Catch up reviews: TRAINWRECK: AMERICAN APPAREL, AMERICAN MANHUNT OSAMA BIN LADEN and AMERICAN MANHUNT OJ SIMPSON

TRAINWRECK: AMERICAN APPAREL 
A shallow look at the rise and implosion of the apparel brand. 

As with many of the films/ episodes of the series it is lacking a depth of details that is completely surprising for a network show. There is enough detail for 20 minute You Tube video. Actually I think many You Tube Videos would have been more detailed in less time.

A miss. 

AMERICAN MANHUNT BIN LADEN
Netflix look at the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

This is good but slightly dumbed down and self congratulatory look at search for Bin Laden after the 911 attacks.  Yes there is a lot of good information here but it's offset by some of the interviewees attitude macho attitude toward the hunt. ("They thought they could not tell us anything but they were wrong" spoken in the most condescending tones)

I liked it but wish it was much less jingoistic.

AMERICAN MANHUNT OJ SIMPSON
A look at OJ Simpson case from the people who put it together.

One of the better OJ docs is a more nuts and bolts look at what happened via the evidence and the the people who collected it. While the series perhaps suffers from not having a slightly wider view of everything, I found I liked the closer to the ground take the series gave us.

Worth a look.

Long Shadows (2025)

Young man whose parents were murdered years before, leaves the orphanage and heads off into the world to make his way and get revenge. Along the way he makes the acquaintance of a crusty old sheriff and connects with a young woman from his past.

Solid western doesn’t break any new ground but entertains pretty much every turn. This plays better than many recent westerns since it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel and instead simply focuses on the characters and the situations. The result is one the rare inde westerns that I would actually want to see a second time. The only weak link in the film is Blaine Maye as the man seeking revenge. While he isn’t bad, he is a bit too brooding  and the performance comes off as a tad one note.

Quibble aside LONG SHADOWS is worth a look if you want a solid western.

PREDATOR BADLANDS (2025)

 I was sitting at dinner with my brother complaining about recent remakes and trips to over done franchises where they have simply given us repeats or visually spectacular retreads to hide that they are creatively bankrupt. An hour later I'm watching PREDATOR BADLANDS and I'm enjoying the hell out of a film that actually rethinks what the franchise could be, with the result I found one of my most favorite films of 2025.

To be fair, the Predator franchise actually is one of the best. The first film is a classic. The second one changed things up by moving things to a city. The Alien films at least tried to mix things up. Predators was a clever rethink. Prey and the animated film were actually good little stories. Only The Predator film which sought to restart it all fell on its face. I was hopeful that BADLANDS would continue being interesting and I was more than rewarded.

The plot has a "weakling" predator going to kill an unkillable monster on another planet. Along the way he fights monsters and meets a synthetic human (Elle Fanning)  who was torn in half. Fanning will help our hero so that she can get her legs back.

I won't say more because the less you know going in the better you will like this.It does not go as expected, and even when it kind of does, you won't care because the characters and storytelling are spot on. The characters are so good you won't mind the occasional weak CGI.

And if the world were just Elle Fanning would get an Oscar nomination for her performance here. It covers the spectrum from A to Z and is just as good as it gets. Seriously watch the small ticks and gestures that give depth to her role. Most people won't notice because of the monsters, but I did and she should be up for awards, okay maybe not winning them but in the discussion.

I love this film. Its a wonderful film about finding one's place. It is a brilliant coming of age film but with violence and monsters. This is why I go to the movies, to go somewhere I've never been and see tales that move my heart.

This is cinema of the highest order.

One of the best films of the year- see it on the BIG screen.

(a word of warning a lot of this is subtitled since the Predator speaks his own language and isn't dubbed)

Matter of Time (2025) opens in Seattle at The Admiral Theater on November 7th

 

Eddie Vedder gives a performance to raise money to help cure epidermolysis bullosa, a painful genetic disease that makes the skin seperate from the body. The skin ends up as fragile as a butterfy's wings. As we watch Vedder perform we get to know several of the people suffering from the disease.

This was one of the best films at Tribeca and maybe 2025. It was an absolute sin that this film played late in the festival because it greatly reduced the audience for the film and it prevented it from having a chance of winning many awards. I was the only member of the press in the screening and it was a fraking shame.

This film will moved you - bring tissues. The young people struggling to live their lives will break your heart with what they have to suffer and make your spirit soar because you will understand that we humans can overcome anything.

