Tag: Revolutionary Road

CDG nominees

I’ve been out and about, so apologies for getting to the Costume Designers Guild nominees late:

Contemporary Film
“Iron Man” (Laura Jean Shannon and Rebecca Bentjen)
“Mamma Mia!” (Ann Roth)
“Sex and the City” (Patricia Field)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Suttirat Larlarb)
“The Wrestler” (Amy Westcott)

Period Film
“Changeling” (Deborah Hopper)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Jacqueline West)
“The Duchess” (Michael O’Connor)
“Milk” (Danny Glicker)
“Revolutionary Road” (Albert Wolsky)

Fantasy Film
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” (Isis Mussenden)
“The Dark Knight” (Lindy Hemming)
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (Sanja Milkovic Hays)

I have to say, while I could understand the classification for, say, the Tim Burton films, I’m increasingly agitated by the “fantasy” classification of Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise. And “The Dark Knight” is 10 times more “contemporary” than “Iron Man,” but whatever. If the false classification means the films find some guild love in the fields of art direction and costume design, so be it, I guess.

More frankly surprising guild support for “The Wrestler,” while “Slumdog” and “Button” remain the guild champs. I’m happy “Prince Caspian” finally popped up somewhere.

I see no real reason to change my Oscar predicitons here based on these results, but we’ll keep an eye on it as always.

January 13, 2009
Golden Globes: Feeling the love

As I curled on the couch in the wee small hours of the morning, watching last night’s Golden Globes telecast with only a hot toddy and a handful of chatty IC commenters for company, it occurred to me that I was hearing an awful lot of one word as the evening unfolded. And that word was ‘love.’

Of course, it’s a ubiquitous word in any awards show, weepily applied as it is to innumerable family members, lovers and colleagues as winners rattle names off thank-you lists longer than most films’ scripts. But this struck me as slightly different: the love here was being directed towards film and art itself.

Sally Hawkins, the night’s most endearing (and overwhelmed) winner, set the tone, describing her film, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” as being about love both on and off the screen. Surprise (to some) winner Colin Farrell followed her lead, celebrating cinematic adventurousness with the elegant soundbite: “Curiosity is love.”

Meanwhile, Danny Boyle picked up above all on the affection his awards-sweeping film has garnered within the industry, while Kate Winslet paid tribute to a long-standing love cultivated with her co-star, refracted very differently in two films, eleven years apart.

It struck me as an appropriate motif for an awards ceremony that seemed less calculated and more sincere than usual. Perhaps a year away the Globes has made me –- or them –- soft, but for an institution that takes sustained criticism for being overly susceptible to campaigning muscle and star power, it seemed to me that, in almost every category, the HFPA members had voted with their collective hearts, singling out the performers and films that they themselves loved.

(more…)

January 12, 2009
1/8 Oscarweb Round-up

• Patrick Goldstein waxes on about why he thinks “WALL-E,” “The Reader” and “The Wrestler” will be Oscar losers (for Best Pic). [The Big Picture]

• Peter Bart observes Oscar campaign “combat fatigue” at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [Peter Bart]

• Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard talk to KCRW’s Jason Bentley. [KCRW]

• David Carr does some pre-DGA speculating. [The Carpetbagger]

• Tom O’Neil takes a stab at predicting tonight’s Critics’ Choice Awards. [Gold Derby]

• While a few online mag staffers take a stab at the Globes. [Premiere]

• In praise of Clint Eastwood’s…face. [Slate]

• Xan Brooks wonders what the point of the People’s Choice Awards is. [The Guardian]

• Rebecca Hall gets some much-deserved ink across the pond for popping up on the BAFTA Best Newcomer shortlist. [Daily Telegraph]

• Howard Feinstein talks to “Man on Wire” director James Marsh. [indieWIRE]

• John Horn on the perils of high-brow cinema in the marketplace. [Los Angeles Times]

• Esther Walker says “Revolutionary Road” will change the obscurity of Richard Yates. [The Independent]

