June 2019
Close-Up
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome Readers: The purpose of this magazine is to share with our movie-goers, the industry and our partners updates about what is happening at Flix Premiere each month. We aim to highlight and explore the upcoming month’s film premieres in each market, and occasionally announce new developments on our platform. Happy reading!
A Nig hti ng ale
The Husb and
Sug ar
IN THIS ISSUE: July Premieres Snapshot
In te rw ov
en
Learn about our exclusive new premieres showing each week. US July Premieres Snapshot - pg. 3 UK July Premieres Snapshot - pg. 4
Close Up: Premieres Feature Reviews A chance to immerse yourself in the wonderful stories premiering each week.
The Game Ward en
A Nightingale Falling - Gerard McCarthy, Tara Breathnach, Muireann Bird - pg. 5 Interwoven- Mo'Nique, Myles Cranford, Kenichi Iwabuchi, Jon Eiswerth, Carlotta Elektra Bosch - pg. 6 The Game Warden - Bill Hook, Morris Custy, Kim Ange, Kelly Van der Burg - pg. 7 The Husband - Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Sarah Allen, August Diehl, Stephen McHattie - pg. 8
Cast & Crew Corners Get the insider story - hear from the filmmakers on the ins and outs of independent movie-making. Director’s Corner: Interwoven - pg. 9 Cast & Crew Corner: The Husband - pg. 10
Fal lin g
HOME OF AWARD-WINNING CINEMA AND MORE “Mo’Nique vividly portrays Barbara’s quiet suffering and eventual spiral out of her domestic life.”
US PREMIERE
July 12, 2019 - 7pm EST Fifteen true life stories of people struggling with love, loss, homelessness, alcoholism, and betrayal.
WATCH ON
Apple TV
Amazon Fire
iOS, Android, Web
ChromeCast
Roku
Smart TVs
“A terse, brittle and sometimes wincingly unadorned study of hetero-masculinity in free fall.” Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail
US PREMIERE
July 26, 2019 - 7pm EST A darkly comic drama about a man left to care for his infant son when his wife is imprisoned for cheating on him with a minor.
www.flixpremiere.com
A 17-year-old student finds an unlikely lifeline in her disabled therapist after a sexual transgression.
3
US PREMIERES SNAPSHOT
Starring: Gerard McCarthy, Tara Breathnach, Muireann Bird
JULY 5, 2019 - 7PM EST
Starring: Mo'Nique, Jon Eiswerth, Myles Cranford, Kenichi Iwabuchi, Carlotta Elektra Bosch
JULY 12, 2019 - 7PM EST
Starring: Bill Hook, Morris Custy, Kim Ange, Kelly Van der Burg
JULY 19, 2019 - 7PM EST
Starring:Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Sarah Allen, August Diehl, Stephen McHattie
JULY 26, 2019 - 7PM EST
4
UK PREMIERES SNAPSHOT
Starring: Gerard McCarthy, Tara Breathnach, Muireann Bird
JULY 6, 2019 - 7PM BST
Starring: Mo'Nique, Jon Eiswerth, Myles Cranford, Kenichi Iwabuchi, Carlotta Elektra Bosch
JULY 13, 2019 - 7PM BST
Starring: Bill Hook, Morris Custy, Kim Ange, Kelly Van der Burg
JULY 20, 2019 - 7PM BST
Starring:Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Sarah Allen, August Diehl, Stephen McHattie
JULY 27, 2019 - 7PM BST
A Nightingale Falling
5
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere -7PM 7PM EST UKUSPremiere APRIL GMT Premiere MAYJULY 320-5-7PM EST UK Premiere JULY 6 - 7PM BST
S
et during the Irish War of Independence, A Nightingale Falling is a moody, evocative period piece. At once delicate and precise, the film, directed by Garret Daly and Martina McGlynn, takes viewers to a quiet farm in the Irish countryside. We see May Collingwood (Tara Breathnach) taking care of her parents’ sprawling farm after their deaths. She is the matriarch now, doing physical labor to maintain the farm while also organizing the estate and taking care of her younger sister, Tilly (Muireann Bird).
Breathnach is wonderful in the lead, giving [May] a clearly defined character, a strong emotional core, and a heart-breaking elegance Niall Murphy, Scannain
While May does everything she can to preserve the farm and her parents’ memory, Tilly is more dreamy-eyed and squeamish. Their routine, however, is thrown off when May notices a just barely alive man lying down for dead in her barn. Along with Tilly, they tend to the mysterious British soldier, believing that it is their obligation to save the man - even if the penalty for harboring a British soldier is quite steep. As they nurse him back to health, tensions and paranoia heat up, particularly as the soldier begins developing an eye for one of the sisters. A tale of sibling rivalry and sacrifice set in 1920s Ireland, A Nightingale Falling is a powerful romance-drama for viewers looking to learn more about the time period in Irish history, but most especially, for those who love an extraordinary drama.
