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Interview - Director Bobby Farrelly on 'Champions'
- Details
- Written by Matthew Toomey
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Champions has arrived in Australian cinemas and I recently spoke to director Bobby Farrelly about the project…
Matt: You’ve been working in the film industry for roughly 30 years now. Has your sense of humour changed much over that time?
Bobby: That is a good question. The sense of humour of society has definitely changed. We went through a spell, particularly over the last few years, where we haven’t been joking about a lot of stuff. Comedy was almost on a hiatus. Laughing is good for people and good for society.
I’m just glad to have a movie like this back out. I think it’s a great, sweet story which is very funny. We know Woody Harrelson can deliver laughs and what he’s doing here is not goofy or zany. It’s set in reality and there’s a good message behind it. It’s good entertainment.
Matt: Kingpin is one of my favourite comedies and here you get the chance to work with Woody Harrelson again. He’s an interesting character in that he’s a schmuck at times but he kind of knows it and is almost apologetic about it. What made you think he was the right lead for the movie?
Bobby: Woody is a great actor who makes it look so easy. If you look at his career, he’s made some incredible, smart choices. He’s balanced his career beautifully with big movies and small movies. He’s done Natural Born Killers, LBJ, and The People vs. Larry Flynt, and then he’s done stuff like Kingpin. He’s got a great range.
In this movie, he’s really good at playing a real person who doesn’t have to be perfect. His character doesn’t realise it but he’s someone who needs to learn a few things. He’s full of himself at the beginning and he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. When asked to coach this basketball team of people with intellectual disabilities, he learns a lot about himself and he allows those on the team to teach him a few things. Sometimes it’s more than just a sport and you can provide people with life lessons too. It’s all done in a funny, comedic way with the story serving as a nice backdrop.
Matt: I really enjoyed Kaitlin Olson here. Particularly in the early scenes, she’s so blunt and ruthless and seeing through all of Marcus’s tells. What was your advice to her in creating her character?
Bobby: I just thought Kaitlin Olson was a great actress. I’d never seen her do a big movie role because she’s been in TV for so many years. She totally blew me away with her performance. She’s super smart, super attractive, and she’s nobody’s fool. She’s so witty and sarcastic that Woody’s character can’t slip one by her. She’s way smarter than him. But she also plays it in a way where she’s vulnerable and has things holding her back. She too needs to look in the mirror and perhaps let go and not cling to the past so much. It’s a nice story arc and she handles it gracefully.
Matt: The members of the basketball team have such great, distinctive personalities. Can you tell me about that side of the casting process?
Bobby: We wanted to make sure that everyone could play basketball as a starting point. We went to recreational leagues for people with intellectual disabilities across the United States and Canada and asked the coaches if they had any players that maybe wanted to act. We were inundated with people sending in audition tapes. There were hundreds and hundreds. From that, it was a bit like making a cake. We wanted a range of different personalities and so we picked these ten and I think we did a great job with the casting. The actors are terrific and they’re such beautiful, different people. We got lucky and they make the story work.
Matt: We see it time and time again when real-life news folk pop up in movies. Here, we have them in fake episodes of Sportscenter. I’ve always wondered how easy that stuff is to organize? Do they love the idea of being in a movie or are they and the TV networks hard to convince?
Bobby: It’s a little of all of that. It’s not the easiest thing to organize. Scott Van Pelt is such a knowledgeable sports guy. We reached out to him, and he liked the story and responded. We got him. It lends credibility to the movie and Woody’s character being a minor league basketball coach. By bringing in the ESPNs and all that, it makes it more like real life.
Matt: The film is based on a 2018 Spanish film which I admit I haven’t seen. Was there much that you and writer Mark Rizzo felt needed to be changed to improve on that source material?
Bobby: They made a beautiful movie which we first responded to. We owe them a great debt of gratitude. Woody is Woody and he puts his own stamp on the character. That in itself was a big thing. Mark Rizzo wrote a script which was a little different tonally. We didn’t want to tell this story in a zany way. This version was a little more based on reality.
Interview - Director Michael Showalter on 'Spoiler Alert'
- Details
- Written by Matthew Toomey
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Spoiler Alert is the latest from director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) and I recently had the chance to discuss the project…
Matt: You’ve had a busy few years working as a director in both film and television. Has your approach to direction changed will all the additional experience under your belt?
Michael: I feel like I learn something from every project. I enjoy the process quite a bit.
Matt: How did you first hear about this script?
Michael: I read in the trades that Jim Parsons had optioned the book. I was curious about the project in terms of wanting to work with Jim. I contacted them and asked if they had a director. They then sent me the book which I read. I loved it and responded to it and I felt there was something really special there. I then teamed up with Jim and his company, and we found a writer from there.
Matt: Some movies about death tend to shy away from the heavier stuff but here, we have a lot of graphic scenes taking us inside the world of a cancer suffered… right up to the final hours and the final goodbyes. Was that a creative choice?
Michael: Yeah. That’s what so much of the book is about. It’s not whether or not someone will die, but rather how you cope with it and persevere. How does it change you and how does it change them? The movie was always an exploration of what happens in that period of time. We didn’t want to shy away from it but we also didn’t want to make it exploitative. It was a fine line we walked.
Matt: The film is based on the memoir written by Michael Ausiello. Was he involved at all with the production?
Michael: Yeah, very involved. He was on set every day and he was a producer on the movie. He was a source of information and guidance. All of the Smurfs in the movie are his. He temporarily donated them to the movie.
Matt: I was going to ask about that – how long it took to create that unique interior decoration?
Michael: He had his Smurf collection packed up from a storage house in New Jersey to us so it could be used in the film.
Matt: The early scenes of Spoiler Alert take us back to the late 1990s and we see things like business cards, and old-school cameras, and TV shows like Felicity. Were there any challenges at all in re-creating that era?
Michael: It was fun to be reminded of that. I remember when CDs were described as modern and people lamented the phasing out of albums. Now, CDs and DVDs feel so old now. I was in my 20s living in New York during the 1990s and it brought back a lot of memories.
Matt: A lot has been made in recent years about straight actors playing gay characters. I note here you’ve gone with two openly gay actors in the lead roles. Was it something you gave thought to?
Michael: It was important to me that they were. I have nothing against straight actors playing gay people and vice versa but in this movie, I really wanted to see two gay men playing these gay men. Only because it’s not as common as it should be. I’d like it to be so common that it wouldn’t even be noticeable. For the physical attraction and intimacy these two characters share, I wanted the chemistry to be increased by know they are gay men. Just like a heterosexual on-screen couple, I wanted a part of audiences to wonder whether these two are in love.
Matt: I also note a lot of other cast members, people like Nikki M. James and Bill Irwin, have a strong background in live theatre. Was that a conscious decision?
Michael: I love theatre. We shot the movie in New York and we were looking to have local actors in the movie. It’s not a coincidence they were the right people for the movie. Jim Parsons is heavily involved in theatre right now. It wasn’t discussed but I was interested in working with New York actors on this project.
Matt: Without giving too much away, there is a dreamlike, semi-cliched television show within the movie. As a director, did you approach those scenes differently?
Michael: Stylistically, we wanted it to look like an 80s sitcom. We used different colours, and had the actors act differently. I thought it was an interesting way to reveal things about the characters which were different and maybe a little surprising. It’s true about a lot of us who grew up in the 1980s that TV influences so much of the way we think and look at the world and the stories we tell. It was important to show that. Michael Ausiello, as played by Jim Parsons, is a TV writer. He’s so immersed in the stories of television and I wanted to convey that in this movie. He makes sense of the world through television in a lot of ways.
Matt: What are you working on at the moment?
Michael: I directed a romantic drama/comedy in the fall starring Anne Hathaway. I’m editing that as we speak. I hope that comes out sometime in the next year.