• Kevin Maher talks to Liev Schreiber about the action hero redefining of his career as of late. [The Times]

January 8, 2009
ASC nominees

The American Society of Cinematographers have announced their annual list of nominees, which are:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Claudio Miranda)
“The Dark Knight” (Wally Pfister)
“The Reader” (Roger Deakins and Chris Menges)
“Revolutionary Road” (Roger Deakins)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Anthony Dod Mantle)

I’m pleasantly surprised by the “Reader” inclusion. Though I didn’t care for the film, one of the first things I noted was the sublime photography. This could carry over to Oscar, but I must say I’m somewhat surprised Eduardo Serra’s beautiful work in “Defiance” was excluded. Harris Savides, meanwhile, continues to come up short with his peers despite being the best in the game (and many of his peers would say the same thing, which makes it all the more baffling). And the “Australia” snub is hardly surprising since Mandy Walker’s work never reached the level many anticipated.

But all this brings me to a question I’ve had racing through my head for some time now: could Claudio Miranda be the one of this lot snubbed of an Oscar nod? The Academy has shown a bias against digital photography where the guild hasn’t. “Apocalypto” and “Collateral,” you’ll recall, failed to translate their ASC nomiantions into AMPAS love, so it’s certainly something to consider.

WGA on the way…

January 7, 2009
Guessing the WGA: the adaptations

(Original screenplay predictions here.)

The adapted field is a little easier to manage. But I wouldn’t look to USC’s typically road-less-traveled nominees for much of a barometer for the adapted screenplay race, however. That’s folly of a different sort. So we’re left to our own devices.

Once again, foreign and animated films are not eligible here. This probably affects “The Class” and “Gomorrah” more than anything else. I doubt “The Tale of Despereaux” has much in the way of screenplay hopes this season. Ditto “Let the Right One In,” however vile the idea.

As mentioned in the originals discussion, the WGA likes its comedies. “Mean Girls,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “High Fidelity” are a few examples of adaptations to make the cut here while missing with the Academy. The only problem is…there isn’t really an applicable comedy adaptation in the mix. Had, say, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” or “Yes Man” been somewhat more memorable, then maybe. But that’s about all we have to pull from. So maybe it isn’t a bad thing. Anything that makes the guessing game a little easier is fine by me.

I’d say the safest bets here are the two Best Picture frontrunners: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (written by Eric Roth) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (Simon Beaufoy). And even though I just finished telling you the Scripter nominees shouldn’t matter, I nonetheless think David Hare’s adaptation of “The Reader” might have a strong foothold here, even if it misses with Oscar (which it might not). Ditto Justin Haythe’s “Revolutionary Road.”

That leaves a battle of the plays: “Doubt” versus “Frost/Nixon.” As I said earlier, there is always at least one eventual Best Picture nominee left off the guild’s slate, even if it manages a nomination with AMPAS writers. My bet is that’s going to be “Frost/Nixon” this year, so chalk one up for “Doubt.” But I’m not solid on that either, because…

…the big question mark is “The Dark Knight.” I think the PGA nomination was a given and I don’t think a SAG ensemble nod should have really been expected. The Scripter snub was odd, but meaningless in the face of the awards landscape, because it isn’t an industry organization. So the first real, true, honest-to-God test for this film and its Oscar hopes comes with tomorrow’s announcement. I’m strangely expecting a snub, one that might carry over to Oscar even if a Best Picture nomination stays in the cards. But even so, that’s shaky ground to be on. Only a DGA nomiantion Thursday could right the ship if WGA takes a pass.

My predictions:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Eric Roth; based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
“Doubt” (John Patrick Shanley; based on his play)
“The Reader” (David Hare; based on the nivel by Bernhard Schlink)
“Revolutionary Road” (Justin Haythe; based on the novel by Richard Yates)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Simon Beaufoy; based on the novel “Q&A” by Vikas Swarup)

Other possibilities:
“The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan; based on characters appearing in DC Comics)
“Defiance” (Clay Frohman, Edward Zwick; based on the book by Nechama Tec)
“Frost/Nixon” (Peter Morgan; based on his play)

What about you?

