Greta Gerwig Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Because it's easier when everything is in one spot ...

-- Michael Bay stopped to chat with Collider on the red carpet during the Friday the 13th premiere, and he talked all things Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Highlights include Bay calling the three scenes they shot in IMAX "awesome" and the film itself "dark", as well as noting that while he'd be interested in directing a third Transformers movie, he definitely wants to take a year off first. Also: New toy images of the robots over here.

-- Sam Rockwell has joined Hilary Swank in a legal drama called Betty Ann Waters, which tells the true story of a woman who spent a decade trying to free her innocent brother (Rockwell) from a life-in-prison sentence for a crime she thinks he didn't commit. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Say what? Tom Cruise may star alongside Denzel Washington in the next David Cronenberg flick? Sounds like some bizarre nightmare you had after a night of partying with some film buddies, but it's totally true. The film is that big-budget adaptation of The Matarese Circle, and Cruise would go from playing a German in Valkyrie to a Russian spy who's the "mortal enemy" of Washington's American intelligence character. Word is this sucker has Bourne-like franchise potential. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- The Mumblecore movement is slowly inching its way toward the mainstream as indie darling Greta Gerwig (Baghead, Hannah Takes the Stairs) has signed on to star opposite Ben Stiller (!) in Noah Baumbach's (Squid and the Whale) next film, Greenberg. No plot information yet (relationships, awkwardness, etc ...), but I'm jazzed to see Gerwig getting some more love. She's a fantastic moody actress that deserves greater exposure. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Rob Zombie's Halloween sequel (aka H2) will hit theaters on August 28, 2009. Check out the teaser poster that was sent to us below.

(We first caught Joe Swanberg's "Nights and Weekends" at Austin's SXSW Film Festival, but since it's opening in limited release this weekend, we're reprinting our review from last March.)

By: Erik Davis

Nights and Weekends marks writer-director Joe Swanberg's fourth consecutive film at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and it's quite possibly his strongest work yet. Here, Swanberg co-directs and stars alongside girl-next-door-with-an-edge Greta Gerwig – and the two play a couple struggling through the highs and lows of a long distance relationship. What we see is what we don't see, if that makes any sense, as Swanberg and Gerwig consciously chose not to hand this one to the audience on a silver platter. Case in point: There's really no narrative at all. One would think a film with no narrative would be the equivalent of recording you and your significant other watching TV on a Friday night – cuddled up, chitter chatter with a pause for a snack here and there.

On the surface, Nights and Weekends is just that – a regular night (or nights) with regular people who talk just like us or them or your friend with the huge crush on that guy we all kinda know. But look a little deeper and Nights and Weekends is so much more than "just another 'Mumblecore' flick about confusing relationships and missed opportunities." Swanberg and Gerwig do a tremendous job tapping into everything we love about our relationships, as well as everything we hate – and they do this with moments, glances, kisses and tears. No score. No set pieces. No set up and payoff. In an interview the morning after the film's world premiere, Swanberg told me that's exactly how he remembers his own life: as random scenes, conversations or smiles – a mixed fruit basket of love, lust, fear and disappointment.

Cinematical has just received the first trailer for Nights and Weekends, written, starring and directed by Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig. The film, which first premiered during this year's South by Southwest Film Festival (or SXSW), follows one couple struggling to maintain a long distance relationship, and all the ups and downs that go along with that. Not only does it rank among Swanberg and Gerwig's best to date, but, as I said in my review, both "do a tremendous job tapping into everything we love about our relationships, as well as everything we hate – and they do this with moments, glances, kisses and tears. No score. No set pieces. No set up and payoff."

Like most films that carry the Swanberg and Gerwig name, it's experimental and it definitely takes risks in the way it conveys the story -- but that's also what makes it unique and a pleasure to watch. Instead of searching for plot points, you're forced to share this couple's most intimate moments together -- and not only does it feel raw, fresh and funky, but also satisfying and somewhat therapeutic.

