MovieMaker

Director Jesse Dylan (whose films include How High and the Will Ferrell kids soccer comedy Kicking and Screaming ) sets out in his new film Soros to strip away the conspiracy theories and suspicion surrounding billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Dylan, host of the Jesse's Office podcast, also talks about the hardest parts of interviewing Soros, who doesn't like to sit down for questions, and...

In Archenemy , the new film from Adam Egypt Mortimer ( Daniel Isn't Real), Joe Manganiello plays Max Fist, a homeless alcoholic who may also be a former superhero. When an aspiring reporter names Hamster (Skylan Brooks) seeks out his story, he suddenly becomes invested in our world. We talk about Egypt, addiction, and how Manganiello narrowly losing out on his chance to play Deathstroke in the Ben...

Legion M bills itself as the first fan-owned entertainment company, and has invested in beloved films like Colossal and Mandy , as well as the upcoming Archenemy . But how does Legion M work, exactly? We talk with Legion M co-founders Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison about how you can get involved for zero dollars — or go all in – and the company's strategy to make money and return it to investors. W...

Dear Santa , the new film from Dana Nachman, reveals the secret team of helpers who make children's wishes come true. When a child sends a letter to 123 Elf Road North Pole, 88888 — or pretty much any address that comes close — the US Postal Service swings into action, gathering the letters and sharing them with an army of helpers who make children's wishes come true. You can become a helper here....

Collective director Alexander Nanau joins us to discuss his incredible new documentary about corruption in the wake of a deadly nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Actors Michael Shannon and Jacob Alexander join us to talk about Echo Boomers, a new heist movie about a gang of millennials who lash out at the system by breaking into super rich people's houses and stealing expensive art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Cucalorus Film Festival , out of Wilmington, North Carolina (home of David Lynch's Blue Velvet !) is a film festival that loves inclusion — but not competition. In this episode, chief instigating officer Dan Brawley and host and curator Aaron Hillis talk about the origins of the festival, how to get into it, and how to watch some fantastically weird movies from Hillis' secret vault, for free....

The Half of It director Alice Wu says her Netflix hit — imagine an '80s teen comedy with a gay Chinese-American girl as the hero — came from her college relationship with a straight guy. "In best friendships, there is kind of a romance in it," she says. Her effort to understand the complicated feelings around that dynamic were the first seeds of the film. Wu, who enrolled in MIT at age 16, talks a...

Let Him Go , the new film from Thomas Bezucha, stars Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as George and Margaret, a couple who travel from Montana to North Dakota to retrieve their grandson from a notorious family called the Weboys. Bezucha talks about how he came across the source material of the film, how this film feels a little bit to him like a sequel to Costner's The Bodyguard , and why he never con...

Amy Seimetz’s second feature film, She Dies Tomorrow , is about a young woman named Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) who holds the inescapable certainty that she will die in one day. When she confides in her friend Jane (Jane Adams), the prophecy begins to spread, igniting a chain reaction of existential dread. Seimetz knew she wanted to bring her characteristic "dark sense of humor" to the film, and bend gen...

His House , the bold new Netflix horror film from writer-director Remi Weekes, is a very scary haunted house story that is also a moving and empathetic story about immigration. It stars Wunmi Mosaku and Ṣhop-pe Dìrísù as a couple who flee war in South Sudan, and make a harrowing escape to the UK. But there, they encounter new horrors. Weekes also talks about debuting at Sundance and the short film...

Ashland, Oregon is a small-town film mecca that draws Hollywood expats with its mix of a thriving film scene, proximity to big cities, and sprawling wide open spaces. This year, Southern Oregon's Ashland Independent Film Festival has persevered and innovated through not only a pandemic, but fires that have destroyed homes and blackened acreage surrounding a beautiful town in the foothills of two m...

12 Hour Shift writer-director Brea Grant ( Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Dexter ) set her horror comedy in the late '90s because she wanted to portray a time when people spoke their minds a little more — and were more susceptible to urban legends. The film follows a gruff Arkansas nurse (Angela Bettis) with a tidy side hustle as an organ harvester. But one night, things start to go wrong, cops star...