What I loved was that Eddie Vedder comes off a genuine wonderful person. His comments to and about the people we have met makes you realize that he loves each and everyone and that he considers the as friends. Too often you see celebrities phone in the love, but not here. When he introduces Better Man and dedicates it to one of his friends who passed you feel his loss.

This film is a great film.  You need to see this, for all sorts of reasons, but mostly to see some of the most amazing people you will ever meet. 

Highly recommended.

Nit picking Frankenstein (2025)

 

Guillermo del Toro's FRANKENSTEIN is perfectly okay. An awards bait version that references a large number of earlier cinematic versions, the works of GDT and numerous other films, but it suffers  because it's a film that is frequently lacking in connecting material that there are plot problems. I think it maybe del Toro's weakest film.

The problem for me began at the start of the film when the monster attacks the ship and we get CGI mayhem. Bodies are tossed about like animated bodies and the film instantly slipped into cartoon territory for me. The CGI issues run through the whole film with the wolves looking particularly bad. So much of the film looks like the wrong sort of unreal. I was never into the world on screen, which coupled with the fact that the set design, while stunning, is really just a series of cool looking locations and not a world that connects to anything.

I dislike that the film seems to be "paying homage" to every Frankenstein film ever made with shots mirroring the Hammer films(the monster's appearance at the foot of Frankenstein's bed echoes Christopher Lee's appearance in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), lines lifted from numerous Hollywood films (The line where Frankenstein said he knows the creature has a brain  or something  because he put it there nis lifted from I WAS A TEENAGED FRANKENSTEIN) and bits borrowed from some Euro-versions. The film also heavily references earlier GDT films (the stair way in the castle looks like the stairs in CRIMSON PEAK) and numerous other works of art (Bernie Wrightson is referenced everywhere), with the creature reminding me of the Engineers of the Ridley Scott Alien prequels if they went through a Ziggy Stardust phase. Elizabeth mirrors look like Mary Shelly. Much like a film from Quentin Tarantino, I kept being pulled out of the film by all of the homages and borrows.

The script and continuity are a mess. I'm not sure if it is because things were cut out or because del Toro simply didn't care and just focused on the big scenes and never connecting things up. The time frame is almost always suspect. Things just happen just because- Walz's character suddenly wanting to be put into the monster, which we suspected, but which happens at a point where it makes no sense other than to provide a way to remove him from the narrative. From the trapped ship suddenly being damn close to open water despite being trapped in the ice, to sets not matching their exteriors (The blindman cabin is four times bigger on the inside then outside), to mayhem happening and no one moving either a way or attempting to stem it (much of the wedding sequence where every person is just a mannequin).  The design of the lab looks cool but makes no real-world sense - I mean seriously what would that castle tower be in a real-world setting - if nothing else so much of the tower is open to the elements. (Yes I know it's a movie but it still makes no sense in that world or ours. Additionally, how do the sets connect to each other? We almost never see anyone go from place to place; we are just in each unconnected and wildly oversized location with effort to connect them up and make them a real place. On stage that is allowed out of the limits of the space, but in a film  it makes you wonder "how did they get there?"  

And speaking of locations, I think the film is going to play different between those who see the film on the big screen and those that see it on a small one. I think those who see it big will be overwhelmed to such a degree by the massive and glorious sets that they will never notice all of the problems with the plot, narrative structure and characters. 

And then there are the frequent moments where something is important until it's not. For example, Victor mentions worrying about decay, so he keeps some bodies and parts on ice (Christoph Waltz) but other body parts- like the creature, or the things he's vivisecting, are just left out. That is the most glaring problem but there are others.

The film is a small three or four character story in huge settings. Outside of the university, the ship, a street scene and the wedding there are no sense of people in this world except those that are needed. I suspect that this is because Frankenstein is so self-centered that he only sees the world as about him, but even the monster's tale has minimal characters.  This would have been okay because Frankenstein says that some of what he says is fact and some is not but it's all true, but at no point does he describe anything. The people listening to his tale would have filled in more people and details. All of the settings in the film exist for the shots but there is no real world beyond the walls even to connect up the locations. Worse if you watch the film many of the locations are only shot from one angle as if they truly are sets and not real locations. This is a huge flaw with the infamous CALIGULA  where so many of the sets are just a wall or two. Here many of the  castle/lab locations son't feel like a place you can really walk around.

The most damning part of the film is that there are no real characters, Frankenstein, like his father, is a shit from first frame to until right before he dies. The monster has no real arc. We pity him because we have 200 years of versions that say we should. Granbted he is largely a good guy until he decides, out of left field film wise, to be a monster in a change that is narratively necessary, but emotionally and intellectually false. The characters act in scenes where things happen but we never see how they get from emotion to emotion.  We don't see the creature's hatred of mankind because the only ones who hate him is Frankenstein and the hunters who would have shot at anyone who was in the situatins they were in when they ran across him - especially after the blind man. His flight into the polar wilderness, like almost everything that happens, doesn't make sense other than it is there to get us from point A to B. They do things because that's the way the story goes n(in the novel and other versions there is a reason why he flees north), not because it makes any logical sense. The other versions of the story that vary from the novel work because they give us real characters with emotions and desires that are more than one dimensional and make things happen, whereas here del Toro does everything in a kind of shorthand that is a slave to the basic narrative arc and cuts away everything else including characters.

As a result of the extreme limitations of the script the performances are adequate. Oscar Isaac is fine as son of a bitch Frankenstein but there is no range because he has nothing to do but rage. (Peter Cushing did a much better job of being a bastard creator, doin it so well he continued for 15 years or so of sequels). Jacob Eloridi is similarly hampered by a role which is either pained bewilderment or rage. Actually, there is nothing there but a mirror that we are forced to reflect our own feelings on because is simply able to give us anything but a basic performance.  Mia Goth's Elizabeth exists purely to be the moral center, of sorts but is limited to pontifications. Her seeming semi-fascination with Victor doesn't quite work, especially once she suddenly rejects him and she simply becomes a mouthpiece for morality.

Don't get me wrong the film isn't bad, I just don't think it's the best of the Frankenstein films, nor the best film of the year.  After all I stayed for the entire movie and never felt the need to leave the theater knowing that I could see the rest Friday when it hits Netflix. Ultimately, it's a good film but like the creature at its heart you can see how ir was sewn together from other better material.

Peter Gutierrez on PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK (2025) which opens Wednesday

With PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND opening Wednesday here is a repost of Peter Gutierrez's review of the film from the NYFF

You wouldn’t expect that a doc consisting mostly of video call footage would hold your interest, let alone be riveting, but in this case you’d be wrong. In this collection of conversations with photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, Sepideh Farsi turns what are common frustrations, such as dropped audio or lagging/freezing video, into moments in which human connection itself, or even life itself, seems to hang in the balance. Also, the stunning images by Hassouna, besieged in North Gaza, open up this unforgettable documentary in ways that are never less than powerful. But of course, I’m largely talking about form so far, not content—perhaps because the content, or rather context, is just too heartbreaking and deserves far more attention than can be provided in a mere capsule. Let’s just leave it at this, then: one of the top documentaries I’ve been lucky enough to see this or any other year. Highly recommended.

Brief thoughts on Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (2025)

The life of photojournalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldies in Ukraine, is celebrated  by friends and family.

This is a celebration of the life and career of Renaud that is a good introduction to the man, but which will leave you wanting something more.One part biography and one part wake, this is a film that informs us but doesn't feel satisfying.  We don't really get enough of his story because we keep cutting back to his death and funeral. We only get a vague sense of Renaud as if we first met him, we don't fully get to know the man.

I liked this, but I didn't love it.

CATERPILLAR (2024)

                                              

50 year old gay man decides to change his eye color in the hope that it will kick start his life and bring him happiness.

This is an examination of a what we need to be happy, or we think will make us happy. Its a good, if by the number film whose main selling point is the change in eye color via surgery mill. How you react to the film is going to depend on whether you connect to David. I grew weary after a while. You mileage may vary

Hedda (2025)

After I saw HEDDA I tweeted: “Wow, HEDDA is one hell of a produced and crafted film that screams “it’s a hell of a produced and crafted film- GIVE ME OSCARS!” and I stand by that one sentence review.

A new version of the Ibsen classic Hedda Gabler about a woman in high society who marries for money and lives to regret it,  it is a film that is at the top of cinematic craftsmanship of the last decade. Few films have looked this spectacular and as polished. It is a film where every moment is perfectly crafted for the maximum “wow”.

It is also a film that is so rigidly acted and tightly wound that there is very little life in it. We aren’t watching actors we are watching chess pieces being moved around the board. I would rave about the performances, but they are so straight jacketed as to be marble.

The film feels like the sort of proper English theater production that people would make fun of when they played on Broadway or PBS. While I know the transposition of the story to Edwardian England and I could see that in the party sequence, the scenes outside of that are just as rigid. It feels false- though undeniably well-acted. I’ve never seen a version of the story this buttoned up. We need to at least feel the emotion underneath and we don’t genuinely feel it for any reason than the film points it out.

Speaking of PBS – this is best viewed as a stogy version that might on played Masterpiece Theater. If you like that- do see this.

Catch Up Capsusles: ALTO KNIGHTS and WAR OF THE WORLDS (2025)

ALTO KNIGHTS
Robert DeNiro plays Frank Costello and Vito Genovese for no really good reason in an okay crime biography that really didn't need to be made. It's watchable but will leaving you wondering why they made it.

WAR OF THE WORLDS
Ice Cube stars in Amazon's modern remake- told entirely through computer screens and social media. It is one of the worst films of the year with everyone literally phoning in their performances. It's less characters and more just stuff happening on computer screens.

I Am a Curious Johnny (2025)

This is a portrait of photographer and gadfly Johnny Pigozzi who was famous for taking pictures and for always being around the rich and famous. It is a film where Johnny looks back on his life via his photos and video, a self interview and the words of friends and family.

This film will over whelm you. There is so much here that I don't know where to begin or what to say. I went from thinking this wild and crazy ride was a great deal of fun to wanting to tap out because there was simply too much to take in. Johnywas everywhere and knows everyone.

For much of the film this is a great ride...at the same time a little bit of Johnny goes along away. As much as I liked the stories being told, there was a point where I just wanted Johnny to shut up. Yes, this is his show, but at the same time he is way too in love with himself. I stopped caring and wanted him to shut up... don't get me wrong I want to still here the stories, I just didn't want to hear them from him. I wanted a distance that revealed him as seen by those who love him, I did not want him to come off as the guy at the party who turns everything to him.

The film isn't bad but I never need to see or hear Johnny again.

Brief thoughts on Mafia: Most Wanted (2025)

Three part series about Canadian organized crime the Ndrangheta from Calabria and in particular the Commisso Family in Toronto

This is a good but not completely focused look at a different crime family. This is not the typical mafia story we see in America, it's not a Sicilian focused tale. Its a different look at different crime family. While the crimes are the same, how they played out is different. The result is a series that hold our attention when things aren't wholly clear.

As good as this film is the series is, the doesn't always explain things clearly. While most of the film is focused on Canada some of it is set in Italy, and while we know the connection not everything is explained. There is a sense that there is more we should know but the filmmakers couldn't fill everything in.

I liked this series but I didn't love it. I think the first episode about a family enforcer who turned is the best one. It feels the most self contained. The other two episodes are good but feel like they are missing something. At the same time the story we are being told is compelling.

Definitely a worth look for those who love mob tales.

Lesbian Space Princess (2025)

Space Princess Saira is heartbroken when her girlfriend of two weeks, bountyhunter Kiki, leaves her for being too needy and refusing to go out and party.  However when Kiki is kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens who need her to lure Saira to their man cave so they can steal her labrys which they need to power their chick magnet.

Allowing that I am not in the demographic for this film, I have to say that I liked LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS. It's a genuinely funny film with solid characters, who, while very much cartoony, are ones we can pull for. We like them. The characters are well drawn enough that they lift the film up from being just an extended comedy sketch into a funny adult joy. 

I shouldn't have to say this, but this is not for kids. The violence is gory, the talk is frank, and it doesn't shy away from sex. Don't take the kiddies.

On the other hand if you want to see a funny adults only scifi comedy give LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS a try.

Bring Me The Vampire (1963)

Odd horror comedy has a rich man cutting his family out in favor of seven random strangers. Everyone must live in a house for a month, leaving only for 48 hours if there is an emergency. The family is annoyed and seek to drive out or kill the interlopers.

The family is played by straight actors while the interlopers are played by comedians and the resulting mix of styles doesn’t always work. Part of the problem is that the straight scenes seem to exist simply to set up the comedy bits. While I have had the DVD for years I never sat down until recently to watch it- and I was disappointed since the spooky cover to the disc didn’t clue me in to the “laughfest” contained their in.

A miss

Unfolding Faith (2025)

Elyse Bouvier’s UNFOLDING FAITH is a look at the changing place of religion in her life and the life of her family. When she was young her father was a minister who traveled across the country preaching. However, that didn't pay the bills, and her dad became a teacher. Eventually he stepped away from the church. This sent shock waves through the family, Elyse after all viewed Jesus as her best friend. However, several decades later she found herself making the same move. 

I loved this film a great deal. As someone who has been trying to figure out what I believe and feel this film really hit home. This is a film that presents a very real and very personal discussion about how we believe. By turning the camera on her family Bouvier gives us a discussion that is closer to home than almost every other similar film. The path to God is not high and mighty but closer to home, it's in a diner booth with her dad or at a table with her mom.

There is so much emotion and so many ideas that instead of sitting down and writing about the film I let it sit with me awhile. As much as I wanted to watch it again, I didn't because I had to figure out what I felt before I went back.

This is a great film. 

The film is currently streaming via the National Film Board of Canada website (for those of you in Canada and the US) and is highly recommended.

My Father the BTK Killer (2025)

This is a dual portrait of Dennis Rader,the BTK killer, and his daughter Kerri Rawson.

This is one of the best Netflix true crime docs that I have seen this year. The film is a dual look at the BTK killer and the terrible crimes he committed and the story of his daughter Kerri who was set adrift by the actions of her father. It's a film that will grab you and pull you in.

This film has a lot to unpack.  First there is everything to do wi8th the horrible crimes of father. It's a weird trip since beyond the police and media laying everything out, Rader is eeriely forth coming about his crimes. While we only see him in video footage from after he was caught, he hangs over everything like a black cloud. His words where hen calmly lays everything out in ways that are really bad. It will chill you.

We also have the life of Kerri. She is a broken soul. While she didn't entirely like her dad, he could be violent, he did love him and what he did destroyed her world. She did turn things around in unexpected ways. Watching her we come to understand that killers like BTK also kill their families. (An aside Kerri reached out to the family of the Gilgo Beach killer to help them cope.) There is a lot here we haven't seen in a film like this.

I loved this film a great deal. Its a well told tale that gives us a great deal to think about.

Stitch Head (2025) is Glorious

STITCH HEAD lives in my soul. Like many of the films that are now part of me it came into my life unexpectedly and just took over. 

God, I love when that happens.

The film is the story a creation called Stitch Head. He lives in a castle where a mad scientist is making monsters. Since the scientist is making monsters so fast he end up ignoring the things he makes, but Stitch Head doesn't, and he takes care of all the monsters. Down below the castle is a town where the people are afraid of what is in the castle, even though they don't know what is there. When a traveling circus comes to town the two worlds end up on a collision course as the head of the circus decides to go to the castle to get a monster for his show. He ends up with Stitch Head.... and well a monster named Creature decides to go to the town to rescue his best friend.

And I left a great deal out because this is a densely packed film where a lot is going on...trust me. This is a film that doesn't stop moving and expanding it's story from first frame to the last. Its a film with real characters, witty dialog and real emotions. Its a film that feels not so much like a meal but a whole banquet.

What I love about the film are the characters. We have wonderfully drawn characters who are just like the best people we know. Stitch Head is lovely person with father issues. His father ignores him and how that affects him drives what happens. His arc of chasing a surrogate father only to realize that he has a found family is deeply moving. The love that Creature feels for his best friend, Stitch Head, is in its way goofy, but it speaks volumes about how we feel about the people we love. His drive to save Stitch Head is wonderfully charming. No one is one note, there is good and bad in everyone, and they are all broken but find strength in their "families" or friends. We are not moving in a movie but among real people.

The writing is wonderful. The dialog is witty and spot on. There are no false notes. The progression of the narrative never feels cliche. Even if we think we are in familiar territory, we quickly learn we are not. The writing makes what could be WTF moments in a couple of places things that are note perfect (looking at you needle drop).

As for the character designs, they are wonderful. They are goofy and charming. They may look off at first, we quickly fall in love with them. By the end you will want to hug them.

I am fighting the urge to tell you everything because I think this film is so magical. It's a film that will restore your connection to life and make you feel glorious.

See this film it's one of 2025's very best films

(And I'm sorry for using wonderful too many times but this film sapped my vocabulary in the best way)

Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets

Gilgo Beach Killer House of Secrets is the best of the Gilgo documentaries that I’ve seen.  An up to date presentation the series cuts through the BS and presents the story is a concise way. It also scores points by taking a look at the perspective from the Huberman family as they try and figure out what the hell their patriarch was doing. It’s the only doc that I’ve run across that actually shows all the damage that Huberman did.

This was originally run on Paramount + but I stumbled on it on Oxygen on Labor Day. I thought it was going to be an old rehash of the case and instead found it was full of details going back to a couple of weeks before it was produced. While the film doesn’t go into as much detail about some aspects of the case, the film instead focuses on the bullet points of the case telling us everything we need to know to get a handle on what we know happened up till now.  Surprisingly the series has the participation of the Huberman family.  They are here trying to sort out what happened in their home by the man they loved. It’s an intriguing choice. What I find interesting is that they are still wrestling with trying to sort out what really happened themselves. You can see them believing it and not. I’m further shocked in that the film has the daughter of the BTK Killer appear to try and help the family to come to terms with what happened. It is not some TV trick since she had reached out not long after the arrest.

