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Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post Presents Unflinching and Earnest Queerness

This film was seen at the 44th Seattle International Film Festival. The film is now in wide release in Seattle.

“Maybe you’re supposed to feel disgusted at yourself when you’re a teenager.”

This is not your average coming of age or moody YA drama. Desiree Akhavan, a bisexual Iranian-American woman, accomplishes the daunting task of provoking a dialogue about identity politics within the structures of well-built film. The Miseducation of Cameron Post surprises with the blackest of humor and seamlessly transitions into heartache. The film masters the waver between hope and devastation.

Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) is sent to God’s Promise, a Christian conversion camp founded on repetitive and mind-numbing prayer and encouraging self-hate. From its exterior, it could be mistaken for any summer camp setting, but by the first encounter with Psychologist Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her “ex gay” brother Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.), the institutional psychological abuse is laid bare. The sheer absurdity of such an idea as praying away ones’ sexuality drives home how dangerous a sect of religion can become when it forgets its message of acceptance. It is a cult, and a place for ashamed evangelical parents to make their children invisible to the world. And it is still a reality for queer children in this country, with the people who run them being responsible for the psychological suffering of children. It pushes us to hold figures of authority accountable, both internally and externally.

However, it is the very bleakness of these circumstances that allow the resilience and sincerity of the young cast to shine through. Comradery becomes synonymous with survival. The friendships that Cameron forms with Jane (portrayed by rising star Sasha Lane) and Adam (a Lakota two-spirit boy played by Forrest Goodluck) are galvanized by similar stories of rejection by society, and through this, they come to serve as each other’s’ only touchstone for sanity and solace. The film takes its time working in fragments of each of their memories to fill out their identities and pasts, avoiding clunky exposition and filling it in as the narrative progresses.

The kids’ characters are all fully realized, and even young actors in supporting roles begin to outshine the less compelling adults. Ultimately all the kids are deeply sympathetic individuals. They are truly victims of the institution, and while they sometimes experience conflict, they are not ever made out to be rivals or enemies among themselves. They do their best surviving together as they become rebellious and self-determined in the face of institutional powers. It showcases their abilities to adapt to the adults’ games, while staying fully aware of the insidious methodology. It becomes a collective coming of age story, and the end of the film is less of a conclusion than it is a jumping off point into an unknown and indifferent world; through the very last shot, all you can be sure of is their resilience and togetherness.

In a Q&A at the film’s SIFF premiere, Goodluck explained succinctly what made him and the other teens so convincing in their roles and described how Akhavan gave the actors the space to breathe and exist as the kids after a period of research for the sake of properly representing specific identities. It’s responsible, meaningful filmmaking in a situation where any less nuance could have spiraled into exploitation. This film is ultimately about visibility; this kind of representation in media is unprecedented and desperately needed. Akhavan takes great care with a multiplicity of intersectional identities without calling attention to itself or asking for a pat on the back. The film portrays these teens knowing people in the audience will hang on to them in a media landscape dominated by white, cis, and heterosexual narratives. It resonates with those coming to terms with their own being and searching for validation in their identities and experiences. The film also inhabits a space that challenges the perspectives of those who have never lived a day in their life fearing any sort of prejudice due to their sexuality. It is eye-opening to see that kids are still shipped off by their families to these places, and are being taught to destroy themselves in the name of religion.

While the tired trope of the unhappy queer woman pervades the media, Akhavan ensures that it is never gratuitous. Her camera treats the characters with respect, an instruction for the audience to do the same. Lesbian intimacy on screen is for once not a product of the male gaze. This is proof why it is so essential to have film made by actual queer women of color who can lend their perspective. Cameron and the others aren’t simple martyrs; they are survivors that refuse to be dehumanized or forgotten. Overall, the film goes beyond a fresh narrative to absolutely raw at moments, well balanced with unexpected and biting humor. Don’t pass on this one just because the subject material is so dark, because the depth and resonance of the young characters and moments they can be genuinely themselves more than make up for it.

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Review: Eighth Grade Radiates Affirmation and Authenticity

This film was seen at the 44th Seattle International International Film Festival. The film is now in wide release in Seattle. You can read our interview with director Bo Burnham and lead Elsie Fisher here.

To no one’s surprise, A24 has done it again. They have put their name on one of the most original, earnest, and memorable films of the year. This is Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham’s directorial debut. It follows Kayla (Elsie Fisher) through her last week of middle school as she endeavors to break out of her “quiet girl” image. As she grows, she shares her advice with her YouTube audience of one or two, a sort of visual diary. Burnham himself began his career in comedy and music on YouTube over ten years ago; since then taking to Vine, to Comedy specials, and now exploring a new chapter. It is apparent he hasn’t forgotten where he came from, with a loving look at humble beginnings. Kayla’s objective is to find and share confidence and self-love. He has found his creative match in Fisher, who is so endearing we don’t even realize how exacting and purposeful she is in her portrayal. Bearing witness to her life is familiar yet anxiety inducing, as she radiates a nervous energy that Burnham and Fisher have said comes naturally to them.

