Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
With only two feature films and one TV show to his name, writer/director Jody Hill, is now synonymous with ignoring the boundaries and “genre rules” of modern comedy and creating anti-heroes that laughably burble with nihilistic rage, scary faux pas and hot-air egos. But there is also an internal depth to these macho doofuses played by Hill’s longtime pal and writing partner, Danny McBride, and comedy star Seth Rogen, to surpass the high art of a perfectly-timed and pronounced “fuck.”
Hill’s work on Observe & Report, The Foot Fist Way, and his cultural breakthrough, HBO’s Eastbound & Down, contains more glass-darkly social commentary and life-lived expression than the work of any hotshot young novelist in recent memory. Rather than document the cold realities and indulgent pleasantries of another big city with bright lights, Hill is set on exploring the very place that so many creative-types vacate upon the arrival of their first Visa card or college acceptance letter: the American South. Moreover, as many middle-class and broke white American males face sobering, if inevitable, realizations and disillusions about the future, laughing at Hill’s moronic, unhinged versions as they champion outdated movie/sports star heroics atop small-town kingdoms is like homemade medicine. When it comes to countering the monotony of the average day-to-day? Eastbound is harder to beat still. The sight of Kenny Powers “dancing” in a middle school gym under the influence of eggrolls and ecstasy or ejecting a topless broad from his Jet Ski is priceless. Like cheetah-spotted gold or “a bulletproof tiger, dude.”
A native of North Carolina, Hill is the latest progeny of the North Carolina School of the Arts, alongside McBride and creative partner Ben Best, fellow EB&D director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express), and EB&D cinematographer Tim Orr. In the first part of my interview, we discuss the show in-depth, including some of the surprising and vile admissions and special features on the Season One DVD. We also talk about what it’s like to be a young director coming from, and staying in, the South, why so many comedians today are from there, and why the region was overdue for a proper comedic depiction.
Hunter Stephenson: Hey Jody, how are you?
Jody Hill: Hey Hunter. Good, good, good. Hey man, I wanted to say that I was sorry I wasn’t there when you visited down in Wilmington [Eastbound & Down set, 2008]. I remember the piece you wrote, and it sounded like a really good time. [laughs] Sucks I couldn’t there, man; I was editing my film (Observe & Report), and Warner Bros. wouldn’t let me go. When you have to do a director’s cut, they want to lock you up for 10 weeks. [laughs] Everybody said they had a blast…and I was editing.
Yeah. I expected to interview you there. And I didn’t know about the change, that David Green was now directing the majority of the episodes while you were in L.A. But it all worked out, he killed it. My first question: Legend has it that when you, Danny [McBride], and Ben [Best] first conceived of Kenny Powers you were sitting in a kiddie pool in North Carolina drinking beers. [laughs] Is that accurate?
Jody Hill: [laughs] Yeah, this was before we made Foot Fist Way or anything. We were trying to come up with ideas for shows. I was between jobs; I had been working this really shit reality show job, doing motion-control for Behind the Music and shit like that. [laughs] It was pretty lame. And so, yeah, we were in Charlotte, in the backyard of Ben Best’s house. And yeah, we were literally sitting in a kiddie pool with a case of beer. And Kenny was one of the ideas that, uh, we came up with. [laughs]
Hunter Stephenson’s Movie Review: Observe and Report (A Contender for Best Film of 2009). Essay: The Genius of Jody Hill
Posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Weekend Update: Due to the amazing bitch-session in the comments: the following article is a combination free-form essay/review on the genius, relevance, and influences of writer/director Jody Hill and his works including The Foot Fist Way, Eastbound & Down, and his latest, Observe and Report. It also deals with the growing trend of incredibly dark and conflicted American male anti-heroes in movies and TV. Oh yeah, it’s also really, really, really long and I didn’t see a need to begin the piece with “If you were expecting Paul Blart, get ready for a crazy rollercoaster not suitable for the kiddies.” Because fuck Paul Blart. No one will remember that movie in five years, until the sequel is released and makes $200 million. My bad?