January 6, 2009
USC Scripter nominees — ‘Iron Man’ surprises!

Now THAT’s what I call crashing the party. I don’t know how you nominate “Iron Man” over “The Dark Knight” in a category such as this, but nice to see someone standing up and being original.

The 2008 USC Scripter nominees are:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Iron Man”
“The Reader”
“Revolutionary Road”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

I kind of expect Mr. Roth to win here, even if “Button” is beaten out by “Slumdog” at the Oscars. But we’ll see. The winner will be announced at the Jan. 30 gala, which I’ll be attending. If you recall, this will be the first year the USC Libraries will unveil the winner at the actual show.

As for Oscar, the WGA will be the first true road to the adapted screenplay category. The guild that stirred up a storm a year ago will announce its nominees on Thursday. Could “Iron Man” pop up here again? Time will tell.

January 5, 2009
Pre-PGA housekeeping

I hadn’t realized I’d let my predictions linger, unattended, since November — I revised them in my head and guess I thought that would somehow magically appear on the site. Anyway, I thought it best to do some cobweb-clearing before the PGA announcement later today (for the record, I’m going with “Button,” “Knight” “Milk,” “Slumdog” and “WALL-E”) sends the guessing game into a new dimension. You can find my revised nomination predictions here.

I’m still playing with some quirky, no doubt foolhardy, notions, but I like to keep things fun before the Guilds force us to get serious. Many categories still look like a complete crap-shoot to me: in the confounding Best Actress race, for example, I’m experimenting with a Kate Winslet snub, while dipping (reluctantly) into the Angelina Jolie pool for the first time. It doesn’t feel good.

In the top race, I’m still banking on “WALL-E” leapfrogging “The Dark Knight” as the populist choice, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see both in there. I’m happy with four of my Best Picture runners, but couldn’t settle on a fifth: “Revolutionary Road” is freezing over, “Frost/Nixon” has ticked all the boxes but doesn’t seem to be anyone’s favourite, and the other most-mentioned contenders are a pretty passionless bunch too. Instead of flipping a coin between them, I decided to go a little crazy and try “Happy-Go-Lucky” on for size.

Below the cut, for the hell of it, some winner picks to accompany Kris’s last week. In the top race, I’ve moved on from my earlier prediction of a “Milk” victory (seeing the film helps sometimes), but something still doesn’t feel right about “Slumdog Millionaire” to me — it seems like the kind of film that would benefit from going into the Oscar race as an underdog rather than the favourite. I honestly have no idea, so I’ll take that as an excuse to go mental again until I get a clearer sign.

(more…)

January 5, 2009
PGA noms coming next week

The Producers Guild of America announces its nominees Monday. Then the DGA wraps up the big three (after PGA and SAG) on Thursday. I expect “The Dark Knight” is a no-brainer nominee here and the likely winner. After that, I’d say “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Slumdog Millionaire” are likely, especially in the case of the former, what with producing powerhouses Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (the former popping up here last year for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” in something of a surprise).

After that it gets a bit tricky. I’d be tempted to think “WALL-E” will turn up here like “The Incredibles” in 2004. Box office + critical acclaim + major awards consideration, all that. But with the animated category being instituted a few years back, that scenario becomes less likely.

There isn’t much that screams PGA about “Doubt” or, to a lesser extent, “Revolutionary Road.” But Scott Rudin did well enough with two films last year. “Milk” and “Frost/Nixon” might be a decent bets, but surely something will pop up in the way of the unexpected. I just can’t put my finger on what that will be. Since the group began a nominations format, the eventual five Best Picture nominees have never been assembled in the PGA collective, and that includes 2002 and 2003, the two years that netted six nominees.