IFC Festival Direct will bring Nights and Weekends to your living room via On Demand beginning September 24, and the film will also enjoy a theatrical run at New York's IFC Center beginning October 10th. Check it out, and let us know what you think. See the trailer below ...

How do you sell the merits of an indie film to the masses? Scott Macaulay raises the question at the Filmmaker Magazine blog in connection with the release of Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs on DVD tomorrow. The film debuted at last year's SXSW and then received a brief theatrical release last summer. Macaulay posted pictures of the theatrical release poster, in contrast with the home video box cover.

Which is more effective? Chris Thilk at Movie Marketing Madness commented on the poster last summer, describing it as "a very cool poster that manages [to] mix the starkness that identifies it easily as an independent, character-driven film with some wacky visuals that play the same sort of tune the trailer did. I love it." The DVD cover, with the titular character of Hannah (played by Greta Gerwig) almost fading into the background, makes it look more like a mainstream ensemble romantic comedy.

But, wait! The photo on the cover was one of the original publicity photos and can be found on the film's official site. It may not be the most representative, though, since the film is all about Hannah and how she flits through relationships rather quickly. The Chicago city 'scape background was obviously added later. The blurb is snipped from Owen Gleiberman's review in Entertainment Weekly. The theatrical poster featured a quote from Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe. Is one critic's quote more appealing than the other?

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the film Baghead (click on the image to enlarge), written and directed by two very good friends of this site, Jay and Mark Duplass. Baghead marks the brothers' second feature-length film and follow-up to the very funny (but very uncomfortable) 2005 flick The Puffy Chair. Starring Ross Partridge, Elise Muller, Steve Zissis and my personal fav Greta Gerwig, Baghead tells of four struggling actors who retreat to a cabin in the woods in an attempt to write a screenplay they can produce and star in themselves. Will they succeed or will their personal relationships crumble? Oh, and is there really a stranger with a bag over his head lurking in the shadows, tracking the group's every move?

Baghead premiered to all sorts of great buzz back at Sundance, where our own James Rocchi said it "has warmth and innovation, and the mischievous good sense to subtly make fun of the type of film that it is." As Mark Duplass told us when we interviewed the boys during Sundance, "Baghead is a movie about the funny, horrific, tragic, terrible life of being a desperate actor." Needless to say, we highly recommend it.

Baghead arrives in theaters on June 13, after making a stop at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month.

Nights and Weekends marks writer-director Joe Swanberg's fourth consecutive film at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and it's quite possibly his strongest work yet. Here, Swanberg co-directs and stars alongside girl-next-door-with-an-edge Greta Gerwig – and the two play a couple struggling through the highs and lows of a long distance relationship. What we see is what we don't see, if that makes any sense, as Swanberg and Gerwig consciously chose not to hand this one to the audience on a silver platter. Case in point: There's really no narrative at all. One would think a film with no narrative would be the equivalent of recording you and your significant other watching TV on a Friday night – cuddled up, chitter chatter with a pause for a snack here and there.

On the surface, Nights and Weekends is just that – a regular night (or nights) with regular people who talk just like us or them or your friend with the huge crush on that guy we all kinda know. But look a little deeper and Nights and Weekends is so much more than "just another 'Mumblecore' flick about confusing relationships and missed opportunities." Swanberg and Gerwig do a tremendous job tapping into everything we love about our relationships, as well as everything we hate – and they do this with moments, glances, kisses and tears. No score. No set pieces. No set up and payoff. In an interview the morning after the film's world premiere, Swanberg told me that's exactly how he remembers his own life: as random scenes, conversations or smiles – a mixed fruit basket of love, lust, fear and disappointment.