Suspense builds slowly and elegantly. This is in part due to the exemplary performances, especially of the matriarch May, who, via Tara Breathnach, possesses a compelling vulnerability underneath her grit. She understands a particularly tragic sense of comedy, and is able to constantly deliver dark comedy without ever missing a beat. Tilly, through Muireann Bird, is a powerful, convincing force of innocence in a bleak world. She works as a brilliant counterpoint to the hardened toughness of May - even if her character is meant to be frustrating at times. The writers behind A Nightingale Falling have given the protagonists a lot to work with - the
dialogue feels clean and true while also gesturing towards so much. The writing staff of Martina McGlynn, Garret Daly and PJ Curtis have managed to create chilling suspense, interspersed with the drama of romance. Viewers won’t want to miss this epic. It spans loss and war, and yet feels surprisingly contained and specific. Set in sprawling countryside, the backdrop feels appropriately moody for the storm within these two women. It’s a darkly funny and delightfully suspenseful ride.
Interwoven
6
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere JULY 12 - 7PM EST UK Premiere JULY 13 - 7PM BST
L
ife’s most difficult moments push us to the edge where we feel like we are hanging on by a thread. The intensity of loss, pain, and insecurity can bestow a tunnel vision that keeps us from seeing how our personal story is intricately tied up with that of those people whose paths we cross along the way. Interwoven, by V.W. Scheich, steps back to consider the larger picture of life’s elaborate tapestry, stitched together by souls whose fates are linked. One person’s experience of the death of a loved one can ease the path for another. Similarly, one person’s struggle with alcoholism, addiction, or suicide can ripple out and affect a different individual battle. Fifteen different stories overlap and weave a rich tale of human suffering and perseverance in this drama that frequently turns its eyes to a higher power for inspiration. At the center of the conflict is the failed relationship of Barbara, played by
Mo’Nique vividly portrays Barbara’s quiet suffering and eventual spiral out of her domestic life.
A provocative thought experiment that invites reflection on the natural of morality, mortality, happiness, and fulfillment.
Mo’Nique, and Otis, incarnated by Myles Cranford. Otis’s infidelity sets off a sequence of events that pushes him into the streets and positions him as a witness and narrator of others’ hardships. Such distance and isolation bring about a profound change in Otis and instill in him a wisdom that he never possessed before. Barbara is a dynamic character who pushes to escape an untenable situation only to find herself in a different one. Mo’Nique vividly portrays Barbara’s quiet suffering and eventual spiral out of her domestic life.
Interwoven engages a contemporary form of storytelling that explores the lives of a great variety and number of characters within a specific theme, paying cursory attention to some of them and observing others in greater detail. It performs the act of showing its audience how the characters relate to one another, as its title would suggest, in a provocative thought experiment that invites reflection on the nature of morality, mortality, happiness, and fulfillment. Do not miss this thoughtful drama on Flix Premiere!
The Game Warden
87
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere JULY 19 - 7PM EST UK Premiere JULY 20 - 7PM BST
P
eering out from his isolated house neighboring the forest, Dan (Bill Hook) is a wildlife officer who patrols the forest just as much as it haunts him. Still devastated by the death of his young son, who was mauled by a bear, Dan lurks throughout the forest, protecting animals while still terrified that he couldn’t protect his son from them. On one particularly cold and snowy night, Dan has a flashback of his son. Feeling anxious and a bit drunk, he speeds out of the forest.
An expertly crafted tale about love and loss.
After he accidentally kills a passerby who was just walking through, he frantically hides the body. Dan soon becomes increasingly aware that people are out looking for the person responsible for the man’s death. His only solace has been finding a dog abandoned in a trailer, whom he takes home to save. However, when the dog goes missing, Dan is thrown into disarray yet again. The Game Warden, directed by Erik Mockus, is an irreverent dark comedy. It begins boldly, throwing the viewer directly into Dan’s sorrow - and own undoing - via the accidental killing. What’s so interesting about the film is that it is very much a character study. We identify strongly with Dan, who is trying the best he can to move on from tragedy. But tragedy keeps finding him, the man who lives by himself and away from the world. Bill
Bill Hook gives a heart-wrenching performance as Dan, endowing the character with a nuanced kind of melancholy and existential dread.