I had the privilege of attending Eighth Grade’s screenings at SIFF, standing with Burnham and Fisher at the back of the theater as we watched the first five minutes to make sure everything was up to his standards. He requested the already bombastic audio be turned up to an overwhelming and immersive degree so that everyone could feel just how Kayla felt. In that moment, it drove home how involved he was with his direction. It is clear throughout the film how effective sound design, production design, editing, and everything else can be with such intentionality. 

Burnham also takes his young lead very seriously, and it rings true. The movie isn’t out to make Kayla seem small or silly, rather it convinces us to relate to her and believe her circumstances are important. Her journey has real stakes with the tiniest of victories, like singing karaoke in front of a birthday party and talking to the cutest boy at school. We shrink into our seats as we watch the situations she finds herself in, but she is never the butt of any joke. I’m personally sick of movies that make fun of how kids and teenagers (specifically girls) behave and what they enjoy, teaching internalized misogyny from a young age. None of Kayla’s emotions or reactions are trivialized or written off as ‘cringe’ or immature. The film seriously deals with the idea that people can be affected with anxiety from a young age, perfectly describing the feeling. 

Eighth Grade intentionally dates itself as a 2018 film, not a film about nostalgia for a past childhood. Though some experiences like crushes and bothersome parents are almost universally relatable, this is the Gen Z telling of that reality.  It lives in the here and now, even politically. It carefully dissects what contemporary middle schoolers are facing, from fixation on social media to school shootings. The film also conceptualizes social media at least as successfully as last year’s Ingrid Goes West. It is authentic to the current online landscape, playing with memes and fads that have come with Gen Z flocking to Instagram and snapchat. Burnham realizes we don’t have to understand what eighth graders talk about because half the time they don’t understand it themselves. He lets these kids be kids in their own language. These kids move at a breakneck pace, and it is impossible to keep up with them, and far more fun to have our sense of humor taken for a ride. The film’s R rating is dismaying, as I am fascinated by the idea of eighth graders’ reactions to seeing themselves in this mirror. 

And while the film reaches moments when you cannot help but laugh out loud, it remains in balance with times when there is nothing to do but cry for Kayla. Her relationship with her father Mark (Josh Hamilton) is a true highlight of the film, as they push and pull on each other in a tumultuous period of her life. He is helpless to keep his daughter from being miserable, unsure how even to begin to relate to her. Alongside him, our hearts shatter for Kayla when she is anxious and hurt, because we can do nothing but watch. Again Eight Grade brushes close with reality, as it confronts the expectation that teenage girls are forced to grow up too fast. They are pushed to appeal to adult beauty standards and become sexual entities. They are told to change who and what they are for others; messages reinforced by the media. Fisher herself said she had planned to take a break from acting because of her acne. In any other film this actor, who is well on her way to becoming a young phenom, may have been overlooked in favor of an unrealistic, fantasized idea of what a middle school girl should look like. She is living and breathing proof that authentic casting is far more rewarding than putting a twenty-something in the role. 

Overall, Eighth Grade is heartfelt and fun as simply a Bo Burnham film, but Elsie Fisher is what makes it extraordinary. She commands attention and sympathy because we all have been in her place, in some manner or another. Her vulnerability is powerful as she attempts to conquer her fears and not only that, but then have the humanity to turn her experiences into advice for others. And she doesn’t stop even if her videos only get a couple views. She is an icon for everyone who doesn’t want to be the quiet girl anymore, which is immeasurably valuable for a time like middle school when expressing individuality can be utterly terrifying. I am thrilled for Fisher’s future, and for all the teenage girls who would watch this and hopefully learn to love themselves a little bit more. Because being yourself can be really hard. 

Gucci! 👌

Score: 5 / 5 

Want more? You can read (or listen to) to our interview with Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher that we conducted at this year’s SIFF and hear their thoughts on the film, defining the term ‘YEET’, and Dungeons & Dragons.

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Review: Strong Performances Lead the Way In Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

This film was seen at the 44th Seattle International International Film Festival. The film is now in wide release in Seattle. You can read our interview with director Gus Van Sant and actor Beth Ditto here.

After a critical misstep in Sea of Trees, Gus Van Sant returns with Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot (DWHWGFOF). The film has long been on the back burner for Van Sant who started it in the early 2000s with the late Robin Williams originally attached to star, but after a series of untimely set backs, was ultimately delayed. Now, in his first written and directed work since Paranoid Park in 2007, Van Sant has picked the project back up with a new set of stars and an aim to tell the story of a man seeking sobriety. The result is a film with terrific performances that make the film worth the watch, but which are complicated by the nonlinear narrative Van Sant strings together.

Our story follows John Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix): a struggling alcoholic who gets into a car accident that leaves him paralyzed. In an effort to save himself from his destructive behavior, he joins an AA group to help cure him of his addiction. Stubborn and persistent, Callahan finds the road to recover to be much harder than he anticipated, but finds an outlet in drawing cartoons that soon find a place in a local paper. 