“Iron Man” popping up wouldn’t be a shock. “The Wrestler” could be a nice indie call, but I think it’s doubtful. Ah screw it, I’m going to go with the following, including a “Milk” snub that is most likely a mistake:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Ceán Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall)
“The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas)
“Frost/Nixon” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard)
“Revolutionary Road” (Bobby Cohen, John Hart, Sam Mendes, Scott Rudin)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie)

What are your predictions?

January 2, 2009
TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: The Crafts of ‘Revolutionary Road’

In less than a decade, filmmaker Sam Mendes has established himself as one of the most intriguing directors of his generation. “Revolutionary Road,” his fourth film to date, hit theaters over last weekend. Regardless of its Oscar fate in the writing, directing and acting categories, the film seems poised to be a major player in the craft arenas, our central focus here at Tech Support.

I recently spoke to cinematographer Roger Deakins, production designer Kristi Zea, costume designer Albert Wolsky and film editor Tariq Anwar about their work on the film, a 1950s period piece featuring the on-screen reunion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. All four artists are veterans, having had long (Deakins is the youngest at age 59) and successful (each has been nominated for an Oscar at least once, with Wolsky earning two statues to date) careers.

Each of the respective department heads commented on Mendes’s tendency to balance a well-defined vision with the necessity of cooperative discovery on the set. Deakins previously worked with Mendes on “Jarhead,” stepping into the shoes of late legend Conrad L. Hall, who lensed Mendes’s first two efforts. “He’s not happy until he gets what he wants,” he says of the director, “but he has an enormous respect for the collaborative process.”

Zea, meanwhile, says Mendes has a great “willingness and affection for collaboration, but has a precise vision and, because of that, the movie, in its entirety, is very controlled.”

Anwar received an Oscar nomination in 1999 for his work on Mendes’s “American Beauty.” This year marks their own reunion. He agrees with Zea’s reflection of the director’s balance of his own preparation and the input of his collaborators.

“In spite of being so sure-footed in his approach to film production, there is never a feeling of being excluded from the creative process,” he says, “or a sense that his material is too precious not to be rearranged or even deleted.”

(more…)

January 2, 2009
1/2 Oscarweb Round-up

• David Poland looks at the race nine weeks out from the angle of release marketing and strategy. [Movie City News]

• Nathaniel Rogers is knee deep in his annual (extensive) year in review features. Read it. Now. [The Film Exerience]

• Jeffrey Wells passes on some notes from a friend making some dubious comparisons between “Milk” and “Braveheart.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

• Old news you’ve probably read by now, but Tina Brown’s latest foray into the world of journalism proves just how much of a disreputable rag it can be. [The Daily Beast]

• David Usborne is quick to dive in the mud with the hacks and bring a respectable UK outlet down there with him. [The Independent]

• Joe Queenan chats with Mickey Rourke across the pond. [The Guardian]

• Anne Thompson seems to think a Christmas release hurt “Revolutionary Road”‘s Oscar chances. [Thompson on Hollywood]

Dave Karger takes a stand with some late-December Oscar predictions. [Entertainment Weekly]

• David Carr speaks up for “Iron Man” over “The Dark Knight,” calls the latter’s third act a “mess.” Oy. [The Carpetbagger]

• Tom Roston sits down with “Defiance” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” star Liev Schreiber. [Los Angeles Times]

• As a David Fincher retrospective cranks up in the Big Apple, Dennis Lim looks back over the director’s career to date. [New York Times]

• Patty Rhuke spotlights the similarities between “Forrest Gump” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” comparisons certain parties involved would probably rather go away. [USA Today]

January 2, 2009
My picks for the 10 BEST films of the year

It’s no secret that I don’t expect 2008 to be remembered as a banner year for cinema, though with that said, there are plenty of exceptional films to be remembered.

Perhaps 2007 spoiled us and got our hopes up and 2008 brought far too many let downs and disappointments from great filmmakers. Usually when I sit down to write up the year’s best, the first short list stands at around 30, perhaps 35 films that range from very good to great. This year I was at less than 20, and in some cases, I was probably stretching to allow space for this or that.

