Isabel Sandoval on Subverting the Social Issue Drama and Capturing the Trans Female Gaze in Lingua Franca

Although Lingua Franca is only Isabel Sandoval’s third film, she already has made her signature recognizable. Her work is astute, impeccably shot, and often in...

Michael Almereyda on the Cinematic Collage of Tesla and Defying Biopic Conventions

Have we enough evidence to name Michael Almereyda the American cinema's greatest biographer? It's a narrow range and hardly the highest bar to clear, yet his o...

Boys State Directors on Documentary Casting, Competing Masculinities, and Conservative Spaces

Filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine have a unique niche among documentarians: their work, together or apart, often involves liberal people in conservative...

I Used To Go Here Director Kris Rey on Accessible Art, External Validation, and Remembering Lynn Shelton

With her fourth feature, writer/director Kris Rey teamed with lead actor Gillian Jacobs (“Love”) to create I Used To Go Here, a comedy focused on a newly publi...

Cosmo Jarvis on The Shadow of Violence, His Acting Process, and Title Changes

One of my favorite films from last year's Toronto International Film Festival, The Shadow of Violence (renamed from its UK release title Calm with Horses) has ...

Jayro Bustamante on Infusing the History of Guatemala in La Llorona and Making Every Shot Count

With any luck, the name Jayro Bustamante will be well-known by cinephiles near and far very soon. At Sundance earlier this year, I said his third feature La Ll...

Amy Seimetz on She Dies Tomorrow, Mortality, Double Features, and Filmmaking Advice

With the evocative title of She Dies Tomorrow, one might think they can predict where Amy Seimetz’s second feature is going, but the writer-director is keen to...

Kôji Fukada on A Girl Missing, Repeat Viewings, and Betraying the Audience for Their Benefit

Nothing is as it seems in A Girl Missing, the latest feature from writer and director Kôji Fukada. Mariko Tsutsui stars as Ichiko, a visiting nurse who becomes...

Yes, God, Yes Director Karen Maine on Sexual Pleasure, Religious Repression, and Coming-of-Age Favorites

The adults––worse, the other kids––of Karen Maine’s Yes, God, Yes all seem to be in on an elaborate inside joke. It can be tough to talk about sex, and it’s es...

Josh Hartnett on Becoming the Character Actor He Always Tried to Be

After a stratospheric rise to stardom in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, Josh Hartnett settled down. Since then, much has been made of his escape from Hollywood...