The film takes a nonlinear approach to its story telling. Cutting between various pre- and post-accident moments, we get to see alternating portraits of Callahan: one of him suffering from his affliction and the other of him trying to recover from it. The back and forth is the most jarring aspect of the film as it can often disorient the viewer; at times, it can feel as if you are continuing a sequence only to learn via continuity that the film is now jumping in time. Perhaps done to replicate the haziness of Callahan’s life, perhaps done to as a stylistic choice, but nonetheless, a jarring effect.

The film is largely carried by terrific performances across the board. After an award worthy performance in You Were Never Really Here, Joaquin Phoenix delivers another well-acted performance as John Callahan; showing the frustrations of addiction, the turbulence of recovery, and the acceptance in moving forward, it is a multifaceted performance that provides the back bone of the film. In supporting roles, we have Jonah Hill, Jack Black, and Rooney Mara — the former two being terrific while the later unnecessary. Hill plays Callahan’s sponsor and carries a smart and light persona that is underscored by his own personal issues. It’s a career best performance that can only be rivaled by his role as Donnie in The Wolf of Wallstreet.  Black on the other hand plays a very minor role — so small that he only appears in three scenes —, but, even its minuteness, he still fires on all cylinders; Black plays Callahan’s acquaintance who causes the paralyzing accident and serves as a step in Callahan’s recovery process. While small, his third and final scene is the best three minutes of Jack Black the world has even seen, as we see a man freed from a decade of guilt in the course of forty-five seconds.

On the short end is Mara who’s role is questionable in the film. Serving as a love interest, Mara plays a nurse who starts out as an aide for Callahan, but during a later encounter, they start becoming romantically involved. This romance could be described as nothing short of a stint as her involvement comes and goes quickly, acting as a brief moment in Callahan’s recovery process. It has aspects of contributing to Callahan’s overall character, but it’s rather minor, and could be omitted from the film without question. It’s an unfortunate waste of talent.

These performances really are at the heart of DWHWGFOF. Callahan and the characters around him embody the multidimensional themes found on the road to recovery, and even though the film’s structure up ends some of what they accomplish, it can be appreciated for the incredible performances that are true standouts. If you are ok with piecing together the narrative, you can find solace in performances that move the emotional needle above the norm.

Score 3.75/5

 

Want more? Read our brief interview with director Gus Van Sant and actor Beth Ditto.

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Review: The Crazy Social Comedy That Is Sorry to Bother You

This film was screened at the 44th Seattle International Film Festival. The film is now in wide release in Seattle.

As our society seemingly becomes crazier and crazier, it takes an even crazier film to encapsulate it all. Stepping up to the plate to do just that is Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You. Hailing from the music industry, Riley is making his feature debut with a comedy that wants to put a mirror up to the society we live in and make us question if the world on screen is that different from our own. The result is broad social commentary piece that wants to commentate on many social issues, and while it doesn’t reach the clarity it wants to, it does make for a wild ride.

Taking place in a distant dystopian version of Oakland, the film follows Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a down on his luck, late twenty year old who is struggling to find a job and pay rent. When he lands a job at a call center, he continues to struggle until he taps into his ‘white voice’ and rises through the ranks to becomes a power caller. As he ascends, Cassius finds himself questioning  his own morals as he chooses between standing by his principles to help those at the bottom or joining the elite for self-benefit.

Joining Stanfield is a commendable all star cast that help play both sides of the fence in Cassius’ moral dilemma. On one side you have Detriot and Squeeze. The former played by Tessa Thompson who is Cassius’ girlfriend and main moral objector while the latter is Cassius’ former co-worker leading a union protest played by Steven Yeun. On the other side you have Steve Lift, a drug fueled billionaire played by Armie Hammer who is enticing Cassius’ with riches to bring his power caller talents on a new venture. To the film’s benefit, the supporting cast plays a major role in depicting the nuances and motivations in Cassius’ actions and help develop the moral compass and messages within the film.

Sorry to Bother You covers a spectrum of social ailments, but never dives deep on any particular issue. Instead, the film paints a broad picture of society where anything and everything is heightened, hyperbolized, and exaggerated to reflect society as it currently stands. When you see absurd television shows that ask you to kick the ‘shit’ out of people, a ‘worry-free’ job that locks you into a life time of service, or a power callers profiting off of weapon sales, you’ll get a sense of how out of hand society feels. The film likes to offer a variety of individual statements that provide brief commentary on any given issue ranging from race relations and labor practices to capitalism and colonialism, but in doing so it can feel unfocused in the name of being all encompassing. It has a lot to say and no concise way of saying it, and that can be problematic.

But the film is nothing short of unique. Everything has a sense of style from the wide and varied characters to the visual techniques at play. The aforementioned capitalism run amuck is often critiqued using a variety of stylized choices such as Cassius dropping into the real life homes of clients when he calls them, the close ups of Detroit’s interchangeable earrings that have punchy subtext, and an ending that is so crazy you’ll be doing double takes. And that’s what makes Sorry to Bother You so memorable: how outlandish it can be. For all the inconsistencies it may have with its message, it makes up for with how holistically committed it is to its style. While it does stumble, it continues to shine a light on society with humor, satire, and swagger that is commendable to say the least.