I really liked this and if you want a good look at the case, this is the place to go.

Jackie Quinones and Andre Royo talk MILES AWAY

Andre and Jackie 

After watching MILES AWAY a couple of time I reached out about doing an interview with writer director and star Jackie Quinones and star and executive producer Andre Royo. Because I couldn’t fit in something on their press day, we arranged to do the interview the next day. We arranged a time and a couple of minutes before the scheduled time, right before I could park the car the call came in.  I parked and we began to talk. Since the film is about a ride share driver over the course of a day the fact that the interview was happening while I was in my car seemed appropriate.

I don’t know about Ms. Quinones and Mr. Royo, but I had a blast. Rarely have I smiled as much doing an interview. They we warm and charming. They made me feel as if I had been their best friend for years. We spoke for 25 minutes but I could have and wanted to continue speaking with them.  Amazingly we pretty much stayed locked on the film, with the result the almost all of the interview follows.

The interview was done on the speaker as I sat in my car in an empty parking lot while Ms Quinones and Mr Royo were in Austin for the weekend premiere of the film.

I want to thank Linda Brown for arranging this interview. I also must thank Ms. Quinones and Mr. Royo for taking the time to speak with me.

JACKIE: As soon as you're parked and ready, I'll merge him in. 

STEVE: I'm parked, I'm ready. 

JACKIE: All right, let me merge him in. Andre? 

ANDRE: Yeah, what's up? 

JACKIE: Hey, we're on with Steve Kopian.

 ANDRE: Hey, what's up my man?

 STEVE: How are you?

 ANDRE: I'm all right.

 STEVE:I heard that you were wild on Zoom.

 ANDRE: I was wild on Zoom? Yeah, I don't know. Now you'll never know. You'll never know my man.

 STEVE:  When I was trying to set this up and Linda was insisting that I had to do it on Zoom. But where I am I couldn’t do it.

 ANDRE: Next time, next time my boy, next time.

STEVE: Absolutely. How did you, I don't know where to start. You're an executive producer of the film. How did end up as an executive producer as well as in the film?

 ANDRE: I just helped out as much as I could creatively and she felt that, you know, she wanted to bless me and make me an executive producer. But it was really on this huge support and huge belief that this filmmaker has something to say if she's going to execute it the right way.

 JACKIE: Yeah, Andre is kind of downplaying his expertise in storytelling. He is definitely downplaying it. He is like an encyclopedia of film knowledge and just incredible with story, worked with the Independent Spirit Awards selecting the films that were going to be up for awards for about five or six years?

 ANDRE: Probably, yeah.

 JACKIE: So he is really, really great with story,. Really, really great with character development. Just a fantastic actor, as you know. And so incredibly supportive that it just, without him, this film wouldn't be where it is. He was so instrumental in the post-production process and just really a champion throughout. And I'm so grateful. I should tell you more often. I think I tell you pretty often. But I'm very grateful to have him on this team.

 ANDRE: I believe in you, I love you, so yes. It was the perfect combination and it was a joy to be a part of.

 STEVE: When you wrote the script  did you know who you were going to get for all the parts or did e have the basic script and then l I'm doing this film, do you want to be in it and we'll write you a role or did you write all the roles?

 JACKIE: The way that I usually write is I write around a theme and each character becomes a different sort of mouthpiece of a different part of the, the argument for that theme. I didn't do that with this one. This one, it was more about plot first, so it was about the Uber driver and the different rides. 

And then once I had the rides in mind, I knew that there were probably some actors that would suit other roles better, but I kind of gave them a choice. Andre,  I think I asked you which one you wanted to play, didn't I?

 ANDRE: I believe so. I believe the first time you sent me the script, you were like, you know, if there's any character that speaks to you, let me know.

 JACKIE: Right. So I wasn't really married to any one particular person and I knew as long as I had great actors, which thank the Lord I do, that they would be able to perform and bring something to the role that wasn't already on the page, which they all did.

 STEVE:I find it interesting because  you have actually the hardest role in the film, which is you have to allow all these crazy people to act around you and you have to hold the center. It's a brilliant. It's a brilliant performance  you get these towering performances hapening around you, Andre, Luis Guzman, everybody else and you have to stay normal, you have to stay a regular person. Was that hard?