Let me preface this by saying that I now anticipate Jody Hill’s films more than any other working filmmaker with the exception of Paul Thomas Anderson. And on a particularly excruciating Monday, maybe Tommy Wiseau’s.
“You suck this gun like a dick and then this dick goin’ cum in your mouth and blow your brains all over the street!” – Danny McBride in Observe and Report, um, protecting his legacy
Generally speaking, there are two types of people, and as it lies, two types of moviegoers: Those who go to malls without a second thought and those who go into them only on the rarest of occasions, sucking on an imaginary Klonopin, those who walk around wondering how the fuck this and they and that sign came to be, pregnant with the speeding notion that a loon might as well destroy the entire fucking building or at least high-jack the “raffle car,” peel out through the entrance doors, and drive on to a fabled body of water.
Woody Allen and Miyazaki Not Included on EW’s 25 Greatest Active Film Directors List
Posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Entertainment Weekly just published their list of the 25 Greatest Active Film Directors. It’s one of those really annoying slideshow stories, so we’ve done the legwork and printed the entire shortlist after the jump.
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BDSF: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Cigarettes & Coffee
Posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
In a previous edition of Big Directors Small Films, we took a look at Paul Thomas Anderson’s first film, a 1988 short fictional documentary that inspired Boogie Nights titled The Dirk Diggler Story. From there, Paul went on to attend New York University, but quit after only two days of classes. He became a production assistant on a bunch of made for television movies, television game shows and independent film projects. In this time he developed his second serious short film project made up of five vignettes set in a diner with Philip Baker Hall (who later went on to become a PTA regular) and Miguel Ferrer among the cast.
Cigarettes & Coffee premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, where he gained the attention needed to be accepted into the Sundance Institute’s filmmaker workshop program where he developed, adapted, and expanded the idea into his first feature film — Hard Eight. In this short you can see the early inspiration of Robert Altman, with Anderson cutting between three stories which somehow intersect. Many thanks to /Film reader Kendrick T who submitted the Vimo link over the weekend.
BDSF: Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Dirk Diggler Story
Posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
In this week’s Big Directors Small Films, we take a look at Paul Thomas Anderson’s first film, a 1988 short fictional documentary titled The Dirk Diggler Story. You might recognize the name in the title as the character that Mark Wahlberg played nine years later in Boogie Nights. The Dirk Diggler Story was very much like a first draft of that film. Some of the major characters in Anderson’s later second feature make appearances, including Reed Rothchild, Dirks best friend and sidekick, and director Jack Horner.
The film was shot on video and edited from tape to tape using two VCRs. Paul’s father, a professional announcer and “The Voice of ABC” in the 1970’s and 1980’s, provided the deadpan narration. This is clearly the work of a teenage PTA. I’m more impressed at the performances Anderson was able to get out of the non professional cast, and the amount of story Paul crammed into 30 minutes.
Michael Stein, who played Dirk in the documentary short, was given a cameo in Boogie Nights at a stereo customer. Robert Ridgley, who was Jack Horner in the short, also appeared in Boogie Nights, as the Colonel.
See A Paul Thomas Anderson Production This Saturday!
Posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
A couple months ago Paul Thomas Anderson directed a stageplay in LA (which many described as a radioplay), which featured Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, and John C Reilly. There were only a few performances, so if you were there, you were there, but if you missed it - YOU MISSED IT.
Well it appears that PTA is back at it again. And if you’re in Los Angeles, you’re not going to want to miss this event. It’s basically a revised version of the show that PTA put on earlier this Summer. Jon Brion (I Heart Huckabees, Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine) is doing the music and Anderson wrote some of the material. So if you missed it then, you might not want to test fate again. Who knows if Paul will be doing this again. And aside from this, when are you ever going to have a chance to see a PTA production live and in person? The show is 8:30pm this Saturday night at Largo at the Coronet. Tickets are only $25.
Welcome to another edition of Movie Playlist, where we talk to the writers, directors, and stars about their favorite films. I’ve always found the celebrity playlists on iTunes to be interesting. Most everyone in the film business moved to Hollywood after discovering their love of films. And I’ve always love talking to people about their favorite films. So talking to the people who make the movies about their favorite films just seemed like a natural idea.
Nanette Burstein is the Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker behind On The Ropes and The Kid Stays in the Picture. Her latest film American Teen follows five high school students through their senior year. I hate to oversell the movie, but it’s literally one of my favorite films of the year.
Nanette Burstein: There are certain directors whose films, I could just watch them endlessly. Alexander Paine, I’m a huge fan of.
Peter Sciretta: You know, I saw a lot of like Election in American Teen…
Nanette Burstein: Yes, Election definitely influenced this film… Like the shots of the kids when you hear their voiceovers and they’re on the bed, I totally took that from Election. There was the night before election where there’s all these dolly shots into all the main characters and their thoughts and like they’re all crane…
Peter Sciretta: It was like those crane shots.
Nanette Burstein: Yeah, those shots are amazing, and that’s what inspired me to do that.
Nanette Burstein: There’s definitely different homages in this film, like Garden State which I love there’s this scene when Hannah goes to the party and she’s alienated and the way I cut that scene was completely influenced by that scene in Garden State where he’s alienated at the party.
Everyone is wondering: What is Paul Thomas Anderson going to direct next? A big screen adaptation of Metal Gear Solid? Nope. Power Play? Unlikely… A Los Angeles Stage Production starring two cast members from SNL? Ding Ding Ding! … Wait, what?!
On August 5th and 6th. Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen will be appearing together in a performance co-written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Not much more is known. An email that was sent to members of the Largo at the Coronet mailing list didn’t reveal much more about the event:
“So what is this? What’s the deal? *We’re not tellin’ nothin’ more.* All we’ll say is this: trust us, you won’t regret it. You’re welcome to call the theatre to purchase tickets with your credit card… or bring cash only on the night of the shows. *$25 • doors at 8:30 • curtain at 9. Box Office: (310) 855-0350
*LARGO @ the CORONET*
366 N. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
*(you know… next to Trashy Lingerie)*”
All I know is that if I lived in Los Angeles, nothing would stop me from being at Largo on August 5th. Anderson has a history with SNL, having directed a short film for the program in 2000 called SNL Fanatic, which starred Ben Affleck, Jimmy Fallon and Molly Shannon. Maya Rudoph also starred in Robert Altman’s A Prarie Home Companion, in which Anderson was employed as a “standby director.” Some people even claim that Anderson ghost-directed a portion of the film.
source: cigarettes and red vines
Rumor has it that Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to There Will Be Blood might be an adaption of Peter Bart’s novella Power Play, which Paramount acquired in 1998 for producer Robert Evans to develop. Anderson’s official fan site cigarettes and redvines has now even picked up the rumor, which I heard from a source last week. Let me be completely clear: I have not gotten any official or even unofficial word that this is actually Anderson’s next project (ie for now take it for what it is - a rumor), but it does seem to have a history of truth.
The story follows a forward thinking Native American casino owner who decides to take on Las Vegas, and enters into a power struggle between established casino owners. When the project was first announced, Evans named Anderson as director and Jack Nicholson as a potential star.
“I’ve got P.T. Anderson very excited about adapting and directing it. Before he directed Boogie Nights, he covered the gambling terrain very convincingly with Hard Eight. I’m also giving it to Jack Nicholson, who is perfect for the main role,” Evans told Variety in 1998. “It’s an extraordinary story. The largest gambling entrepreneurs are not Trump or Wynn or Kerkorian — they’re the Indians. They operate the most profitable casinos in the world and most are not even full-blooded Indians — they can be one-eighth and still control the tribe, the land and the casino. If they made the worst deal in selling Manhattan for $24, they’re making up for it with a weapon more lethal than bows and arrows.”
It is impossible to write a story about this project without noting that the sale of Power Play was the subject to huge controversy in the late 90’s. Bart was accused of creating the 86-page novella in order to circumvent rules which prevent Variety reporters from being seduced by Hollywood while covering the beat. Basically, the idea was that Bart wrote a book to sell a screenplay. In 1998 Variety reported that Michelle Manning at Paramount Pictures had acquired the rights to the novel written by Bart, which was submitted under “a pseudonym to avoid any potential conflict of interest.”
A screenplay was later discovered with authorial credit to Leslie Cox (the maiden name of Bart’s wife), “Based on the novel by Peter Bart” and dated September 1996, two years before the sale of the book. The whole situation smelled like fish. Basically, Bart at one point ran Paramount with Evans, and writing a script certainly seemed like a conflict of interest. As is the whole idea of the trades if you ask me: Something like 90% of advertisements in trade papers like Variety come from the same industry they intend to cover. But I digress. Bart was suspended after Amy Wallace wrote about the incident in Los Angeles Magazine (you can read about the incident on Slate.com).
Konami Says Paul Thomas Anderson is Circling Metal Gear Solid? NOT TRUE!
Posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
UPDATE #1 : I just received an email from Kotaku editor, Brian Ashcraft, who originally spoke with Konami’s Aki Saito in person and here’s what he said: “Hey Hunter, [Saito] said Paul Thomas Anderson, not just Paul Anderson, but specifically ‘Thomas.’ Hope that helps!” I just asked Brian again if Saito possibly meant to say director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), and he added, “Saito’s handling the movie negotiations, so I’d assume he knew.” The awesome madness continues! More as it develops…
UPDATE #2: Collider talked to someone involved with the production who has confirmed that Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT involved. My guess is that Saito meant to say Paul W.S. Anderson, who has a history of video game movie adaptations. The original news story follows:
Get out of here, Konami! At a press conference for this summer’s Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami’s Aki Saito, who’s apparently hands-on with the Metal Gear feature film adaptation, told a Kotaku reporter that 1.) the franchise’s feted creator, Hideo Kojima, will not be directing the movie version and 2.) director Paul Thomas Anderson is a possibility…
Regarding to potential directors, Saito says, “Paul Thomas Anderson is interested.”
What would The New Yorker say if this became a reality? Saito also communicated how carefully Konami, the vid game’s publisher, is handling the adaptation, much to fans’ satisfaction, and expressed a certain weariness over Hollywood’s video game flick graveyard…
“Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it’s very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.”
PTA handling a grandiose spy action film would be bananas and make for a highly unforeseen and no doubt controversial follow-up to his masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. Venturing into pipe dream land, I’m not sure if I’d rather see Tarantino’s Grand Theft Auto (the Internet fantasy fave for Rockstar’s franchise at the moment) or this. Not sure why Saito would just throw PTA’s name out there if there wasn’t some truth to it.
Brief MGS synopsis: Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.
Discuss: !?! QT’s GTA or PTA’s MGS, which would be more badass?
Cinematical pointed me towards these really cool videos on YouTube by a 25-Year-Old freelance editor nicknamed barringer82, who has edited together a few compilation music videoes of his favorite directors. The Paul Thomas Anderson one is definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re a dan of his films. Check them out after the jump.
Hunter Stephenson’s Movie Review of There Will Be Blood
Posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
The following review contains spoilers and touches on topics and themes from the film, There Will Be Blood, which may prove unsettling for some readers. This review is long as hell because TWBB is long as hell, but it is also one of the best films ever made and the best film this decade.
The fact that Paul Thomas Anderson’s American epic, There Will Be Blood, did not win an Oscar for Best Picture or Best Director says nothing about the film’s quality and inarguable stature as a masterpiece, but much about how we deal with an artist who swims out to the mark of greatness and madness, leaving the rest of us behind.
When an artist, rarely a director, does this it overwhelms and scares us. We practically expect the Jaws theme to begin its maniacal cue and watch the unknown devour him. Anderson, who previously directed the cool but slightly manipulative and hyperactive Boogie Nights and Magnolia, does nothing to alleviate our concern for the unhinged artist; his ever-focused stare dances more and more with an alarming expanse and he brandishes a smirk that sort of says “Oh really? Fuck off.” Luckily, from afar, these traits make him that much more interesting after viewing his first masterpiece.