Sorry to Bother You tackles an array of social issues such race, labor, colonialism, capitalism, and inequality in a science fiction comedy package. The result is a very clever film that often spreads itself too thin, but paints a hyperbolized version of society as a whole that underscores the injustice in our own. The film’s broad strokes can leave it feeling unfocused and mirky especially by the end when the film gets progressively weirder and weirder, but I can say I enjoyed the social reflection of it all.

Score: 3.75/5 Stars

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Review: The Devil’s Doorway Knows Found Footage Isn’t Dead Yet

This film was seen at the 44th Seattle International Film Festival where it made its world premiere. Both dates for this film have passed, and it will hopefully get a release later this year.

Found footage is a subgenre of horror film that has become mostly tired and gimmicky since the viral success of the Blair Witch Project. That market has been saturated, and quality has fallen off. However, in The Devil’s Doorway, director Aislinn Clarke manages to breathe a little freshness into the exhausted tropes. Set in Northern Ireland the 60s, the footage is meant to be that of a young Catholic Father John Thornton (Ciaran Flynn) sent with his elder Father Thomas Riley (Lalor Roddy) to a Magdalene Laundry to investigate and document a supposed miracle. The Laundry is convent housing “fallen women;” prostitutes, unwed mothers, victims of rape, the mentally disabled, and the like. Historically, these asylums put women to work doing laundry for no pay, and often subjected them to abuse. The minute the Fathers arrive it is clear that the nuns are brutalizing the women, and that they are hiding a supernatural force at play that is far from divine. They discover a pregnant 16-year-old girl, Kathleen (Lauren Coe) who has been locked up for showing signs of a possession.

While it is deeply reminiscent of The Exorcist in content, the medium the film takes place on sets this narrative apart. It utilizes a 16mm camera and is projected in 1.37 ratio which is accurate to the time period and also holds significance beyond the visual aesthetics. It demonstrates the nature of recording technology in the 60s, manipulating the separation of video and audio tracks to a noticeable degree. The human voice becomes uncanny and haunting when there is video of the physical audio track playing, or when it is played over the stony faces of nuns. And the haunting doesn’t end there. It takes advantage of the medium’s inherent properties, putting the audience in a position to feel the first-person fear of Father John, peeking around corners and descending into dark tunnels beneath the convent. Here it makes use of claustrophobia (the tunnels some of the film was shot in are real locations and that’s probably the worst news you’ll hear all day). It works especially when you don’t know what or who you are sharing a dark space with.

The Devil’s Doorway is thoroughly postmodern horror, with thinly veiled social critique at play. Clarke taps into the societal anxieties that gives horror film power over us. I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of the film at midnight during SIFF, with Clarke in attendance. The screening took place auspiciously on the same night as the repeal of the ban on abortion in Northern Ireland. This sparks a very interesting conversation on the feminist influences in the film, especially a woman’s right to the procedure. The woman’s body isn’t just the site of monstrosity, it is also the subject of a political conversation. This is loaded on top of the dialogue around some traditional Catholic ideals, and the film raises the question if Kathleen is worse off in the hands of a demon, or the nuns or who are supposed to take care of her. Clarke herself brought up the story of Tuam, a Magdalene Laundry open until the ‘60s where a mass grave of babies and children was discovered in 2017 after the film was written. Clarke serves a biting critique of the religious authority and institutional policing of bodies. Clarke herself is political in her role, as she is the first woman to direct a horror film in Northern Ireland.

When it came to the characters themselves, the actors all felt at the top of their game. Lalor Roddy is a dynamic lead as Father Thomas, a man genuinely trying to save the souls of the Laundry’s girls and hold the nuns accountable. His role is what sells much of the investigation of the Laundry, as he squares off with the convincingly creepy Mother Superior (Helena Bereen).  The film knows its own terms and strengths well, but occasionally is too eager to show its hand. The film’s one major shortcoming is the frontloading of reveals that diminish those later in the film. Had it teased out more, the fear would have had a greater impact. Certain jump scares early in the film lessen the impact of those later on instead of building up to a more satisfying and terrifying climax. Cutting some of those moments would also have alleviated the film’s lengthiness.

As a whole, The Devil’s Doorway makes competent use of the found footage style while provoking a larger conversation about women’s rights. And it packs in a couple gut wrenching sequences along the way.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Update: The film has been picked up by IFC and will be getting a limited and digital release on July 13th.

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Film Club Podcast: SIFF 2018 Round Up

At the end of this year’s festival, we sat down to talk about some of our favorite films from the 2018 Seattle International Film Festival. Join Greg Arietta, Jamie Housen, Megan Bernovich, and Kevin Connor as they discuss what to be on the look out for in the following months as the festival films get wide releases.

Continue reading “Film Club Podcast: SIFF 2018 Round Up” →

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Review: Finding Human Connections in Nancy

Nancy is small film with intricate notions of what it means to connect with others. At its heart, we have protagonist Nancy who feels alienated from the world, but also compelled to connect with people in the shadow of her rejection, and to do so, she creates fake personas. Director Christina Choe dials in on the longing for emotional bonds and writes a narrative that is empathetic while also disturbing. Part drama and part mystery thriller, Nancy depicts the necessity for human connections through the lies that become reality for the titular character.

The film follows the Nancy (Andrea Riseborough), a struggling thirty something living in the cracks of America. She takes care of her demanding mother and works as a temp in a dentist office while she awaits any news on the publication of her writing. To escape her life, she lives online, writing an alternative existence on her blog and creating a faux reality for herself. However, the lies she weaves online transfer into the real world as she often lies to her coworkers and plays people she is not. When she sees a news report about a child who has been missing for 30 years, she reaches out to the parents (played by Ann Dowd and Steve Buscemi) and beings to have a connection with them in spite of the fact she may not even be related to them.

Core to this film is Nancy herself. On the back of Andrea Riseborough’s great performance, Nancy has an enigmatic feel. From her looks to her prior actions, the audience has no reason to believe her, yet the resemblance to Steve Buschemi, her own testimony, and her prior life provide enough credence to believe the case. As Nancy begins to believe the lie she makes for herself, so does the audience. Nancy’s affliction to lie is a byproduct for her circumstances and we feel for her even though she is catfishing people into believing that she is indeed their missing daughter.

The dynamic between the parents and Nancy plays out like a dance. At times, we don’t know if she is or isn’t the daughter, so we swing back and forth on moods and emotions. Different scenes take on different contexts when viewing under a different pretexts; if we believe the lie, then there is sentimentality to the relationship, but if we have a degree of doubt, then we see Nancy for the cruelty of her behavior. Buscemi and Dowd embody the two sides of this mood as the audience takes the role of Nancy. Buscemi expresses doubt and has a reluctance to Nancy as a character while Dowd goes all in and believes Nancy for her long lost daughter. Choe placates the audience so that we are never angry towards Nancy, but rather sympathetic to her situation.

This dance is not perfect though. Occasionally the film gets vague and certain scenes don’t mesh with the idea above. A scene where a hunter is shot in the forest or when Nancy’s cat goes missing stand out as minute moments that are distracting to the overall message of the film, but have a character-driven dimension to them. Then when the film reaches its peak —that being a DNA test to determine blood relation— it never goes towards confrontation. Instead of playing through the fallout, the film reserves itself from something the audience has been hoping for.

The importance of human connections is what drives Nancy. Choe presents an empathetic look at the universal desire to connect with others and the lengths we go to feel wanted. Through Riseborough’s strong performance and Choe’s assured direction, audiences will be treated to a unique dramatic thriller that can sometimes feel opaque, but whose message translates easily enough to have more than an impact.

Score: 3.5/5

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SIFF 2018: Gus Van Sant and Beth Ditto Interview for Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

During the Closing Night Screening of Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, we were able to get a few questions in with director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk) and actress Beth Ditto. The interview was conducted in tandem with Darlene Graham from SIFF News and Greg Arietta. As Van Sant snacked on some Skittles before the show, we were able to ask why this film was so relevant for today and how Van Sant was able to illicit so many stellar  performances in the film. DWHWGFOF comes out on July 13th, but you can check out our interview below.

This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

DG: I wanted to ask how you relate to your character?

BD: Well, I think it’s the only character that I could really do because I don’t think [Reba — her character] is that far remove from who I really am. I live in the South, and the whole description [of the role] was worth it. I feel like it just makes sense for me. She was a redneck and I grew up with rednecks [who were] women with really big hearts that just love to talk, but also really brutal. I thought that life wasn’t really that serious. We were really religious. We thought there would be this reward some where else, so dying young wasn’t a big deal. It was just basically, “Smoke until you fucking die.” The person I was thinking about when I was reading the description of Reba was this woman named Jamie who smoked in a hospital room, had lung cancer, and died at 47. 

GA: So Gus, there are so many great performances in this film, how did you as a director illicit so many great performances from a broad cast?

GVS: I try to make everything seem like its not that important so that it’s not…

BD: A burden?

GVS: … a burden, yah. I want the actors to feel comfortable and they just go. Right? *Looks at Ditto*

BD: For me, yah. I only worked with you for like three days to a week, so I can’t say that for everyone else. 

GVS: You know, just stay out of their way, and hopefully they’ll get into it. If I get too involved… They usually have their own thing they want to do [with the character], so I usually try to stay out of the way. Did I did that with you? *Looks at Ditto*

BD: Yah, you finally got out of my way. I think that’s the only reason I could do it because I could just do what I wanted to do and it was encouraged. Also, there is something also about the other people that were in it that it felt like a good group of people who got along. That makes things feel a lot easier. I think the curation of the actors are a huge part of it. If we didn’t have people that meshed together, I don’t think it would of been that easy. I felt encouraged to be myself… maybe too much! I felt really comfortable and I’ve never done it before.  Sometimes I felt like I was gonna throw up. I get nervous, but never like that. I don’t get performance anxiety really, but [acting] made me scared to death. I had to have a phone call before because I needed to talk about it. I don’t even know what it was about. 

GVS: But then when we did it, was it easy? The next day did you have anxiety?

BD: Oh so easy. But the next day I did also, because I don’t want to [look bad] in front of professionals in the moment. I don’t want to put them off if I don’t talk at the right time. Which is hard for me… not to talk. So silence is a good key [with acting]. But yah, I got comfortable really easily. But you *looking at Van Sant* really set people at ease.

DG: Can you tell why you felt the story of Jon Callahan was important to tell right now? 

GVS: We started the project in the 90s. It was a good story to tell in the 90s, for the 2000s, the 2010s, or today. It’s a timeless story, so it’s always current. 

BD: I’ll add to that. We need a Jon Callahan story right now. That’s a good reason!

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SIFF 2018 : Eighth Grade Interview with Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher

At the tail end of SIFF 2018, we were lucky enough to interview Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher about their latest endeavor: EIGHTH GRADE. In it, guest interviewer Delaney Fry asked Burnham how he incorporated his own career into the film as well as how Fisher so naturally portrayed such a relatable character. The film comes out July 13th, but you can read the transcript below or listen to our interview now, complete with Pogs, Dungeons & Dragons, and defining the term ‘Yeet’.

This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

D: So if you want to get started, we have a couple questions for each of you, and we can just go back and forth. You’ve probably been asked this one a lot, but we were wondering how did your own Youtube experience…

B: Am I blue? [referring to highlighter on our question sheet]

D: No, actually the blue questions are our primary questions and pink ones are our secondaries if we get to them.

B: Oh good, I was gonna say, “Boy we’re really living in a retro gendered world. Blue for me and pink for her!”

D: Well you get all the questions and we get two questions for the girls. So how did your younger Youtube experience impact Kayla’s experience in the film with regards to her own Youtube channel?

B: It certainly did. Obviously it engrained some sense of being meaningful to me, but I really did draw more on my current experience with the internet than I did then. I just didn’t think the internet asked that deep of questions of us in 2006. It was, “You have a funny thing? Post it,” and now it’s like, “Who are you as a person on a deep level.” There was definitely some of me in there for sure, but I really set out to explore what I was feeling at the time I wrote it when I was 25 or 24. It wasn’t a story of my past more than it was about my present, so of course it set me on a course of life that was really caring about the internet because it provided me with a lot of success and pain and all that stuff.

D: Elsie, being as young as you are and with your experience on YouTube, how has this movie reflected your own experiences? 

E: I like the way the internet is portrayed through Kayla because it just shows it as it is. It’s just her scrolling on her phone at at 3am and what not. Another part I like is that when I was in sixth grade I had my own really shitty YouTube channel. I didn’t put as much effort into it as Kayla’s did. It was just like Minecraft, but it was really cool for me to portray a character who had their own [channel] and see them struggle in their own way that I could weirdly relate to: to make things and not be cared about. But they’re good for yourself. I cared a lot. I use to post my art on the internet and no one would care, but I would still felt good about it.

B: That should keep going. Leonardo DiVinci probably had most fun painting. It should be for you. Even this [film] should be for us first. Like it shouldn’t matter if it’s seen or not.

E: Yah I don’t care if it’s seen. I use to and I think Kayla cares a little bit if it’s seen because that’s what she wants to do, but in my personal life right now, I stopped caring. I’m like, “Whatever. I’m having fun making it.”

D: And between the two of you who came up with “Gucci”?

E: Me

D: How’d you come up with that? Were you like, “Let me just throw this in?”

E: So I’m a naturally anxious person. This was my first lead and I all the way over in New York [where we filmed], I just had this nervous tick, so I would end conversations with “Gucci.” And then [Bo] started doing it to embarrass me, and then it caught on on set. When we filmed the videos way later, [Bo] wanted me to have a sign off, so it became “Gucci.”

D: I love how it starts so ironically and then it just infects yourself with it.

B: Yah exactly. The thing people don’t realize with inside jokes that kids do is that the they don’t even get them. Just just like doing it. 

E: Yah, people ask me what Gucci means and I’m like, “I don’t know.”

D: One of the best things my parents have asked me is, “What does ‘Yeet’ mean?” and I don’t know how to explain it to them. I can’t stop saying it, but I don’t know… YEET!

B: Is that Y-I-T?

D: It’s Y-E-E-T. It’s from a Vine.

E: Yah it’s from this vine where this kid has a Mountain Dew bottle, he throws it, and he goes, “YEET.” It’s like his brother or mom or something. 

D: And it’s just caught on so whole heartedly. It’s a thing that we’ve seen a lot in college.

B: I’m gonna have to check that out. 

E: It’s so stupid.