 JACKIE: It was definitely intimidating acting with both Andre and Luis for sure. It's like, you know, Luis and I had worked together in the past, but ve worked in different capacities. I don't think we had been on screen together since the first time we met, which was almost 20 years ago now. So, it was very intimidating to work with two people that I just admire so much and I don't, I don't know that you know this, Andre, but I was so nervous.  I just tried my best to be in the moment with them and Andre's so grounded and Luis so grounded that immediately they kind of, they changed the energy, you know, so they made me feel comfortable.

 ANDRE: Yes, and I think Jackie is downplaying her theatrical, her background as an artist and an actor. She's very talented, she's very trained. Thank you. 

And listen, this is what you do when you're in New York and you're doing theater and you're doing movies, you make the other person better. We share the experience and we share the storytelling together so one can't overpower, if it's done correctly, one can't overpower the other one or it doesn't balance. She's good enough to know when to give, when not to give because she's receiving, she's in the moment. She's not something orchestrated. Right.

 And if you stand truthful and grounded, you know, you're going to meld and you're going to blend. You know, if you go outside of that, that's when you're starting to push and try too hard because you're not, you're not in the moment, you're trying to make a moment.

 STEVE: Well, it's one of the things that I love about the film is that you've got these moments, even when you're on the phone or in these wonderful two-handed pieces everything is grounded, you're together, you're in the moment. It remains real, nobody steals the scene. 

 ANDRE: Not if it's done correctly. Nobody steals the scene. I mean, the moment they steal the scene is the person, the lead, we're following.

 She's bringing us in and out of this world by sharing her car. Like, she's sharing her car with us and we're watching her, you know, play with these other artists and experience, you know, what you wanted to, you know, emotionally what you wanted to put in your scene.

 STEVE: I'm curious. I watched the film a couple of times because there was a point where I'm watching it and I'm going, okay, this is a great scene and this is a great scene and this is a great scene and then, and then all of a sudden you get to the end of the, towards the end of the film and suddenly you realize that there's a through line, there's more of a through line than you realize. It's not these great scenes. You have your phone conversations with your mother or whomever and everybody on the phone and what everybody's saying to you lfeeds into your journey, your arc, over the course of your day driving.

 JACKIE: Right. It's kind of hidden in there.

STEVE: And it's, there's this moment where I realized that  you've got all these great actors and you've got all these crazy things and then, as I got to the end and I knew have to watch this again. I have to see this again because I missed all these little things that were said.

 JACKIE: The little hints, yeah, yeah. I've heard that before. Thank you for watching it more than once. That's like a huge compliment. Really appreciate that.

 STEVE: I generally don't, but when when you get the "aha moment" and  I have to go back and rewatch the film. And I did, it was leven before I had said that I had wanted to do the interview. And  when I'm watching the film, the second time and part of a third time and it was like, wait, no, I have to talk to you because I had to know how you constructed it. Because you've got this perfect through line and it's almost like you clicked in pieces that amplify it. Does that make any sense? Does that make any sense?

 JACKIE: No, no, no, it does, absolutely. I think, honestly, I'm not sure. That's a bad answer, but I think, ultimately.

 STEVE: No, it's an honest answer.

 JACKIE: I think, ultimately, like, a lot, a lot of what was on the page didn't actually make it to screen and we had to figure out ways to work around that because in the original script, we realized maybe we had too much on screen with phone calls and things like that. Originally we were going to have an anxiety meter for the character to kind of give us more of a through line and we realized that wasn't going to work because it was a little too gimmicky and we wanted the film to be more grounded. I had to kind of go back through the script and just make sure that there were moments that would feed back to the end. It's, it's writing and rewriting and trying new things and trying different things and then, of course, you're also always rewriting in the post process and, like I said, Andre was super instrumental in the post process. The amount of notes he gave us and such great notes, too. For example there were some really cool shots and we had to get rid of those because, you know, they were artsy-fartsy and they didn't really work for the film. It was just really kind of like finessing the story as I went and, and as we went along and not staying married to anything and making sure that we made something that, that made sense and that was great, that wasn't just my vision, but our vision, if that makes sense.

 STEVE: How changed is the script compared to the finished film? Did you, did you lose a lot?

JACKIE: We did drop one scene and we dropped the, anxiety meter in place of her anxious tics, um, and then maybe some changes to scenes here and there with dialogue if something was a bit more fun on the day, you know, to make it more comedic or more dramatic, but ultimately, most of that stuff was there before we shot.

 STEVE: How, much, did you, did you improvise  or was it all just, was all on the page?