Hook gives a heart-wrenching performance as Dan, endowing the character with a nuanced kind of melancholy and existential dread. He finds dark humor in most things, it seems to be a way of distracting him from the pain. Mockus has directed an expertly crafted tale about love and loss. It feels very much like a hero’s journey, and Mockus makes the film distinct with his impeccable directorial touches. It’s a story that could have veered towards the cliché in another’s hands, but Mockus delivers
an original story with characters so three-dimensional viewers might leave the film feeling like they know Dan personally. The dark, almost elegiac cinematography adds to the appeal of the film. It helps create a haunted space of sorts—Dan’s woods are once hellish yet celestial, teeming with life yet portending death. Dynamic yet melancholic, drama-filled yet subdued, The Game Warden is a visceral and poignant drama. It’s almost a fever dream.
The Husband
98
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere JULY 26 - 7PM EST UK Premiere JULY 27 - 7PM BST
H
enry Andreas leads what would be an ordinary life. He works in advertising, is married, and a recent father of a son. But he is The Husband of a woman incarcerated for sleeping with a fourteen-year-old boy – her student. Bruce McDonald’s dark comedic drama follows Henry through various stages of grief and trauma in the aftermath of his wife’s arrest, media-packed trial, and her impending release from prison. When we meet Henry, he is almost entirely numbed, juggling the demands of childcare, work, an unreliable automobile, and carceral visitation. He seems to neither think nor feel anything about his unenviable situation, until constant pestering from his coworkers and a chance encounter with his wife’s schoolyard lover sends him into a frenzied hunt for answers. The Husband keeps us guessing – will Henry ultimately pursue revenge on the boy, will he straighten himself out and abandon his self-destructive obsession with his “rival,” or will he achieve some kind of catharsis? And what will become of his relationship with his wife and the future of their
This is the kind of thoughtful, confident and seamlessly integrated filmmaking that comes from an uncommon fusion of artist and subject. Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail
Actor/co-writer McCabe-Lokos [...] stares down reality’s ugly mug, giving a performance hard and true. Peter Howell, Toronto Star son? The film withholds fixed answers until the very end, taking us on an emotional journey with Henry who is simultaneously sympathetically framed by the narrative and rendered insufferable by his compulsivity. Even his surroundings, a busy highway, a sprawling museum, and a night of debauchery seem to conspire against him, and yet he persists in his pursuit. Screenplay writer Maxwell McCabe-Lokos shines as Henry. As an author-star, we have the impression that he carefully crafted the role to fit his strengths and abilities as an actor. The pity he inspires at the film’s beginning is as intense as the alarm he causes when chasing his wife’s underage lover. What is more, he is utterly convincing as a man spiraling through
different phases of denial, anger, obsession, and a possible catharsis. Sarah Allen compliments his performance as the enigmatic wife who presents as broken and vulnerable in real-life, and a femme-fatale in Henry’s hallucinations. The Husband is a bold and original film whose story pushes the envelope further into the back of the human psyche than any Hollywood production dare go. Unafraid to contemplate the messy aftermath of such a troubling sexual encounter, Bruce McDonald takes viewers to new heights of desperation – and reveals it in all of its intensity, irony, and humanity.
Close Up: Premiere Review DIRECTOR’S CORNER:Feature INTERWOVEN
99
VWS: their storylines together but also what would be possible to shoot on a tight indie film budget, taking into consideration locations and what other resources would be needed to shoot the scenes. Q: And yet Interwoven consists of 13 storylines - did you cut any additional ones from there? VWS: After completing the first draft of the script, I met with each actor at the tentative locations. While doing rough blocking with the actors, I took several photos of the actors at different camera angles and recorded the audio of the actors dry reading their lines. I then cut together the still images along with the audio from the rehearsals. This allowed me to have a rough animatic of the entire film. I shared this animatic with a small audience of trusted colleagues and friends to determine which stories held up over the course of the film and which characters resonated the most with the audience. It was quickly apparent that there were too many stories. Uyen and I revised the script by deleting some characters while expanding other storylines and weaving together more character interactions.
