NY Times praises Interior. Leather Bar.
Under this headline, Manohla Dargis in the NY Times praises Travis Mathews and James Franco’s film.
Independent Voices Drown Out the Buzz: Highlights of the Sundance Film Festival
“One of the sharpest, best surprises of the festival, which ends Sunday, “Interior. Leather Bar.” is a serious yet playful hourlong deconstruction of the representation of homosexuality as viewed through the prism of “Cruising,”William Friedkin’s 1980 film about an undercover cop, played by a supremely jittery Al Pacino, searching for a killer of gay men. “Interior,” directed by Mr. Franco and Travis Mathews, uses as its conceptual jumping-off point a lost 40-minute segment of “Cruising” set in a gay leather bar that Mr. Friedkin has said he had to cut to avoid an X rating. “Interior” primarily turns on the on-set experience of Val Lauren, an actor who appears as himself and as an idea of Mr. Pacino’s, while performing in a re-creation of the missing “Cruising” material.”
Congrats to them and all who worked on the movie.
Interior. Leather Bar. Premiered – great reviews.
Travis and James gave their film a very promising debut in Sundance last night. Interior. Leather Bar. is picking up a number of positive, thoughtful reviews.
Check out the interview piece I wrote for Filmmaker Magazine
Here’s the opening:
“San Francisco-based gay filmmaker Travis Mathews built his reputation as one of the leading figures in the latest new wave of gay independent cinema on the back of a series of award-winning intimate, confessional documentary films about young homosexual men: In Their Room. His first narrative feature, I Want Your Love, explored gay friends negotiating their way towards and through sexual relationships and featured unsimulated sex. His new film, Interior. Leather Bar., co-directed with the actor James Franco, is just as honest in its depictions. This film within a film begins with a re-imagining of the lost forty minutes of William Friedkin’s controversial 1980 thriller Cruising and expands to engage with wider issues of creative freedom explored in frank “behind the scenes” sequences with cast and crew.
Filmmaker spoke to Travis while he was packing for an early morning trip to the Sundance Film Festival…”
Follow the link to Filmmaker for more:
Travis Matthews on Interior. Leather Bar.
Here’s an entertaining interview with Travis about his work and especially Interior. Leather Bar.
James Franco on ‘Interior. Leather Bar.’
Here’s a link to an interview with James Franco who co-directed the feature ‘Interior. Leather Bar’ that will premier at Sundance in a few days. I was a story consultant, working with Travis Matthews, the writer and co-director. Fingers crossed it gets a good response!
Top Ten Films (belated) of 2012.
This year, because it was the year of the curate’s egg, I’m making up my own rules. In that spirit I get to pick whole movies or just the parts that are worth the list. Also these are the films I liked and admired most, not necessarily ‘the best’.
Omissions:
I couldn’t face a Tarantino movie at Xmas so haven’t seen Django Unchained.
I couldn’t face two and a half hours of singing French drama peasants so I haven’t seen The Glums Movie.
I haven’t seen The Master because… sigh.
I haven’t seen Seven Psychopaths, despite being a fan of Martin McDonagh, and should be beaten with sticks and I meant to see it and I will and /whine.
So, onwards…
Favorites
Safety Not Guaranteed charmer of the year.
Beasts of the Southern Wild truly imaginative.
The Cabin in the Woods yes, yes, I know… but yes!
Moonrise Kingdom only the parts with no adults… apart from Bruce Willis, surprisingly.
Your Sister’s Sister just really solid indie writing, directing and acting.
Robot and Frank mawkish and contrived but it made me smile. And Frank Langella.
Lawless because sometimes implausible rednecks are necessary.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower all the bits I didn’t hate, not the bits I did.
Looper for JGL’s fake chin. And my hero Rian Johnson can do no wrong.
Argo old fashioned in the best way.
Lincoln apart from the opening mawkish nonsense with the soldiers, and I’m pretending it ended where the story should have, with Lincoln walking into the darkness before the assassination.
Hmm… where were all the foreign films I loved this year?
Bottom Ten Films
Prometheus… That about covers it.
And the 2012 ‘Julian’s childhood fantasy worlds revisited, without total ruination award’ goes to…
Dredd for keeping his helmet on.
Cutterjunk: “a hard science fiction novel come to life…”
I just received some very promising competition coverage on my little first draft science fiction spec screenplay Cutterjunk from three reviewers. Some of the highlights are below. Apart from the temptation to engage in a certain amount of own horn tooting, I’m posting them because I’m particularly pleased that many of the comments reflect lessons I try and teach my students in class. SFSU cinema majors read down to find how actual script readers look for the things I keep telling you they look for!
“The writing is very good. This script is like an excellent sci fi novel.”
“The world the writer has created is unique and the language is amazing. The invented jargon is strange yet relatable, like Firefly or Clockwork Orange. The main character is very likable and sympathetic and the reader is emotionally invested by page 20.”
“This script is a hard science fiction novel come to life. The setting is unique and very visual.”
“The characters really pop in this script in large part thanks to the amazing dialogue. The world of the screenplay has its own invented jargon and slang. This is often a trap for other writers but this script gets it right. The slang is evocative, exotic, but understandable. It has a good rhythm to it. The dialogue flows instead of sounding forced or fake much like Clockwork Orange or Firefly.”
“As a piece of writing it’s extraordinary. It takes the reader on an incredible journey to an imaginary place that feels as real as next door. The characters are truly special and the dialogue is fantastic.”
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Cutterjunk
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12-1069-SCI
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SCORE
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|
STORY/PLOT
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8
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DIALOGUE
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10
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CHARACTER
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10
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STRUCTURE
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8
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MARKETABILITY
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7
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FIRST 20 PAGES
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9
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COMPETITION TOTAL
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52
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SCRIPT
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RECOMMEND
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NEWS UPDATE
The final title of my second screenwriting book is: The Pleasures of Structure: Learning Screenwriting Through Case Studies. My deadline is 2014, although I’m hoping to beat that by a good distance, so it won’t be out for a good while yet.
In other news, I’ve submitted my big history chapter on Screenwriting in Another ‘New Hollywood’ 1980-1999. This is for a volume in the new Beyond the Silver Screen series from Rutgers UP. The series deals with film history through process more than product, writing the hidden histories of the crafts and departments that go into movie making. My chapter will be in the Screen Writing & Story Telling volume, edited by the wonderful Andy Horton, The Jeanne H. Smith Professor of Film Studies at The University of Oklahoma (Norman).
As you will have seen, if you are an habitué de la blog, the first draft of Cutterjunk a spec screenplay I wrote as an experiment (my first attempt at science fiction) and a teaching tool, has been getting shortlisted in a number of screenwriting competitions. One of the next projects on my list is a comprehensive re-write. The new book, of which I already have a rough draft of 25,000 words or so, is after that!
The Drip Drip Drip of Recognition…
…drops once more for my little first draft science fiction screenplay ‘Cutterjunk’. I’m delighted to hear that it is a finalist for the Gimme Credit International Screenplay Competition. Coopy, Mousehouse, Dipper and all the gang are thrilled and many alco-lozenges will be swallowed at Charybdis Starside Station tonight.
Cutterjunk makes another competition shortlist!
Cheeky little Cutterjunk, my first draft screenplay that could, borrowed another genre’s clothes and apparently made them look good. I’m very pleased to report that today my script made the quarterfinals of the Eerie Horror Film Festival’s Screenwriting Competition. Note to all my characters: “Remember, you’re scary now… Boo!”
Many thanks to the hard-working, perceptive – and open minded – judges at Eerie, in Erie PA, for this very cool honor.
