Category Archives: Film Fodder

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje erupts onto the screen as champion gladiator in “Pompeii”

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it simultaneously destroyed and immortalized the Roman city of Pompeii, encrusting the city and its inhabitants in iconic ashen fixtures, many of which can still be seen today. When Pompeii erupts into theaters this weekend, a similar dichotomy of fury and affection will be on display in the form of Atticus, an enslaved gladiator champion played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Atticus battles with the possibility that the Roman’s won’t live up to their word of granting him his freedom with one more arena victory, as well as his potential defeat at the hands of the Celt Milo (though he doesn’t seem to worried about that), causing tension to boil to the surface in metaphorical ways. But Vesuvius’ impending doom casts a literal cloud of doom over the entire city, leaving royalty, politicians and slaves alike with a much larger and lethal concern. Before Pompeii floods theaters Feb. 21, Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to Akinnuoye-Agbaje about working with co-star Kit Harington, director Paul W.S. Anderson and previous films with The Rock.

The disaster at the center of Pompeii is based on historical events. Is the character you play based on anyone who actually existed or is it more speculative?

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje portrays Atticus the champion gladiator in Pompeii. Photo by Caitlin Cronenberg.

It was more speculative. There was a lot of research done in preparation for the movie. As you’re probably well aware, the surviving relics in Pompeii were the starting point. What Paul Anderson was really keen on was to trace the possible lives of these lava-carved victims, from gladiators to servants to Roman royalty. The movie almost starts from these molten-carved figures and we see how they would have lived and arrived at that situation.

Your character in Pompeii is oddly similar to, yet drastically different from, the character you play in Thor: The Dark World. What comparisons do you see between these two characters? How did Thor possibly prepare you for Pompeii?

Actually, they couldn’t be any more different. Atticus is a captive African slave and because of his physical prowess, grows to become the champion gladiator of Pompeii. In Rome you could win your freedom by winning a certain amount of fights and he has one fight left to win before he wins his freedom. That fight is with none other than the slave he is imprisoned with played by Kit Harington. So there’s a very tense and unusual dynamic between two men who are forced to live together, but have to kill each other. The similarities, perhaps, in the characters are the nobility. They’re both characters portrayed in dire circumstances. Atticus is a man and gladiator of principle and honor, and he exudes that in the way he fights and how he treats his opponents. He also has a very compassionate heart, which is brought out in the relationship between Milo and Atticus. The marked difference between the two characters in Thor and Pompeii is that Atticus is a hero.

This was your first time working with director Paul W. S. Anderson. What was that experience like for you? What were you expectations going into this film based on the previous movies he’s directed?

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje takes direction from Paul W.S. Anderson. Photo by Caitlin Cronenberg.

My experience working with Paul was one of awe and excitement. Paul has a very kinetic energy to his movies, which I enjoy. This was a very dear pet project for him. I like his direction style. He’s very clear about the vision of how the movie should look, right down to who he wanted to portray the characters. This movie is very physical but at the same time he still has a sensibility towards the romance and drama. He’s a man of few words, which is what I like, and he’s concise and direct. But most of all, he’s very supportive of the actors to bring their input and to really give birth to the characters themselves. It was a great collaborative experience and I loved it.

Earlier in your career, you worked with The Rock in The Mummy Returns and again in Faster. What were those experiences like? Do you have any plans to work with professional wrestlers again in the future?

The Rock is a great guy to work with. I really enjoyed both movies with him. There aren’t any times in the foreseeable future to work on any specific projects, but I’m sure our paths will cross again at some point and I look forward to that. He’s a great guy and a consummate professional. I enjoyed working with him.

You’ve been quite busy over the past few years in film, and before that you made a name for yourself on TV. Do you have any other big projects coming out in the near future?