But I got it down to 10, so here they are…

10. “VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA”
This film was not vintage Woody Allen, as he has grown so much as a director for anything new from him to be considered a throw-back, but it is certainly refreshing Allen. Sexy and sleek, this film is part of the newest stage in the director’s career, moving away from the comfort and familiarity of New York to an exotic locale with Americans mixing it up and getting into all sorts of bizarre situations. Penélope Cruz all but burns a hole in the screen with her sensuality in this film, which is terrifying because she just might be psychotic. Welcome back Woody…we’ve missed you.

(more…)

December 29, 2008
12/29 Oscarweb Round-up

• Anita Singh looks at the upcoming year of the dog for British movie-goers, including “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” “Bolt,” “Marley and Me” and “Wendy and Lucy.” [Daily Telegraph]

• “A Christmas Tale” tops Andrew O’Hehir’s list of the 10 best indie films of 2008. [Beyond the Multiplex]

• Jonathan Miles talks to newly minted Oscar host Hugh Jackman about “Australia” down under in Sydney. [The Times]

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” screenwriter Eric Roth sues his investment manager for “losing a bundle” in businessman Bernie Madoff’s ill-fated Ponzi scheme. [New York Daily News]

• Speaking of “Button,” Brad Brevet takes a deeper look at two negative assessments of the film. [Rope of Silicon]

• James Rocchi chats with “Reader” director Stephen Daldry. [Cinematical]

• Scarlett Johansson: the reluctant sex symbol. [The Times]

• Susan King chats with Zoe Kazan about her role in “Revolutionary Road.” [Los Angeles Times]

December 29, 2008
December winner predictions

Before we get to the end of the month here I thought I’d go ahead and toss up another set of winner predictions. This’ll be the last pre-nom set. I’ll go back to them next month, probably the day of the nominations announcement. But for now, it’s really all blind guessing, as always.

For last month’s set, click here.

Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Original Screenplay: “Milk”
Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Cinematography: “Defiance”
Best Costume Design: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Music – Original Score: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button””
Best Music – Original Song: “The Wrestler”
Best Sound Editing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Sound Mixing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
Best Documentary Feature: “Man on Wire”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Waltz with Bashir”

December 27, 2008
12/27 Oscarweb Round-up

• Lou Lumenick thinks “Revolutionary Road” might be too grim to resonate this Oscar season. [Lumenick on Film]

• Tom O’Neil chats with “Last Chance Harvey” star Emma Thompson. [Gold Derby]

• Todd Leopold wraps up the year in a meandering piece that touches on Heath Ledger, Sarah Palin and…Niels Bohr. [CNN]

• Steve Weintraub sits down with “Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke, thankfully puts a leash on his itchy “exclusive” trigger finger. [Collider]

• The 50 films that defined the year, across the pond. [Empire]

• “Anyone Who Doesn’t Choose This As The Best Movie of the Year is Just Being a Jerk” [Premiere]

• Dave White wonders why we love movie Nazis. [MSNBC]

• Andrew O’Hehir talks to Ari Folman about the “bad acid trip” of “Waltz with Bashir.” [Beyond the Multiplex]

December 27, 2008
INTERVIEW: Michael Shannon

If you’ve seen James Marsh’s “Man on Wire,” then you know of Philippe Petit’s dazzling tight-rope walk between the towers of New York’s World Trade Center on the morning of August 7, 1974. What you probably don’t know is that while Petit was criss-crossing back and forth between the towers for roughly 45 minutes, Michael Shannon was coming into the world down in Lexington, Kentucky’s Good Samaritan Hospital.

“I don’t think it means anything,” Shannon says. But it’s certainly an interesting aside to the Oscar season, drawing a connection, however meaningless, between these two contenders, one of them a thoroughbred frontrunner, the other deserving of that consideration but strangely under the radar this year.

I get a call from Shannon to kick off the morning. It seems he’s somewhat stranded at the hotel and will be late meeting me over at Hugo’s on Santa Monica Blvd. I later find out he was industrious enough to grab a cab rather than wait on a studio-provided car, probably the east-coaster in him. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I’m going to make sure we get a full hour.”

When Shannon walks into a room, his striking height seems to command at least a glance in his direction. A couple of brunching patrons stare for a bit, sure that they’ve seen him in SOMETHING before. And for a number of years, Shannon has been that kind of actor — the hard-working sort that AMPTP has certainly disavowed as SAG tries to find some sort of plan for sustaining the acting middle-class throughout the industry.

You’ve seen him in “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II,” “World Trade Center,” “Bug” and any number of bit roles that call for the unusual image he cuts. But you’ve never seen him like he is in “Revolutionary Road,” a two-scene wonder of a performance that cuts the the very core of a narrative already concerned with getting at the hardest of truths.

(more…)

December 24, 2008
12/24 Oscarweb Round-up

• “The Headless Woman,” “Night and Day” and “Tony Manero” head up a list of the year’s best undistributed titles. [indieWIRE]

• Speaking of lists, here’s one of cult and campy holiday flicks. [Cinematical]

• Josh Horowitz goes toe-to-toe with David Fincher. [MTV]

• Slow down, Hoss. Lou Lumenick thinks Dev Patel is going to beat Heath Ledger to the Oscar punch? Anything for the clicks I gues. [Lumenick on Film]

• David Edelstein considers nine Oscar contenders, from “Revolutionary Road” to, uh, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” [New York Magazine]

• Dustin Hoffman storms out of an interview with Dave Karger…all in good fun. [Entertainment Weekly]

• Rachel Abramowitz spends some time with the actor as well…my own interview should be on the way soon enough, by the way. It’s been ages since we sat down together. [Los Angeles Times]

December 24, 2008
POLL: Does ‘Revolutionary Road’ deserve the precursor shaft?

We need a new poll. The last one might have helped turn this place into a “Dark Knight” vs. “WALL-E” battlefield, but with that in mind, I should point out the results were “The Dark Knight” by a hair.

But with John’s recent piece on the season’s snubbing of “Revolutionary Road,” aside from some notices here and there from critics groups and the HFPA, and with the film opening in two days (so you’ll all have your own opinion on it), I thought I’d ask the readership: Is the film getting the shaft this Oscar season?

This is the time for a film that is dwindling to turn on the afterburners and leap back into the thick of it, so give your answer some serious thought. Does “Revolutionary Road” deserve more consideration than it’s received or does it belong in the also-ran column it seems to be headed toward? Tell us in the sidebar poll!

December 23, 2008
Sam Mendes: he didn’t f#$% it up

In light of John’s recent praise piece on “Revolutionary Road,” I thought it a good time to shine a light over on indieWIRE and Peter Knegt’s recent interview with director Sam Mendes. Here are a few power quotes from the helmer:

The most common comment from friends of mine who had read the book was, ‘don’t fuck it up.’ That was basically all they said, ‘don’t fuck it up.’ And the biggest compliment I get now is, ‘thank fuck you didn’t fuck it up.’ That’s all I get! Thank god I didn’t fuck it up.

Retrospectively, it seems to be the beginning of a sort of genre of suburban literature that went into John Updike, Tobias Wolff, Rick Moody with ‘The Ice Storm’ and Tom Perrotta who wrote ‘Little Children. Yates is the granddaddy of all of that. Looking back, he sort of began that whole movement.

It’s a sad film. It’s a tragedy. If a tragedy works, like ‘On The Waterfront’ for example… You leave it exhilarated. You don’t leave it depressed. You’re glad to be alive. You know, it’s a cautionary tale. And it was the same thing working on it. You’re plumbing the depths but you’re aware at all times how lucky you are not to have to go there in your real life.

Read the rest here.

December 23, 2008