D: Yah, but’s so beautiful. It was what the internet was meant to do. 

B: The internet is meant to be indescribable.

D: So next, kind of from both of you: when you look out into the audience, it’s a huge age range. We had people standing up and talking yesterday [at the SIFF screening] who were in seventh and eighth grade themselves, both boys and girls. And then we had people who were 70 years old.

B: These two [screenings] were particularly good. I think the festival had a really good range. 

D: Even with this huge age span, we’ve seen a huge positive response to it, Obviously, [Elsie] has won the Best Actress award and the Gold Space Needle [for Best Feature], so when you two were making this film, were you trying to make it applicable or were you gearing it more towards a heartfelt story that ended up being so applicable to all of us?

B: I had a vision board that just said “Golden Space Needle” and I was like, “How do I get here?” *laughter* Our approach was not to be relatable for the sake of being relatable. The hope is that the more specific, the more universal it will be, but I just wanted to be honest, truthful, not manipulative, just portray things as they are, and hopefully it will resonate with people. I felt that [Elsie] resonated with me and I’m not her. If I’m feeling connected to this story and I’m not circumstantially like her, then other people can too. I think the feelings of anxiety, how you view yourself, how the world views you, and then going from how you perceive your own self versus how you articulate them are common [sentiments]. Everyone’s pretty awkward, but I’m so glad I’m not that awkward anymore. Every social situation is incredibly loaded, and awkward things are happening all the time. Like, have you been in an elevator? Everyone spends half their day blushing, so for me as an audience member, I wanted to make a movie I want to see. When I feel that someone is trying to relate to me, which a lot of things recently have been trying to occupy that nostalgia space, I’m like “Ugh, I get it.” POGS, RIGHT?! I don’t really give shit, I just want it to feel real. [Looks over to Elsie] Pogs were an old thing.

E: I know what Pogs are.

B: You know what Pogs are?!

E: I vaguely do. I mean I grew up in a very dated town. I grew up with VHS and no internet. I didn’t get internet until I was like…

B: She would not have been of age. She was born in 2003. Yah you should not have [known about Pogs].

E: Yah but I are grew up with VHS, and I was like, “[An entire movie] fits on this [tape]?”

D: Craziest thing for me was trying to explain how CDs and DVDs work because I still don’t get it. I think it’s magic. 

B: Well vinyl is really confusing because you scratch it and then it makes the sound? Huuuuh? Literally makes no sense.

E: I remember though at my school we didn’t even have projectors. We had the light thing [transparency projector]. That was weird. I sometimes have weird dreams about where did it come from because no else my age knows what I’m talking about. 

D: So Elsie, the film ends really beautifully with that hug [from her dad played by Josh Hamilton] because the whole time watching it I too wanted to reach in for a hug. How did you begin to connect with Hamilton and develop that authentic relationship?

E: We hung out off of set with Josh, myself, and my own father…

B: Did you go to the Statue of Liberty or Museum of Modern Art with Josh?

E: Well we got ice cream and then Josh kind of left us there at MOMA. Like he walked with [me and my father] there and was like, “YEET.” Yah, but it was basically hanging out with him and we did a little bit of stuff like that. Then we had rehearsals of the scenes we were in, and those were the only scenes we really did because that relationship is so familiar and boring to Kayla.

B: Everything else we wanted to capture [in the film was] the nerves, but with [Kayla’s] dad, she was so comfortable to begin with so that had to feel super bored [at the dinner scene]. 

E: But with the fire pit scene it had to feel different. It’s not all boring, so maybe boring isn’t the right word. It was just about getting the scene to feel right with him by doing it over and over again. Like we did the dinner scene a hundred million times? Four billion? 

D: And it was so perfect. I just saw my sister in you.

B: You have a younger sister? 

D: Yah I have three siblings, so for my younger sister, I saw the most of her in you. 

B: And she’s how old now? 

D: Now she’s eight-teen. She just graduated high school yesterday, so very exciting. I had her grad party right after the movie, so I had to ditch setting it up, but I was back for the fun part… But Bo, being that you’re so musically inclined with you music and comedy, how involved were you with choosing the film’s music, specifically for Aiden’s? 

B: Oh yah. For Aiden’s [music], it was this band called ‘Hurter Baiter’ which is this Swedish, weird techno music…

E: I am Swedish. My family is very Swedish. 

B: Perfect, that is incredibly fascinating *sarcastically*. You look very Swedish. Anyway, back to my question, I wrote a temp score for the movie that I didn’t want to use, but I was just trying to feel out the film. I had a few months before the movie had started to think about things and I wrote a lot of music just to explore the movie in a different way. Then I stumbled upon Anna Meredith’s music who was an incredible electronic music composer. She was a classically trained composer out of London and she’s just amazing, theatrical, and big. We wanted the music to be visceral and feel like foreground music that made Kayla’s experience bigger than it is rather than this mandolin, staccato string, indie tween score that makes everything cute and small because the movie is not cute to [Kayla]. It’s not small to her. Music is just a great subconscious way to make things more visceral and intense. 