Yeah. I have both, actually. I return to TV on the NBC pilot Odyssey … and I’m excited to be going back to TV. I’m also going to be appearing in Annie, the film version of the musical, starring opposite Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. So that’s a different side to what fans have grown accustomed to me playing. It’s more lighthearted, warm and humorous. I even get to do a song and dance and that’s a lot of fun. Those are a couple of things you can look forward to this year. We’re actually dabbling with animation as well, so there’s a particular project I’m going to come on with to do some animated voices.

Both you and your Pompeii co-star Kit Harington made names for yourself with TV shows before jumping to the big screen. How would you say TV helped prepare you for film? What was it like working closely with someone else who got his start on TV?

Adewele Akinnouye-Agbaje and co-star Kit Harington in “Pompeii”. Photo by Caitlin Cronenberg.

TV is a great discipline. I look at it as a form of boot camp. The shoot schedules are quite rigorous because the turnaround is very quick. I like that because it trains the actors to be ready. It’s a good discipline and a good grooming tool to prepare you for movies because things move quickly. As far as working with Kit, we derive from the same family that does a lot of acting for HBO. Not only did we have that in common, but we have similar cultural backgrounds because we’re British-born actors. That helped with the bonding of two actors and the two characters of Milo and Atticus. We could both talk about the expectations and what was involved with TV, and the subsequent success. I’ve been down that road and I could give him certain pointers and he shared what it’s like now. We also had a director in common who had worked with both of us at HBO, Alan Taylor, who shot Thor and also shot Game of Thrones. So, there were many things that allowed us to bond and share experiences.

www.adewaletheartist.com

“The Legend of Hercules” is anything but legendary

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I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence, some sort of Hollywood collective subconscious or an example of Greek-like irony, but The Legend of Hercules is the first of two Hercules movies being released this year. This one stars The Twilight Saga‘s Kellan Lutz (who also played Poseidon in 2011’s Immortals) as the son of Zeus, and is directed by Renny Harlin (best known for ’80s and ’90s fare like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and Die Hard 2, as well as the John Cena action flick 12 Rounds).

Though it’s rated PG-13, The Legend of Hercules really suffers from being too cautious when it comes to showing violence and bloodshed. The opening scene sees the tyrant King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) laying waste to an opposing king by way of a vicious choke slam followed by what appears to be a beheading. Only when we see the slain foe from above, his head is still attached and there is no blood to be seen. Similar discrepancies plague the entire film as swords are clearly shoved through bodies without the blade emerging from the other side. During a pivotal gladiatorial battle pitting Hercules and Sotiris (Liam McIntyre) against two Road Warrior-esque opponents, there are quick cutaways just before the combatants meet their demise in a pit of spears. So little blood is shown in this movie that it seems like the filmmakers were going for a PG rating.

Photo by Simon Varsano.

That being said, the fight scenes are the only saving grace here. The acting is uninspired, the tyranical motifs are heavy handed and the special effects often look more like a made-for-TV movie than a theatrical release. However, when Hercules gradually begins to realize his Godlike powers and the 3-D effects are at their best, his battles out of slavery and attempts to overthrow his stepfather from power are quite a sight. But a few spectacular fight scenes aren’t enough to make this movie live up to its legendary moniker. So we’ll just have to wait and see if The Rock is able to topple his competition when he takes over the role of this demigod in Hercules: The Thracian Wars this summer.

The many ways in which Keith David’s talents have been “Enlisted”

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He may not be as instantly recognizable as the A-list actors he’s often co-starring with, but once you hear the deep bellow of Keith David‘s voice you’ll immediately start trying to figure out where you’ve heard it before. From voicing ominous animated characters such as Goliath in Disney‘s Gargoyles or the title character in HBO‘s Spawn to narrating the recent The History of WWE: 50 Years of Sports Entertainment DVD to appearances and voice work for a wide range of movies including Platoon, There’s Something About Mary, Cloud Atlas, Coraline and The Princess and the Frog. And who could forget that famous fight scene he had with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in John Carpenter‘s They Live? With numerous new films slated for release this year, David also has a recurring role in all 13 episodes of the new military comedy Enlisted, debuting this Friday night. Next month, David will be part of a reunion of The Thing cast at Days of the Dead: Atlanta (where he will also reunite with Piper) and he continues to narrate upcoming documentaries for WWE. Amidst his busy schedule, David takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his many contributions to film, television and theater.

While watcing the recent History of WWE DVD, I immediately recognized your voice as the narrator, though I didn’t see you credited anywhere.

I guess I’m going to have to get on them about that, right?

Of course you do! You’ve done some previous work for WWE. How did your working relationship with WWE come about?

I do have a good working relationship with WWE. I’ve been narrating documentaries and stuff for them for a long time. First of all, I like to work. Second of all, I’ve been a fan of WWE since the days of Bruno Sammartino. So it was a nice thing to be asked to participate in their documentary and I was very happy to do it. We have several documentaries coming out about the history of WWE and how WWE is actually changing the face of sports entertainment. That’s what this documentary is about is how WWE has changed the face of sports entertainment and how we look at sports. They have hundreds of thousands of fans that attend these huge events and all these big stars that have come out of WWE. I don’t think any of them have become great actors in the same way that some NFL athletes have, but more and more of them are getting parts in movies, guest starring on television shows and things like that. Some are even becoming politicians, like Jesse Ventura.

What I like about [this documentary] is you get a very clear picture that the persona of the wrestler in the ring is exactly that, it’s a persona. It’s like an actor playing a character because they do have lives outside of the arena. And some of them, i.e. Jesse Ventura, are very responsible men with very strong political views who are wanting to make a difference in their communities.

How much did you learn about WWE while working on this documentary and how much were you already aware of?

Generally speaking, I knew about all the different leagues and I knew the names of the creators like Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff and those guys. But in the documentary you learn about some of the specifics about how [WWE] negotiated these different deals. I didn’t realize some of the internal battling that has been going on between some of the stars, the re-creation of some of their personalities and things like that. That kind of stuff is very interesting. We’ve seen the results of all that, but we’re not always necessarily privy to how they came about.

Prior to working directly with WWE, you worked with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in They Live. What was it like working with Piper and being part of such an iconic cult movie?

Oh, man. Roddy was the first professional wrestler that I ever met up close and personal. What a wonderful human being! At that time, he was pound for pound the strongest man I had ever met in my life. I was weighing at least 230 pounds at the time and he would lift me up like I was a 3-year-old and look back at the director like, “What am I supposed to do with him?” We had a lot of fun. He taught me a few wrestling moves and we had a lot of fun choreographing our fight, along with Jeff Imada. It was some of the best fun I ever had in my theatrical life, in the movies or on stage. One thing about doing fights in movies that’s different than on stage is you have all those different angles to cover. We just had a great time. It was a really good time. All of his training in the ring and mine in stage combat helped us be able to sell a really great fight. It was very fun working with him.

Will you be working on any other WWE projects?

Absolutely. I have one coming up this week, as a matter of fact. I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but it’s going to be part of the ongoing documentary series.

You have several movies coming out this year. What can you tell me about some of those movies?

I have a movie coming out called The North Star, which was the first time I got to play Frederick Douglass in a movie. I haven’t seen it yet, so I hope it turned out well.

In the meantime, you have a new TV show coming out called Enlisted.

Keith David as Command Sergeant Major Donald Cody in “Enlisted”.

Amen! Yes, Enlisted is coming out on Friday, Jan. 10 at 9:30 p.m. on Fox. It’s a workplace comedy and we just happen to be in the Army. We are a rear detachment unit and I play the Command Sergeant Major on this post. It’s all about how we take care of the families of the deployed soldiers and how we run the business of the Army. Everybody can’t be deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq; some of us have to stay home and take care of running the business and that’s what we do.

Enlisted is one of several military roles you’ve played. You were also in WWE Studios‘ Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia with Mr. Kennedy in 2009. What was it like working with Kennedy?

It was fun. He was a good guy. He was playing a soldier and he certainly looked like a soldier. We were in Puerto Rico, so it was a good time had by all.

Would you be interested in doing more work for WWE Studios, especially considering how many more movies they are putting out each year?

I like to work, so if the right project comes along I will be very happy to work with them.

Are there any particular WWE stars you’d be interested in working with in a movie?

Oh, I don’t know. It would depend on the project. There’s a big difference between a personality and an actor. Depending on the project, you’ll see how those dynamics work together. Sometimes there’s a great personality in a particular show or movie and the story flows. Then there are other things that are far more challenging. There are plenty of guys that would be great to work with and I would enjoy working with any of the wrestlers under the right circumstances.

I understand you’re also working on a musical release. What can you tell me about that and when will we be able to hear it?

Every year I wind up saying, “By the end of the year.” But certainly by the end of this year I’ll have my CD project out. Also, my next project in Los Angeles will be playing Paul Robeson in a production called Paul Robeson at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center with the Ebony Repertory Theatre in March.

www.keithdavid.com

“Machete Kills” is as gluttonously gory as the original

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Danny Trejo returns and Machete and Michelle Rodriguez is back as Shé in "Machete Kills". Photo by Rico Torres.

Let’s see here. Machete Kills is a sequel to a film based on a fake trailer directed by Robert Rodriguez. And it features an unknown (hah!) named Carlos Estévez as United States President Rathcock. And it features Walton Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas all playing the same assassin. And we get to see Alexa Vega all grown up in ass-less chaps and Sofia Vergara with machine gun boobies. And it stars Danny Trejo reprising his role as Machete Cortez, a former federale hired by the president to prevent a Mexican revolutionary from destroying Washington D.C. I’m there!

Madame Desdemona (Sofia Vergara) leads a pack of pistol-packing prostitutes in "Mechete Kills". Photo by Rico Torres.

Presented in all the same gritty grindhouse glory as the original Machete, Machete Kills is an onslaught of gratuitous T&A, absurd gore and clever dialogue as Machete uncovers a plot by a Mexican mercenary with multiple personalities (Demián Bichir) to blow up our nation’s capital. But not before an opening sequence that includes Machete and Sartana (Jessica Alba) taking on a small army wearing luchador masks near the Mexican border. But once he gets his assignment and makes a run for the border to save Washington, there are pretty much no boundaries on the intentionally exploitative and bloody battles that Machete is forced to engage in.

In case you still think of Alexa Vega as a Spy Kid, her cleavege and athletic skills in "Machete Kills" will make you forget all about that.

Along the way, Machete encounters a Texas sheriff (William Sadler) with a hard-on for catching border jumpers, a whorehouse full of seductive killers, a pageant girl with a secret stash of advanced weaponry (Amber Heard) and an unstoppable martial artist with Terminator-like resolve (Marko Zaror). Then there’s Luther Voz, a weapons manufacturer played by Mel Gibson whose villainous name should be enough to clue you in on his role in Machete’s mission. And when Voz introduces Machete to an arsenal of experimental weaponry it’s not the high tech machete that initially draws Machete’s attention, but a gun that Voz warns him is not working properly yet as it keeps turning things inside out (in other words, the ultimate in comedic foreshadowing). Additional foreshadowing (without giving away too much) comes in the form of Voz’s obsession with Star Wars, all the way down to his own personal landspeeder. But we’ll get to that in a year or so, I suspect, based on the pulpy trailer that appears at the beginning and end of this film.

Perhaps in keeping with the the antihero’s name and choice of weaponry, Machete Kills makes gluttonously good use of blades, especially those attached to helicopters. Like many of Rodriguez’ previous films, it proudly borrows from low budget movies from the ’70s and ’80s without shame. And it’s that type of homage that makes such an enjoyable film despite – no, because of – its blatant absurdity.

www.machetekills.com

“Short Term 12” handles emotionally-troubling subjects with strength, humor and grace

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A girl has to have a pretty thick skin to work at a halfway house for wayward youth. And there’s likely no one that can relate to these kids better than someone not much older than them, especially if that person has some dark secrets of her own.

Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) and Grace (Brie Larson) struggle with their present and future in "Short Term 12". Photo by Brett Pawlak

In the film festival favorite Short Term 12, Brie Larson plays the aptly-named Grace, a young caretaker who has a special knack for relating to the residents of a foster care facility in a calm and understanding way. But her outwardly-compassionate persona comes from some inner struggles that are quickly thrust to the surface when she finds out she and her boyfriend/coworker Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) have an unexpected surprise arriving in about nine months. As if that’s not reason enough for Grace’s emotional fall, she also develops a quick connection with Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), a troubled teen whose bad attitude and sarcastic wit remind her a bit of herself.

Transitioning from childhood to adulthood is never an easy time, but it becomes even more captivating when childhood traumas carry over into adulthood. Grace is confronted by a disturbing past that becomes more apparent as she helps Jayden and Marcus (Keith Stanfield) overcome their own secrets and fears, as well as contemplating her own future with Mason. It’s an emotionally precarious position to be in, and Larson handles the role with humor, compassion and, well, grace. Grace’s past is what allows her to be so matronly and motherly, which, in turn, earns her the respect of those under her care and her peers alike. But coming to terms with the abuse she suffered as a child prevents her from being able to open up to even those closest to her.

Grace (Brie Larson) heads down an unknown path in "Short Term 12". Photo by Brett Pawlak.

As the lines between Grace’s personal and professional lives become all the hazier, she sets out to find closure with her own past by helping Jayden and others come to terms with their problems. Though she initially follows some dark paths, she (with the help of those under her care) is able to find some peace and make what seem to be the healthiest decisions given her disparate circumstances. In what is easily her breakout performance, Larson conveys the outward strength and inner frailty of Grace in ways that will likely catapult her from supporting roles in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street and The Spectacular Now to more complex starring roles. And for writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton, Short Term 12 should create more long-term film-making success.

www.shortterm12.com

“Kick-Ass 2” kicks just as much ass as the original

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Kick-Ass 2 is the sequel to the highly popular 2010 graphic novel-turned-feature film Kick-Ass. It stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass, Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit Girl, Jim Carrey as Sal Bertolini/Colonel Stars & Stripes, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D’Amico/The Mother Fucker. In case you haven’t seen the first Kick-Ass, here’s a bit of a plot breakdown, as well as a brief plot breakdown of Kick-Ass 2.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is back to kick more ass in "Kick-Ass 2". Photo by Daniel Smith.

Kick-Ass is about an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski, who decides to become a real-life superhero, calling himself Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass gets caught up in a much bigger situation when he meets Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage), a fellow superhero who has trained his young daughter Mindy to become a ruthless vigilante called Hit Girl. Big Daddy is on a quest to bring down drug lord Frank D’Amico (played by Mark Strong) and his evil (but mostly inept) son Chris.

Big Daddy is killed by Frank and his minions, which causes both Hit Girl and Kick-Ass to seek revenge. After a brutal and bloody fight between Kick-Ass and Hit Girl and Frank and Chris D’Amico, Frank is blown up with a bazooka (yes, a bazooka). The film ends with Kick-Ass and Hit Girl deciding to continue fighting crime, and Chris vowing to exact revenge on Kick-Ass.

Chloë Grace Moretz as the purple-clad sidekick Hit Girl in "Kick Ass 2". Photo by Daniel Smith.

Kick-Ass 2 takes place approximately two years later, with both Kick-Ass and Hit Girl coming out of retirement after getting the superhero itch. Kick-Ass joins a team of fellow superheroes (led by Colonel Stars & Stripes) who call themselves Justice Forever. Hit Girl is forced to stop being a vigilante at the request of her guardian Marcus (Morris Chestnut), who promised to take care of her after the death of Big Daddy in the previous film.

Meanwhile, Chris has been plotting revenge against Kick-Ass for his role in his father’s death two years ago, and decides to become the world’s first supervillain, calling himself The Mother Fucker. He puts together his own team of supervillains called The Toxic Mega Cunts, and begins to terrorize the city in an effort to lure Kick-Ass into a final battle.

If you’ve seen the first Kick-Ass, you can expect the same violent, bloody comedy that you saw the first time around. This is not a children’s movie (although my mind was blown when I saw two parents walk in with their infant son). The dialogue, for the most part, is superb, with the comedic timing blending perfectly with the over-the-top blood-and-guts violence. Many subplots from the first film are dropped completely, allowing the viewer to focus on the main plot that unfolds in this film.

Kick-Ass and Hit Girl face off with arch nemesis The Mother Fucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)! Photo by Daniel Smith.

Despite being a dark comedy, Kick-Ass 2 definitely delivers when it comes to action, rivaling any superhero movie to date. The fight scenes (although sometimes difficult to see due to the shaky cam effect) are well choreographed, and most of the action isn’t completely mindless (the explosions actually mean something, for the most part). The dialogue is witty and blends in well with the action. In short, it’s pretty much as close as you’re going to get to seeing a superhero graphic novel come to life on screen.

While the first film focused primarily on the journey of Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2 shifts a lot of its focus onto Hit Girl and her struggles with growing up fatherless and maturing into a teenager (there’s a great scene where Mindy hangs out at a slumber party, and gets hot and bothered while watching a boy band music video). To compare the two films, Kick-Ass is more like American Pie, focusing on nerdy, sex-starved boys, whereas Kick-Ass 2 is more like Mean Girls, focusing on high school girls and all the drama that comes along with that.

Colonel Stars & Stripes (Jim Carrey) and Eisenhower join the fight for justice in "Kick-Ass 2". Photo by Daniel Smith.

Kick-Ass 2 is surprisingly deep with its themes of love, teenage angst, high school drama and grieving. While it’s likely not going to win any Oscars for any performances, it’s nice to see a comic book movie with real emotions at stake.

It’s tough to talk about my favorite moments of this film (of which there are many) without giving away too much of the plot, so I’ll just say this; the fight between Hit Girl and the mammoth Mother Russia is one of the best fight scenes of 2013, hands down.

Kick-Ass 2 is an incredibly enjoyable film, both as a stand alone and as a follow up to the hit Kick-Ass. If you love superhero movies, go see this. If you love action movies, go see this. If you love teenage angst movies, go see this. But, whatever you do, do not bring young children to this movie. It’s rated R for a reason. Having said all that, what’s the best way to sum up this movie? It kicks ass!

www.kickass-themovie.com

“The Spectacular Now” takes a splendorous look at teens on the brink of adulthood

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James Ponsoldt (green shirt) directs a scene from "The Spectacular Now".

One could call The Spectacular Now, the new film directed by James Ponsoldt that received the Special Jury Award for Acting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, a coming-of-age teen love story and not be incorrect. But such phrasing would also not do this film justice. Based on the novel of the same name, The Spectacular Now is the story of an affable loser named Sutter (Miles Teller) and the unlikely relationship he develops with unassuming bookworm Aimee (Shailene Woodley) after waking up from a alcohol-induced blackout on her front lawn. As their high school lives come to a close, Sutter and Aimee appear to be on very different paths into adulthood, a scenario that is given more depth by the fact that the characters are handled with a level of respect Ponsoldt feels is lacking in most teen movies these days. With the movie opening in more theaters each week, Wrestling with Pop Culture recently spoke to Ponsoldt about this film and other upcoming projects.

You filmed this movie in your hometown of Athens, though the book was not set in Georgia. How did that affect the story, if at all?

It was originally set in Oklahoma City in the novel, and the screenplay wasn’t really site specific. As soon as I read it it reminded me a lot of college towns that I knew like Bloomington, Madison or Chapel Hill, but especially Athens because that’s where I spent the first 18 years of my life. So that’s kind of the lens through which I compare everything else.

Did the author of the book have any issues with you changing the setting?

No. Tim Tharp is the author and Scott Neustadter and Mike Weber had already adapted the script. Tim was one of the most collaborative, open people that really realized this screenplay was adapting a book, the book still is what it is and with each adaptation from book to screenplay, screenplay to movie, you kind of let go and embrace the new elements. They were all totally open to it and were great collaborators.

How did you discover the book and end up directing the film adaptation?

Aimee (Shailene Woodley) and Sutter (Miles Teller) share a touching moment in "The Spectacular Now". Photo by Wilford Harewood.

I had heard of the book when it was nominated for a National Book Award about five years ago, but I hadn’t read it. After Smashed was at Sundance in 2012, the producers of The Spectacular Now approached me. The script had already been written by Scott Neustadter and Mike Weber and I was aware of them from (500) Days of Summer. I read the script and I had some apprehension initially because I wasn’t really interested in directing someone else’s script. But it was one of the fastest reads I’d ever had and probably one of the best depictions of adolescence I ever read. I immediately read Tim Tharp’s novel after that and the novel is fantastic.

You’ve previously said that American adolescence has become marginalized. That does seem to be true, but ironically Hollywood is trying to capture the teen and 20-something audience. How would you say movies have marginalized adolescence?

They haven’t marginalized their desire to take their cash; they’ve marginalized respecting fundamentally what it is to be that age. I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily specific to teenagers; I think they’ve marginalized what it means to be 6 or 30 or 50 or 70 or whatever. For the most part I think it’s all profit driven. Multinational corporations need to make lots of money and they need to sell product, which works out to action figures and things that can be ready made. So most of the movies that studio executives would be quick to have posters of up on their walls like Five Easy Pieces or Nashville or McCabe & Mrs. Miller or Psycho, they would never in a million years make those movies. They couldn’t. They’d be fired if they tried to, so they’re sort of in these creative handcuffs, I think. But I don’t think there’s a lot of films about teenagers that depict them as complicated human beings and respect them, or that take their lives and mirror it back to them in a way that might resemble their own without having to turn them into vampires or werewolves or something.

When this film screened at the Atlanta Film Festival, you said something to the affect of even though the main characters are adolescents, it’s easy to forget that once you get involved in the story. How important do you think the age of these characters is, especially given the parallels that are drawn between them and some of the older characters in the film?

Aimee and Sutter become unlikely prom companions in "The Spectacular Now".

I like to think of it as an adult love story and the characters happen to be teenagers. You have to acknowledge who the characters are: do they have the freedom to set their own curfews, do they make their own salaries, are they rich, are they poor, are they white, are they black? All these things influence who they are, but I don’t think it should affect how you respect the character and how you advocate for the character. For whatever reason in America, the “teen movie” is a genre just like torture porn or something. Both are kind of marginalized, but there are signifiers that are also intrinsic to them, for better or for worse. I would say for worse. Most teen films are really obsessed with … really, really clever and witty banter, which no 15-year-old would say. Or they’re going to be incredibly well dressed or it’s going to be really romanticized and nostalgic or it’s going to be like Porky’s or it’s going to be dick jokes or it’s just not going to feel real. People are complicated. Most daily life is pretty boring and people are just trying to get through their day. But I think anybody, from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed, we have a lot of boring stuff that’s just like the day before and some things that are really moving or sad or terrifying or whatever. I think it’s only in big dumb movies that it’s reductive and dramatic or comedic or whatever. Life is much more muted, people are complicated and contradictory and hypocritical and all people are basically the same, they’re just trying to get their shit together and be happy. No one wants to be a dickhead, some people just get stomped on by life and take it out on other people. You have to acknowledge that these are kids living under their parents’ roof, but if they were 35 I would respect them in the same way I respected these characters. Sounds like a no-brainer to me, but I don’t see it in a lot of big movies.

