna sound like I'm stanning, ew) but it's so underappreciated, I start going nuts when people totally only talk about Judy Davis as the only highlight from that film. For her even less screentime, Juliette Lewis steals it!