D: I would say I totally felt [those emotions] in the movie where it may not be a big deal to us because we are just watching it, but the part where the music got louder and louder made me feel it more and more. Along with the music, Kayla has a lot of mannerisms that are really noticeable such as the crossing of the arms or slouching and I was wondering if you just know how to do that naturally or was it something you two had to coach a little?

E: Nah, it was just good old Fisher anxiety mannerisms. That’s just me. That’s just how I do stuff or at least how I use to. I’m trying to be confident with thing like… power posing.

D: Do you do power posing? 

E: No, but i probably should. 

B: Posture is good. Walk down the street with your chest puffed out and it feels good. I try to do that because I’m so tall and I don’t want to slouch. It’s very psychosomatic to have good posture. But yah the mannerisms shouldn’t be conscious. We didn’t want her to be like Winston Churchill [all frumpy like], and be like, *Churchill impression* “I’m Kayla” because it would be less effective. 

E: The only one that felt a little bit conscious was when I held my arm [across my chest], but I just kept doing that because when Fred, who plays one of the high schoolers, pointed it out [as something from a different generation], I decided to stick with it. But everything else was just natural. 

D: Well we are almost out of time. I just wanted to leave you with a general question at the end. Sometimes we ask very specific questions, and you don’t get to talk about something you’re very passionate about, so is there a story from the film, any fun fact about yourself, or thing you’ve just been dying to share that no one has asked you a question about that you wish someone had? 

E: Ummm, I don’t know. I like playing Dungeons and Dragons.

D: We’re [pointing to Megan] in a D&D team together! What do you play? 

E: I play a tiefling bard.

D: What’s your instrument?

E: I have a ukulele and an electric guitar. It’s super exciting. I’ve been playing with my friends for about a month now and we’re actually making a podcast out of it now. It’s really exciting. 

D: Oh that’s so beautiful. Well, hopefully we’ll find it when it comes out. Do you have a name for it?

E: Yes, it’s called “X-Treme D&D.” I’ve been writing a bunch of music for it. It’s very fun. 

D: See that’s the kind of stuff people never get to hear about. 

B: Yah, I can’t top that shit. Um, I don’t know…

D: How’s your dog doing? We were told by a friend to check on your dog.

B: He’s doing great. He’s doing real good. Bruce is a good guy. He turned three. He’s chilling out. He got in a little fight with his sister and he had to get staples in his head, so he’s a little staple head right now, but those are coming out soon.

D: Does he have a little cone? 

B: Oh no, they’re on the top of his head so he literally can’t get there. He’s just a little staple head boy right now. 

D: Very cute. Well we could keep going, but we won’t waste your time. So I think we’re good from here. We appreciate you guys talking to us. 

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Review: A Solid Outing in Hearts Beat Loud

This film was seen at the 44th Seattle International Film Festival. The film is now in wide release in Seattle.

The “indie” scene is full of heart warming dramas, catchy music, and well regarded actors who take on smaller scripts with the hope of tapping into human emotion. The scene is well populated and represented, but Hearts Beat Loud is perhaps the most outward facing, indie movie so far this year. The question is can the film break free from these notions that plague the indie scene? Well no, but it is a solid outing.

The film centers around Frank Fisher (Nick Offerman) and his daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons). While Frank struggles with his vinyl record store Sam is preparing to head off to college in the fall. In the final months of their departure, Frank tries to savor what time they have left by making music, a hobby Sam reluctantly participates in. When Frank uploads one of their collaborations to Spotify and it becomes a hit, the two come at odds as Frank pushes for Sam to pursue her talents while she wants to move on.

What is the biggest issue is how contentious the father daughter relationship can be. Frank is a man who hangs onto the past, but he never seems to over come that. Instead the film finds resolve in compromise which doesn’t lead to a gratifying arc for either Frank or Sam. As Sam is going off to college to study pre-med, Frank is losing the lasting remnant of his wife who he sees in his daughter, and he attaches himself to her to prevent that loss. The following interaction between Sam and Frank doesn’t result in anything learned, but rather a consolation as Sam accepts her father’s dependency and desire to remain the same, doing so through their collaborative music. By the end of the film, you feel as if neither father nor daughter have changed all that much.

It’s even weirder when you consider how much push back Sam has to the initial jam session, but then acceptance immediately after the song finds success. The film sets itself up for Sam to resent the success of their song because she wants to be a heart doctor, but instead she leans into it and takes it on. The conflict in the film wants to come out of a mismatch between what Sam and Frank want, but it never communicates that. It is much more concerned with how both Sam and Frank find an equal footing between themselves in a father-daughter relationship, but unfortunately that theme isn’t all that gratifying.

Hearts Beat Loud is trying to communicate the acceptance of differences between father and daughter, but ends up with an unsatisfactory result. The mild mannered indie film is harmless enough, but you won’t find much beyond the performances of Offerman and Clemons. There’s nothing that completely derails the film, but it’s also nothing to write home about either.

Score: 3/5 Stars