Given the success of your previous films and the recent success of this film at Sundance, how would you say your film-making process has evolved over the past few years?

I think I’m better at communicating what I want and using time. There’s a real ticking clock when you’re making a film in 19 days or 25 days and you really can’t afford to have a day go bad. You have one bad day and you’re not going to get to make it up at the end. It’s not like a studio films where you can just do re-shoots, so you just have to suck the marrow out of every single moment you have and prepare as much as possible while the clock is ticking.

Now that this film is in theaters, what are you working on next?

Right now I’m adapting a book called Pure for Fox 2000 that I’m attached to direct. It’s wildly different. It’s a science fiction story set in a post-apocalyptic Baltimore. It’s still with young people, so I guess it’s similar in that regard. But it’s wildly different and very much an urban vibe.

One of many contemplative moments for Sutter.

Rodham is a really amazing script I didn’t write. A guy named Young Kim wrote it and it wound up on the blacklist, which is the big list at the end of the year of the top unproduced screenplays. I had heard about it and it got a lot of attention then because it’s great, but also because of the subject matter – Hillary Clinton is one of the most famous women alive. The producer for that approached me before Sundance this year with the script and I read it and typically I don’t like cradle-to-the-grave biopics. It really reduces a life to try to tell that whole life in 100 minutes, it just becomes like CliffsNotes of a life. The ones that I really do like are more immersive in a very specific time like The Hours and Times, which is this really great one about John Lennon and Brian Epstein and a supposed affair they might have had. Or even Good Night, and Good Luck, Milk or Patton, which cover some time, or movies that we don’t really think of as biopics that I can still watch because they’re just so freaking good, like Goodfellas, which is essentially a biopic, but it’s also funny and weird and dark and stylish. So I loved the [Rodham] script, there’s essentially a first draft and I’m working with Young to make it really fantastic. It covers a very specific time in her life when she was still Hillary Rodham in her mid 20s when a House Judiciary Committee that put together a bipartisan group of around 50 lawyers, only three of which were women, to create a legal foundation with which they could impeach President Nixon. She was one of those lawyers and she was a real rockstar amongst other legal rockstars, people who were the best and brightest at that point, many of them went on to great careers. It’s about that time in her life when she was trying to figure out who she was and what she wanted while she’s balancing a relationship with her boyfriend from law school Bill [Clinton], who was living in Arkansas. The story, at its core, is not just a portrait of future famous people. If it was, I wouldn’t do it. It’s a very relatable and human story about a woman in her mid 20s choosing between her career and her personal life. It’s sort of about gender and equality and the sacrifices that anybody makes in any relationship, but especially that women are asked to make. It has no political agenda to get someone elected, to keep someone from getting elected. I’m not really interested in that, I’m interested in a portrait of a very complicated woman at a very specific time in her life. Hopefully that will shoot in the next year and a half, but it’s something you can’t rush because it has to work as a movie. You have to like the characters and care about the relationships the way you would with any movie, but if there’s one misstep about the way that you’re dramatizing history or something that’s interpreted as political, it can be so misconstrued that people will destroy you. When you look at movies like Zero Dark Thirty, which would be a great movie that can stand on its own, but [people] scrutinized the ever living hell out of what it was supposedly implying about torture. Any movie about famous people, especially when it gets into politics, is endlessly interpreted. So no one’s in a rush to make a bad version of that or the TV movie version of that. I certainly wouldn’t want to see that and I definitely don’t want to make that.

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