Last month, I alerted you to a pretty funny clip from Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris, which was up over at indieWIRE as part of the indie film series with Apple stores. Now the website has got another strange and comedic clip to distract us from the daily grind, and it will again be followed by store appearances. This time, the movie is Hannah Takes the Stairs, from director Joe Swanberg (Kissing on the Mouth and LOL). The film stars Greta Gerwig, who was in Swanberg's LOL, Kent Osborne, who actually got his start on School Ties (which helped launch the careers of many actors, including Damon and Affleck) and Andrew Bujalski, whose last film was Mutual Appreciation, which he wrote, directed, edited and starred in -- and all of them collaborated on the film's script.

Hannah Takes the Stairs (follow the link for a trailer) is about a young woman named Hannah who is interning at a production company in Chicago. She's got a crush on two of her co-workers, Matt (Osborne) and Paul (Bujalski), and the question becomes whether pursuing one of them will hurt their friendship trio. In the clip, Matt shows Paul and Hannah how you can get six-pack abs without working out. Between the six-pack and the hot dogs he can also change his stomach into, the man is a walking tailgating party. It'll definitely be a tough choice for the young professional. God only knows what special talents Paul has! The film will hit a limited release on August 22 through IFC Films, and the day after, you can hear Swanberg, Gerwig, Aaron Katz and Aaron Hillis talk about indie filmmaking at the Apple Store in Soho.

You might have heard the term "mumblecore" recently and are wondering where it came from and what it means. I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Here's what I know: In 2005, Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation) gave an interview to IndieWIRE in which he mentioned the term "mumblecore" as a name for a new indie-film movement. (The term allegedly came from Eric Masunga, the sound mixer on Bujalski's Funny Ha-Ha.) At SXSW this year, the term "mumblecore" was invoked everywhere -- the cast of Joe Swanberg's film Hannah Takes the Stairs included several mumblecore filmmakers, and SXSW Film Festival head Matt Dentler called the film "the blockbuster of this movement." Aaron Hillis actually created a groovy chart that linked many of the mumblecore gang together on different projects. But none of this is giving you a clear definition, is it?

As I see it (and you should feel free to correct me), "mumblecore" refers to a group of American filmmakers who tend to work on each other's movies, and whose films are performance-based and focus on the everyday problems, often about relationships, of middle-class twentysomethings. Some examples besides the above-mentioned films might include Susan Buice and Arin Crumley's 2005 feature Four-Eyed Monsters; The Puffy Chair, from brothers Jay and Mark Duplass; and Orphans, Ry Russo-Young's film that won a special jury award at SXSW this year (Buice and Russo-Young are in the minority as female filmmakers among the mumblecore guys).

So this week's Eat My Shorts includes a sampling of films from some of the Mumblecorps, as the group is also called, mostly from their earlier filmmaking days. Every short film on the following list ties in with one of the others -- the editor of one may be the director of another and the star of a third. These shorts tend to be funny rather than angst-y, but with some genuine emotion behind the laughs at times. Whether you're mumblecore or working on your own shorts, feel free to email me links to any shorts available to watch online: shorts AT cinematical DOT com.

Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg premiered his third feature in three years during SXSW this week, Hannah Takes the Stairs, and just about filled the Paramount theater, which seats 1,200. It's a long way from his Kissing on the Mouth screening at SXSW, which I saw at the tiny Dobie theater two years ago. Like his previous films, Kissing on the Mouth and LOL, the film follows contemporary twentysomethings through ordinary and plausible situations. It's a low-key and enjoyable film with a cast consisting mostly of other indie filmmakers and writers.

Hannah (Greta Gerwig) seems to be drifting through life. She has a boyfriend, Mike (Mark Duplass) whom she seems to like, but suddenly breaks up with him because "he's the funny one. I want to be the funny one." She works for a production company of some sort -- I never quite understood what was going on over there -- with a pair of guys, Paul (Andrew Bujalski) and Matt (Kent Osborne). Paul is trying to negotiate a deal to publish a book based on his blog, while Matt is slightly older and more mature than the other two. After breaking up with Mike, Hannah more or less floats over to Paul, upsetting the office dynamic with their schmoopiness and later with their relationship difficulties. She turns to her roommate Rocco (Ry Russell-Young) and to Matt for solace.