Tag Archives: james franco
An Interview with Matt Rager, writer of ‘As I Lay Dying’ and the upcoming ‘The Sound and The Fury’
Matt Rager is the co-writer, alongside James Franco, of Franco’s As I Lay Dying, an adaptation of the Faulkner novel. [Ed. note: you can read John D’Amico’s review of the film here.] He’s also the sole writer of the pair’s upcoming The Sound and the Fury, also based on the Faulkner book. Recently, we sat down over banana bread and talked about filmmaking:
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Posted in All Posts, John's Interviews
Tagged as i lay dying, as i lay dying interview, as i lay dying matt rager, as i lay dying review, david foster wallace, david mitchell, faulkner, infinite jest, james franco, john damico, matt rager, matt rager as i lay dying, matt rager interview, matt rager sound and the fury, murakami, smug film, smugfilm, sound and the fury, the sound and the fury, the sound and the fury interview, the sound and the fury james franco, the sound and the fury movie, william faulkner
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As I Lay Dying: Filming the ‘Unfilmable’
As I Lay Dying (2013)
Directed by James Franco
Screenplay by James Franco and Matt Rager
Based on the novel by William Faulkner
Spoiler-free.
As I Lay Dying is James Franco’s seventh feature-length film as a director, but only his second to receive much of a release. The first was The Broken Tower, a biography of the poet Hart Crane, which was completed as his MFA thesis for NYU. Despite the fact that Focus picked it up and it starred Franco and Michael Shannon, that film felt like a student film through and through, and Franco received the critical berating he earned. Two years later, he’s back with another difficult work of American Modernism.
James Franco kind of stepped into a minefield with this one. The literary crowd is unimpressed with his famoused-my-way-into-a-book-deal poetry and prose, and his more mainstream fans are turned off by his occasional excursions into ‘pretentious shit’. Here, then, is a way to alienate two distinct fan bases at once.
I must just be a contrarian, because these are the sorts of films that interest me most.
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Posted in All Posts, John's Reviews
Tagged absalom absalom, as i lay dying, as i lay dying film, as i lay dying film review, as i lay dying james franco, as i lay dying movie, as i lay dying movie review, as i lay dying review, danny mcbride, hart crane, howard hawks, intruder in the dust, james franco, john damico, kenny powers, logan marshall-green, longest sentence in the english language, matt rager, smug film, smugfilm, the big sleep, the broken tower, the devil's rejects, the long hot summer, the sound and the fury, the sound and the fury james franco, the sound and the fury movie, the story of temple drake, the tarnished angels, tim blake nelson, to have and have not, william faulkner
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Spring Breakers: Holy Shit, Harmony Korine Made A Good Movie
Spring Breakers (2012)
Written & Directed by Harmony Korine
94 min.
That thing I said, in the title of this review? That’s a thing I never thought I’d say in a million years. I am not a Harmony Korine fan. I don’t like any of his movies. He has always struck me as someone with absolutely no comprehension of what parts of his films are good and what parts are weak, and somewhat proud of not knowing, and proud of editing in a slapdash way. For instance, in one of his notorious Letterman appearances from the 90’s (which I actually do enjoy watching, they’re awkward and fun and he has some genuinely witty improv moments) he boasts that he doesn’t care about plot, and that when he watches movies all he really remembers are characters and a few scenes, so he wants to create movies that consist entirely of random moments. That sort of thing doesn’t appeal to me whatsoever as a filmgoer or a filmmaker.
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Posted in All Posts, Cody's Reviews
Tagged all the real girls, andy sidaris, christopher tellefsen, cody clarke, david gordon green, days of heaven, douglas crise, george washington, girls, gummo, harmony korine, harmony korine letterman, james franco, lena dunham, lena dunham essay, mark romanek, rehearsals, smug film, smugfilm, spring breakers, spring breakers review, spring summer fall winter and spring, terrence malick, the thin red line, thin red line, tiny furniture, trash humpers
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Promised Land: Good Job, Gus
Promised Land (2012)
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Screenplay by John Krasinski & Matt Damon
Story by Dave Eggers
106 min.
Promised Land is a good movie. And Gus Van Sant is a good director. And Matt Damon and John Krasinski are good actors and writers.
This is a movie that nobody saw last year. It’s a small movie, the kind that still gets made by mega celebrities like Matt Damon but that nobody sees because the market is pretty well taken over by other kinds of movies like Taken 2 and The Vow. But I’m not here to wax pretentiously about lowest common denominato, fluff that ‘Hollywood’ is so ‘evil’ for churning out. (The hipsters have that market well cornered.) I’m here, rather, to talk about Promised Land. But first, about Gus Van Sant.
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Posted in All Posts, Greg's Reviews
Tagged as good as it gets, ben affleck, drugstore cowboy, finding forrester, frances mcdormand, good will hunting, greg deliso, gus van sant, james franco, john krasinski, looper, mala noche, matt damon, milk, my own private idaho, promised land movie, promised land movie review, promised land review, psycho, pulp fiction, quentin tarantino, reservoir dogs, robin williams, sean penn, smug film, smugfilm, star wars, taken 2, terry kinney, the vow, titanic, to die for
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