Brisbane Film Critics Select 'The Banshees of Inisherin' As Best Of 2022
- Details
- Written by Matthew Toomey
Since 2011, I have been pulling together a list of the best movies of the year according to the Brisbane-based critics who I run into regularly at preview screenings. Films to have topped prior year lists have been Drive in 2011, Argo in 2012, Gravity in 2013, Boyhood in 2014, Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, La La Land in 2016, Get Out in 2017, The Favourite in 2018, Parasite in 2019, Nomadland in 2020, and Nine Days in 2021.
To come up with an overall top 10, I’ve used a simple points system and applied it to the list of each critic. It is as follows:
- 3 points for the top film on each list.
- 2 points for the films ranked between 2nd and 5th on each list.
- 1 point for the films ranked between 6th and 10th on each list.
If two films finished on the same score, the film that appeared on the greater number of top 10 lists is ranked higher (as an indication of wider approval). If that's the same, it goes to an average of the individual rankings of each film.
The 10 list includes movies released in Australian cinemas and also those made available on streaming platforms.
There were 3 standout films which appeared on more than 50% of lists. Topping the table this year was Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin which was released in Australia in Boxing Day and has since picked up 9 Academy Award nominations.
Rounding out the placings were the surprise hit Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the action blockbuster Top Gun Maverick. They too have been showered with love this awards season.
Four non-English language films earned spots in the top 10 – Drive my Car from Japan, Decision to Leave from South Korea, Petite Maman from France, and RRR from India.
An interesting mix of genres rounded out this year’s list. We have a “neo-Western science fiction horror film” Nope, the dark comedy The Menu, the superhero movie The Batman, and the documentary Fire of Love.
As always, it’s a great list of movies. Hunt them down on streaming services if you missed them in cinemas.
On that note, here are the top 10 movies of 2022 according to Brisbane critics…
Brisbane Film Critics - Top 10 of 2022
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
2. Top Gun Maverick
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once
4. Nope
5. Drive My Car
6. The Menu
7. The Batman
8. Petite Maman
9 (tie). Decision to Leave
9 (tie). Fire of Love
9 (tie). RRR
You can view a table of all the votes and final scores by clicking here.
A big thanks to all who submitted their lists. If you're a Brisbane critic would like to contribute in future years, please reach out to me on social media.
You can check out information on all the Brisbane critics (along with their choices for the best and worst of 2022) below.
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Matthew Toomey | Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 2. | Lost Illusions |
| 3. | Top Gun Maverick |
| 4. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 5. | Flee |
| 6. | C'mon C'mon |
| 7. | Quo Vadis, Aida? |
| 8. | Good Luck to You, Leo Grande |
| 9. | Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom |
| 10. | Full Time |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| Blaze | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Flee | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Flee | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Moonfall | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Barbarian | |
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Sarah Ward | Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Decision to Leave |
| 2. | Moonage Daydream |
| 3. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 4. | Drive My Car |
| 5. | Petite Maman |
| 6. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 7. | Nope |
| 8. | Bones and All |
| 9. | Red Rocket |
| 10. | After Yang |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| The Stranger | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Belle | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Moonage Daydream | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Tang Wei (Decision to Leave) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Father Stu | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Ambulance | |
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Garry Williams| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Fire of Love |
| 2. | Moonage Daydream |
| 3. | The Northman |
| 4. | Parallel Mothers |
| 5. | The Stranger |
| 6. | Nightmare Alley |
| 7. | Amsterdam |
| 8. | The Eyes of Tammy Faye |
| 9. | Official Competition |
| 10. | The Batman |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| The Stranger | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Fire of Love | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Viola Davis (The Woman King) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Moonfall | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| The Gray Man | |
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Peter Gray| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 3. | Top Gun Maverick |
| 4. | Nope |
| 5. | Glass Onion |
| 6. | Cha Cha Real Smooth |
| 7. | The Batman |
| 8. | Red Rocket |
| 9. | Good Luck to You, Leo Grande |
| 10. | Causeway |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| Sissy | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Emma Thompson (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Morbius | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Orphan: First Kill | |
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Ella Donald| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Top Gun Maverick |
| 2. | Petite Maman |
| 3. | C'mon C'mon |
| 4. | RRR |
| 5. | Bergman Island |
| 6. | Elvis |
| 7. | Red Rocket |