Radium Girls , co-directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler and starring Joey King, is based on the true story of a group of young female factory workers in the 1920s who worked with radium — which was seen at the time as an almost miraculous element. But the women soon began developing mysterious, terrible illnesses. After a medical mystery — that included a misdiagnosis of syphilis for som...

Jim Cummings is the writer director and star of The Wolf of Snow Hollow, in which a small mountain town is hit by a series of killings that seem like the work of a wolf. Or is it a werewolf? The film stars Cummings as a deputy in meltdown, and Robert Forster plays the head of the department in one of his final roles. Cummings talks about how he broke into DIY indie filmmaking, how he mines real-li...

Brandon Cronenberg looked to real life horror — from data mining to election meddling — to inspire the sci-fi/horror hybrid Possessor . Andrea Riseborough stars as Tasya Vos, a woman who carries out assassinations by taking control of other people's bodies using brain-implant technology. Cronenberg talks to Eric Steuer about how his team used practical effects because skin and blood are particular...

Yellow Rose , from director Diane Paragas, is about a Filipina girl who fell in love with country music while growing up in Texas. But her dreams of music stardom come under threat when her mother, who is undocumented, is taken in the night by an ICE raid. Like her protagonist, Paragas grew up Filipina-American in Texas. To tell the story of Rose Garcia (played by Eva Noblezada), she relied on her...

Radha Blank is the writer, director and star of The 40-Year-OId version, about a struggling playwright who is determined to make it by age 40 — and does. But as a rapper. Under the name RadhaMUSprime, she raps bluntly about aging, sexuality, and her back pain. The film is a throwback to the '90s rap videos of Digable Planets, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest, among others, as well...

Gregory Kallenberg says COVID-19 has forever changed indie filmmaking — in some ways for the better. The founder and executive director of the Louisiana Film Prize, which is in the process of awarding $25,000 to the best short film shot this year in Louisiana, says filmmakers have gotten more personal than ever before. He also talks about his Austin roots, how a documentary led him to Louisiana, a...

Director Jenny Popplewell made a strong decision for her Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door : She didn't care about the killer. She didn't want to understand how Chris Watts' mind worked, or explain his rationale for the atrocious crime he committed: murdering his wife, Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters, Bella and CeCe. Eschewing interviews and re-enactments, Popp...

Action Park was a northern New Jersey water park, open from the 1970s through 1990s, where many kids had their first kiss, their first beer, their first taste of adventure. But as Class Action Park directors Chris Scott and Seth Porges tell interviewer Eric Steuer, it was also a place where dangerous, poorly designed rides and waterslides resulted in many kids being injured, and even caused a few...

Film critic Glenn Kenny went to see a struggling Martin Scorsese at his New York office around Christmas 1989, and found him working on a new, tabloid TV-inspired gangster movie about a mobster named Henry Hill. The film, of course, became Goodfellas , one of the greatest movies of all time. To mark its 30th anniversary, Kenney just released the excellent Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas . Treat...

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, writers and directors Antebellum, left luxury advertising years ago to focus on films that can make a difference. Antebellum , they explain, is intended to move not just audiences, but voters. The film, starring Janelle Monae, is one of many politically and historically aware projects they have in the works. We can't tell you much of anything about the film withou...

Years ago, filmmaker Alan Bailey's friend Charlotte married an airline pilot. She died, tragically, and Alan thought it would be a good idea to make a documentary about "Christian," the widowed pilot, searching for love on Tinder. That movie turned into the new documentary DTF. Because Christian had no intention of finding love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boys State , the compulsively watchable new documentary from Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, follows four boys who run for governor in a mock-government program sponsored by the American Legion. Their competition comes to resemble a real political race thanks to sometimes disingenuous candidates, dubious internet memes, and even impeachment talk. Guest host Eric Steuer talks with McBaine and Moss a...