 JACKIE: I like to work with different actors however they work and if they choose to improvise, I improvise with them, but I like to make sure that we come back to the script as well, so if we do go off a bit, we come back to the original. For instance, Andre and I rehearsed. And Andre stayed very true to the material and what was on the page and brought something to it that was so grounded and beautiful because in my head, this character was kind of a jerk, but Andre made him so relatable and, and honest and it made him, I was like, dang, he's making me look like the bad guy.

 ANDRE:  As  the girl who left me, you were the jerk,  and it was my job to make it clear that it was your fault, we didn't make it. 

 STEVE: Andre, how much were you on the set?

ANDRE: I was on the set for one day. They call me one take Dre, baby.  

I Was there for a day but I'm the red phone you call me You need me you call me. When you want to talk it out, you call me. We were able to stay connected throughout the whole process But as far as shooting and being, you know hands-on on set, you know she had a great crew. And s I believe in her.

 STEVE: How big was the crew It almost feels like you were alone. It doesn't feel you like there was any crew theree. It's like you in the car and it's just like there's nobody around

 JACKIE: We wanted that, to feel we wanted it to feel like there's there is no camera. We did everything with natural lighting . We didn't use any artificial lighting except for, obviously, some of the night stuff. I would say it depended on the day but sometimes we would have six people, sometimes we would have 15 to 20 That was the most that we had on set any given day But yeah, we went from small to big depending on what we were shooting and what we needed people for

 STEVE: How long did it take you to shoot?

 JACKIE: We shot for 14 days, then we did 2 pickup days and we did a couple of days of extra B roll. So I'd say about 16 total if  because it wasn't full days.

 STEVE: Not full days? Were you doing other projects and shooting around them?

 JACKIE: So, we had a really cool schedule which allowed me to prepare. There were so many things that happened on this film that were kismet, that created an atmosphere where we were able to put things together in a way that you wouldn't normally. We were shooting on weekends only which allowed us every week before the shoot to put together whatever else we might need. And it gave us time in between to rehearse if we needed to. And then on those weekends we would usually shoot one to two scenes per day and because the scenes are you know, one-off.  They don't crossover. 

It was really kind of a blessing that we were able to kind to have the actors in for half a day or a day and then move on to the next actor. This is opposed to the typical film where you're kind of trying to track every day and track every character and figure out where in the story. They are the only character. I really had to do worry about on a bigger scale was my own, so it made it a lot easier for the production process.

 STEVE: How meticulously was this planned?  I've got a friend who does independent films and he shoots on ultra micro budgets, but every detail everything is planned down to the final detail. There's a little bit of room for improve but mostly it's what is planned. Did you have everything planned for every shot?

 JACKIE: But you know, obviously when you get on set there are things that go awry sometimes and you have to be able to pivot. Filmmaking is all about problem-solving because you have a plan, but it doesn't always work out So there was a lot of pivoting. There was a lot of meticulous planning that didn't pan out like on any film set 

STEVE: It premieres when?

 JACKIE: Premieres Sunday Sunday the 26th at 6 30 p.m at the galaxy theater 6 and then we have an encore screening on the 29th at 4 10 p.m. 

We're going to Urban World in New York right after that for an East Coast premiere on the 30th and then after that we have we've heard back from a few places I can't mention.

Borscht Belt Film Fest runs October 31 until November 2

The Second Annual Borscht Belt Film Festival starts Friday. This is a festival set in and highlighting the place where so many people used to go for vacation and see all the big stars of the day. (It was the entertainment capital of the world before Vegas stole the title).

While this isn't the biggest film festival in the world, it is a wonderfully programmed one. I've seen a bunch of films, though I haven't reviewed them ( some of the films are before Unseen was created and you don't need my words on DIRTY DANCING), and I can say the selection of films is excellent (The shorts that I've seen are really good). You need to buy tickets and go.

While I can't say much more I do want to say a couple things about two films. 

CASA SUSANNA is glorious. Its about a place where people could go to be themselves. I've seen it a couple of times and it has moved me each time.

Not that anyone cares but I am in Martin Ritt's THE FRONT . I'm an extra so unless you know where to look you won't see me, but I am there. Personal connection aside the film is an excellent one. It is one of the rare films that Woody Allen was in in which he didn't write and direct it. Set during the Red Scare, the film follows Allen's character who acts as a front for black listed writers. He becomes friends with a comic who was big on the Borscht Belt played by Zero Mostel. It's not a funny film, and some of what hqappens will break your heart. It's a great film and if you've never seen it you should go.

And for now that's all I have to say other than to say if you can go, do so.

For more details and tickets go here