VW Scheich, the Director of Interwoven
In Interwoven, Director VW Scheich, inspired by true stories of people struggling with love, loss, addiction, homelessness, and suicide, weaves together 13 captivating stories to create one compelling tale of how strangers can impact our lives in unimagined ways, thus revealing the fragile ties which bind us all as everyone searches for their meaning of life. Q: What stands out about Interwoven is how you manage to include a very diverse range of stories and make all of them feel so authentic. How did you manage to achieve that? VWS: Interwoven was a special project from the very beginning. Most films have a completed script by the time actors are cast for the roles. But in Interwoven, I flipped the process and cast the actors before the script even existed. I wanted to base the script on personal experiences and real moments from the cast. In fact, many of the actors in Interwoven are portraying a character inspired by their own life moment.
Q: And how did the involvement of Mo’Nique come about then? I’m assuming she wasn’t one of the actors who responded to the casting call originally? VWS: Due to the time it took to develop the project, some of the original cast members were no longer available so we needed to re-cast a few roles. It was at this time that we approached Academy Award winner Mo'Nique (Precious) about playing the role of Barbara, one of the lead female characters. We were thrilled when Sidney and Mo’Nique Hicks of Hicks Media Productions came onboard the project, and their involvement elevated our film to a whole new level.
Most films have a completed script by the time actors are cast for the roles. But in Interwoven, I flipped the process and cast the actors before the script even existed.
Q: Given that actors played such a vital role in the creation of your film, how did you go about finding the right people? VWS: With the help of our casting director, Toby Guidry, I placed an open casting call in Los Angeles in 2013 and received over 2,000 responses from actors of all ages, ethnicities, and gender. After reviewing all of the headshots, reels, and resumes, I selected 75 actors to meet. The normal process for a casting call consists of an actor receiving a character breakdown along with the scene in which the actor will be performing. But since we hadn’t written the script yet, each actor had no idea what was in store for him or her during our audition meeting.
The actors opened up during the hour-long sessions and related truly personal and heartfelt moments.
Q: And what did the auditions look like? VWS: In the audition, I asked each actor to share a moment of his or her life which they felt best encapsulated themselves as a person or a moment after which their life changed irrevocably. The actors opened up during the hour-long sessions and related truly personal and heartfelt moments. The emotional auditions lasted for three weeks. Every morning of the audition period, I met with my co-writer and wife, Uyen K. Le, and I would share the most compelling stories from the previous day’s auditions. Q: I imagine you must have met a variety of fascinating characters in the process, how did you choose your final cast? VWS: By the end of the casting sessions, I narrowed down the group of 75 actors to 20. I picked these 20 actors based not only on how I’d be able to weave
BTS Shot from the Production of the Film
CAST & CREW CORNER: THE HUSBAND
10
BMD: What’s amazing to me is that in this seemingly cynical and really unhappy guy there is so much heart. It’s about the relationship and how to fix a relationship that’s really broken. And you go through all of those questions. Do I want to fix it? And if I do, how do I fix it? And can it be fixed at all? And maybe the relationship isn’t the problem. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s her, maybe it’s him. All of those questions that everybody asks. All that to say that the script really seemed true. If the script had come to me without Max attached, it might have been another story though – it could be an impossible part to cast – but Max, beyond being so talented, has this kind of unique charisma, I thought wow, this is going to work.
Bruce McDonald, the Director of The Husband
Twenty-five years since Canada’s favourite rebel filmmaker, Bruce McDonald, began his filmmaking career with the cult classic Roadkill, he returns to his storytelling routes with The Husband, an Odyssean everyman story about the most universal of quests – the quest to grow up, to do the right thing instead of the easy thing, to overcome heartbreak and humiliation. The Husband stars Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, who inhabits the role with a soulful likeability and a brand of masculinity reminiscent of some of modern cinema’s most iconic anti-heroes – like Steve Buscemi and John Turturro. As with those actors, McCabe-Lokos, who also co-wrote the script, has a down and out, hardened exterior that belies his gentle vulnerability and intelligence.
Q: Where did the idea for the film come from? MMC: The idea came from Kelly Harms, who had this one-liner idea for a movie about a guy whose wife cheats on him with a minor that then follows that guy and his story as opposed to the woman’s story. And as we started talking, it evolved to also look at what we saw as a contemporary everyman who is in his mid-to-late thirties but hasn’t fully grown up yet – it seemed to us like growing up is something that happens later and later now. BMD: Absolutely. We live in a very selfish time – an “it’s all about me time” – the simple notion that a guy of this time wants to choose something bigger than himself, and his struggle is to be able to get to the point where he can do that - it struck me as having a lot of integrity and being very modern.
It seemed to us like growing up is something that happens later and later now.