| 8. | Matilda: The Musical |
| 9. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 10. | After Yang |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| n/a | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Turning Red | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Flee | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Austin Butler (Elvis) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| n/a | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Matilda: The Musical | |
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David Edwards| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 3. | Decision to Leave |
| 4. | The Menu |
| 5. | Drive My Car |
| 6. | Nope |
| 7. | Top Gun Maverick |
| 8. | The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent |
| 9. | Bones and All |
| 10. | Parallel Mothers |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| The Drover's Wife | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Strange World | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| The Sound of 007 | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Tang Wei (Decision to Leave) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Ambulance | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Bones and All | |
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Rob Hudson| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Prey |
| 2. | The Woman King |
| 3. | The Menu |
| 4. | Nope |
| 5. | The Duke |
| 6. | Mrs Harris Goes to Paris |
| 7. | Nitram |
| 8. | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever |
| 9. | Kimi |
| 10. | Glass Onion |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| Nitram | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Turning Red | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Vinyl Nation | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Blonde | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| The Good Guys | |
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Baz McAlister| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | RRR |
| 2. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 3. | Top Gun Maverick |
| 4. | All Quiet on the Western Front |
| 5. | Belfast |
| 6. | Fresh |
| 7. | Barbarian |
| 8. | The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent |
| 9. | X / Pearl |
| 10. | Clerks 3 |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| The Stranger | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Lightyear | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Nalvany | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Unchartered | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Fall | |
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Nick L'Barrow| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Top Gun Maverick |
| 2. | Cha Cha Real Smooth |
| 3. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 4. | Jackass Forever |
| 5. | The Batman |
| 6. | The Stranger |
| 7. | Nope |
| 8. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 9. | Armageddon Time |
| 10. | The Black Phone |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| The Stranger | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| My Old School | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Texas Chainsaw Massacre | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Smile | |
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Hannah Grzesiak| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | Drive My Car |
| 2. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 3. | Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone |
| 4. | Fire of Love |
| 5. | The Souvenir: Part II |
| 6. | De Humani Corpis Fabrica |
| 7. | Because We Have Each Other |
| 8. | Petite Maman |
| 9. | Both Sides of the Blade |
| 10. | Crimes of the Future |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| Because We Have Each Other | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Avatar: The Way of Water | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| De Humani Corpis Fabrica | |
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Jacob Richardson| Top 10 Films: | |
| 1. | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2. | Avatar: The Way of Water |
| 3. | Spencer |
| 4. | The Menu |
| 5. | The Northman |
| 6. | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 7. | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish |
| 8. | The Phantom of the Open |
| 9. | Full Time |
| 10. | The Batman |
| Best Australian Film: | |
| Sweet As | |
| Best Animated Film: | |
| Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | |
| Best Documentary: | |
| Running with the Devil | |
| Best Performance: | |
| Ralph Fiennes (The Menu) | |
| Worst Film: | |
| Moonfall | |
| Most Surprised To Enjoy: | |
| Puss in Boots; The Last Wish | |
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Interview - Director Shekhar Kapur on 'What's Love Got to Do with It"
- Details
- Written by Matthew Toomey
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What’s Love Got to Do with It? is the latest effort of director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth). I recently spoke to him about the project…
Matt: Elizabeth: The Golden Age came out back in 2007 and was your last movie. I’ve got to ask – what have you been up to over the past 15 years?
Shekhar: I’ve done a lot of stage musicals all over the world. I’ve also been doing television such as a series about the young William Shakespeare. I’ve been busy but I haven’t done a feature film in a while.
Matt: How did this script from Jemima Khan first come across your radar?
Shekhar: I worked with Working Title before who produced Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. They reached out to me, I read the script, and I said I’d do it. It sounded really interesting.
Matt: What was it about the script that made you want to get involved?
Shekhar: I was fascinated by Zoe, the lead character played by Lily James. I’m fascinated by the idea of intimacy and where it’s going in society. Where are apps like Tinder leading us? I’m not taking a moral view but I’m trying to show there’s a fundamental human need for intimacy… but is casual sex the way to get it? I remember doing the same thing in London as an 18-year-old. I can’t remember forming any meaningful relationships out of casual sex but maybe that’s just me.
I found it interesting that a girl of Zoe’s age is looking for that online and then explores other ways to find intimacy. Just when you think that her old friend knows exactly what to do, you realise she doesn’t. What I like about the script is that everyone is in the same boat and everybody is yearning for that mysterious thing called love. Life is a mystery and that’s really why I wanted to make the film – to reinforce that.
Ultimately, I wanted to explore love from different angles – a mother’s love for her son, a girl’s love for a boy, a father’s love for his son. The moment the family comes into the story, everyone in the world will respond. We like to think different nationalities have different family dynamics but that’s often not the case. When I had the first screening of the film for the cast and crew, three different came up to me and said the grandmother character was exactly like their own.
Matt: This is your first romantic comedy – a genre which puts a smile on people’s faces but which can also be very formulaic and predictable. Are there rom-coms from other directors which you look up to and use as a benchmark for what you want to achieve here?
Shekhar: For me, other rom-coms seems to come to a conclusion. This film doesn’t do that. It’s forgiveness, and being honest with each other, and being close with each other. There’s no ribbon on the top, and it doesn’t provide all the answers, and it doesn’t have a scene where they run after each other at the railway station. It’s a more “searching” rom-com. They’re not fairy tale characters. These are real, every day character.
Matt: A more traditional rom-com would have just had the two protagonists chatting back and forth but there’s an extra layer here with Zoe (Lily James) being a documentary filmmaker and making a movie within the movie. Do you approach those scenes any differently?
Shekhar: A lot of those things were already there in Jemima’s script. It wasn’t an easy film to make but I said let’s go for it. Those scenes are designed to make audiences reflect. It’s like the characters are narrating their own story to you… and yet they don’t know.
Matt: The film makes several references to the way in which white British people are perceived differently from non-whites. Sometimes this is done dramatically and sometimes through comedy – like the joke about having to get to the airport earlier. It’s obviously a topic you wanted to highlight?
Shekhar: Yes, absolutely. Emma Thompson is great as Cath. Of all the characters, she’s the one who aspires to do the right thing but gets it wrong all time. She’s say a line like “Kaz is so good looking… he almost doesn’t look Muslim.” You can’t say that. She’s both appreciating him and also being caught in the dilemma of what used to be. Yet, she’s the one who aspires most to be Asian because of the way she dresses.
Matt: Emma Thompson is having a sensational year after Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Matilda: The Musical. She gets so many great one-liners here as the nosy, pushy, inquisitive mum. How did she come on board the project?
Shekhar: She read the script and we spoke. Jemima was very persuasive also. It’s hard to get great actors attached to your script. It’s their job to examine and try to find out if they can “be” that part. Once she realized the script had something deeper than the words, she went for it.
Matt: And I have to ask how you settled on Lily James and Shazad Latif in the two lead roles?
Shekhar: I didn’t know they were friends before and it was only after I cast them that I realized. I hadn’t met Lily previously but we had long conversations during the pandemic about what life and love is about. That’s how she came on board. With Shazad, I did an audition and I realized he could be the perfect person to come across as dependable and solid. He knows what he’s doing with his life whereas she’s all over the place. In then flips, when he falls in love and everyone is in the same place.
Matt: I believe this was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic so I’m curious to know if it was all shot in a single location or the cast and crew travel between the UK and Pakistan?
Shekhar: It was tough to do. Most of the film was shot in London but we did go to Pakistan.
Matt: Anything you’re working on at the moment? I hope it won’t be another 15 years before we see another movie from you.
Shekhar: I’m doing another big stage show but I’m also in prep for a movie on water and a city has to come to grips with a water shortage. When people in power have the water, they use it as a tool to economically oppress other people.