Q: Would it be correct then to say that The Husband, to a certain extent, is a coming-of-age story? MMC: It’s about a guy who’s looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t have a simple solution. He’s trying all these band-aid remedies to fix a problem that is essentially un-fixable - it’s a problem that he has to choose to get over. Quitting your job, or drinking with your buddy, or beating up a kid is not going to be the solution to that.. It’s just a decision to move past a certain point. The obstacle for Henry is that he has spent his life not dealing with anything and now he just needs to grow the fuck up.
We live in a very selfish time – an “it’s all about me time” – the simple notion that a guy of this time wants to choose something bigger than himself, and his struggle is to be able to get to the point where he can do that - it struck me as having a lot of integrity and being very modern.
CAST & CREW CORNER: THE HUSBAND
11 Q: It seems like this collaboration between the two of you is what really shaped the film? BMD: I’ve always been fortunate to have the writer on set. It’s such a blessing to have someone to remind me when my head gets tied up with things like “we’ve got the get this fuckin’ shot by lunch”, or if the original intention of something is getting lost. Max was there as a kind of second eyes on performance and we would sort of talk about how the scene was originally written and intended and sometimes we’d be surprised about things going off in a new direction we liked, or sometimes we’d want to bring it back. MMC: It’s a distilling process really. Bruce and I share an aesthetic that favours saying less, and once visuals come into what’s on the page we found there were things that didn’t need to be said. That keeps going through the edit until hopefully you are left with the purest expression of what you’re trying to say with the visuals and the text complementing each other, not repeating each other. BMD: It is a true collaboration in that sense - we are kind of like song-writing partners. MMC: It’s like when the costume designer came in with Henry’s shoes, these big, ridiculously white new running trainers. They say a million things about Henry, about how he’s so distracted by everything else that he completely disregards the fact that he’s wearing these big white mall-walkers. He’s one of those guys at that point in his life - he gets up and puts on the first thing he sees on the floor - the last thing he’s thinking about is how he looks. BMD: The shoes are brilliant! It’s like in Drive - Ryan Gosling’s jacket with the scorpion on it - or James Dean’s red jacket in Rebel Without a Cause. It’s those little details that make the character complete. Like Max said, maybe there was a line of dialogue that said something about Henry having given up on his appearance, and once you’re on set you realize that it’s very clear visually and we can pare back on dialogue.
Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Writer and Actor
There is maybe an assumption that in indie film there isn’t discipline – but the opposite is true – you really have to think about how to create your images.
Bruce and I share an aesthetic that favours saying less, and once visuals come into what’s on the page we found there were things that didn’t need to be said.
Q: The shoes are a great touch! So would you say that the film was largely improvised at the production stage? MMC: Something I think Bruce and I have in common that makes it work is an approach that has the appearance of improvisation, the appearance of being loose, but is very rigorous and controlled. An assumption about indie filmmaking that irritates me is that it isn’t planned – but I think we both like to have certain precise boundaries and a foundation and to find the freedom within that. And it is a big misapprehension about Bruce - that he is so laid back on set - which he is, but the reason why is that he has planned everything and in fact the years of experience behind him that allow him to have the confidence to run a set with a gentle hand. MMC: Well, the reason you can be relaxed on set is that you’ve done the homework. You have to know where you’re going that day. There is maybe an assumption that in indie film there isn’t discipline – but the opposite is true – you really have to think about how to create your images, because there is no time to just go in there and shoot coverage of whatever and then put it together in the edit.
HOME OF AWARD-WINNING CINEMA AND MORE “Impressive looking, with superb performances.” Niall Murphy, Scannain
“Convincing and intimate.” Katy Hayes, Sunday Times
UK PREMIERE
July 6, 2019 - 7pm BST In this life changing story, a workaholic attorney is forced to reinvent Set in Ireland during the War of Independence, her life after her husband suddenly leaves. two sisters lives are changed forever as they care for a wounded soldier.
WATCH ON
Apple TV
Amazon Fire
iOS, Android, Web
ChromeCast
Roku
Smart TVs
“A visceral and poignant drama.”
UK PREMIERE
July 20, 2019 - 7pm BST The Game Warden is a surreal dark-comedy about the life of Dan, a Wildlife Officer who suffers from severe anxiety after losing his son.
www.flixpremiere.com
Home of Award-Winning Cinema and more
LONDON OFFICE
LOS ANGELES OFFICE
2nd Floor, Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BD, UK
468 N Camden Drive, Suite 200, Beverly Hills, California 90210
T +44 2085 880618
T +1(310) 601 3168 Email:
General: info@flixpremiere.com Film Partners: partners@flixpremiere.com Press: press@flixpremiere.com www.flixpremiere.com
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved