Rami Malek on his life, career, and the elephant in the room

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Rami Malek received the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 34th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival this past Friday, and rightly so.  A pedestrian biopic of a beloved rock star is elevated to box office peaks and award season glory by his tender, passionate and commanding performance.  Following a quick red carpet walk, Malek sat down with Hollywood Reporter correspondent Scott Feinberg for a lengthy Q&A covering his life, career and current hit film that may well propel the 36-year-old actor to Oscar gold.  An hour and twenty minutes into a thoroughly charming discussion, Feinberg decided to heat up the room with a headline seeking dip into the seamy waters director Bryan Singer finds himself in.  Framed with a clumsy “I know this will be uncomfortable and I shouldn’t be asking it but we’re doing this anyway” ramble, he brought up a recent article from The Atlantic accusing the filmmaker yet again with years of abusive sexual behavior toward young men and laid the whole mess at the actor’s feet, calmly but clearly demanding clarification from a man who had nothing to do with the problem in the first place.   While Ramek’s response is well worth repeating and will be here, it shouldn’t overshadow the celebration of the many accomplishments that preceded it.

To begin, the actor discussed his unique heritage as an Egyptian American; his mother and father emigrated to the United States from Cairo not long before he and his twin brother were born, hoping their children would become doctors and lawyers as most parents do.  A less than exotic upbringing in Sherman Oaks CA led to an even less exotic sounding theatrical education in Indiana, but Rami’s work ethic carried him all the way to a typical starving actor’s scrape for roles, which led to landing an agent and first screen role on The Gilmore Girls in the same week.  He was off…to typecasting.  9/11 happened and he soon found himself playing Egyptian Pharaohs in kiddie fare alongside glowering Middle Eastern terrorists in any number of paranoid thrillers that boiled his identity down to his ethnicity, and while it made for exposure and a few paychecks he quickly decided it was time to turn down those roles and expand his horizons.  Malek’s fortunes began to change with an audition for Tom Hanks’ HBO series The Pacific.  Despite the intimidation of having Steven Spielberg himself handling camera duties during his initial meeting with the production, Rami nailed down the part of a Cajun soldier and made a lifelong friend of co-star Joseph Mazzello, who presented him with his Santa Barbara award and plays John Deacon in Bohemian Rhapsody.  This role would become a powerful calling card for Malek; he noted that many of his following roles came from the exposure.  One of the highlights of this period was landing a role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master; he read for the Joaquin Phoenix role, which he didn’t expect to get, but lobbied the director hard for some part and ultimately ended up playing Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son.  Then came Mr. Robot—a title Malek assumed was only temporary but now loves.  He expressed his love for writer-directors and the singular vision they bring to projects, singling out Anderson as well as Sam Esmail, a fellow Egyptian American who the actor noted seems to have clairvoyant powers when it comes to predicting dark societal trends.  Asked about their shared heritage, Rami pointed out they are both dedicated to telling human stories no matter what the backgrounds of the people involved are.

When it came to Bohemian Rhapsody, Malek discussed the importance of deep preparation, since by his own admission he is no singer or dancer.  That spurred him to take extensive lessons on both fronts, which served him well when he arrived on set to discover the first scenes to be shot were the thorough recreation of Queen’s famous Live Aid concert.  Just like with the Spielberg-filmed audition for The Pacific, the actor gathered courage from his experience and dedication to preparation and was pleased with the results.  At this point in the conversation, the moderator decided to lob a curveball and bring up “the elephant in the room,” carrying on at some length on the fall of the X-Men/Usual Suspects auteur and seeking comment.  Rami visibly stiffened at the unexpected turn, but cleared his throat and let loose with an impassioned defense of the many other people responsible for Bohemian Rhapsody’s success and offered heartfelt sympathy for anyone victimized by Singer.  “I’ve sat here and talked about how everyone deserves a voice and anyone who wants to talk about what happened with Bryan deserves to have their voice heard.  In my situation with Bryan, it was not pleasant, not at all. And that’s about what I can say about it at this point.”  The crowd cheered, and despite his claim to be done speaking on the subject, he wasn’t. “For anyone who is seeking any solace in all of this, Bryan Singer was fired. Bryan Singer was fired, I don’t think that was something anyone saw coming but I think that had to happen and it did.”  More cheers as Feinberg, realizing he’d soured the occasion, finished up with a few softballs and then handed the floor over to Mazzello, who warmly embraced his friend and presented him with his award.  Rami thanked the many people who’d helped him arrive at this night, including Feinberg, curtly saying “and what to say about Scott…thank you for your…thorough questions tonight.” Overall it was a delightful evening spent with a rising star in Hollywood, despite the sadly somewhat successful attempt to make it about someone who wasn’t even in the room and won’t be for any Bohemian Rhapsody related awards going forward.

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Space Operatic: An Interview with Stephen van Vuuren by Kent Hill

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I applaud anyone who makes their way on this crusade, some might say foolish crusade, to make a film. It can be a long, arduous, laborious. And thinking on that word laborious, now consider making a film that has to be stitched together using over 7 million photographs with animation techniques pioneered by Walt Disney on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. No CGI. And I know that sounds sacrilegious in this day and age where a film without CGI is like a day without sunshine.

However, the film that Stephen van Vuuren has, albeit laboriously, constructed In Saturn’s Rings, is a unique master-work that is as beautiful and immersive on the small screen I watched it on as I can imagine it being played in its large format form.

Sparked by Cassini‘s arrival at Saturn in 2004 and the media’s lack of coverage, van Vuuren produced two films. Photos from space missions — including images of Saturn taken by Cassini — were included. But van Vuuren was not satisfied with the results so he did not release them.

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While listening to the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber one day in 2006, van Vuuren conceived the idea of creating moving images of Saturn based on a pan-and-scan 2.5-D effect. The technique involves creating a 3-D perspective using still photographs.

After discussion with audiences at IMAX conferences, van Vuuren decided the film title Outside In (the title of the short version) was not a good match for the film’s sensibility. The Giant Film Cinema Association had been publicising the film and surveys it conducted supported this. It was during a discussion in 2012 about the film’s climax where he was describing Earth “in Saturn’s rings” that van Vuuren realized he had found his new title.

Although narration had originally been removed in 2009, by 2014 van Vuuren realized that a sparse narration was necessary for the film. This amounted to 5 pages and about 1200 words in total. After listening to many voice actors one stood out and he asked LeVar Burton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) to be the narrator for the film.

The culmination of these elements, plus a lot of hard work, has resulted in something that is essentially more than a film. Like Kubrick’s 2001 which inspired him, van Vuuren has crafted an experience of what it may by like to drift through the far reaches of space to the planet that has always been the physical embodiment of his childhood fantasies. And I for one am grateful he stuck to his guns and made a movie that, even though it’s not a tale from a galaxy far, far away, it is the universe at its most wondrous…

20,000 Leagues of Cinema and Literature: An Interview with C. Courtney Joyner by Kent Hill

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C. Courtney Joyner is a successful writer/director/novelist. He was a zombie in a Romero movie, he hangs out with L.Q. Jones and Tim Thomerson, he was once roommates with Renny Harlin and made the breakfasts while Harlin got the girls. It makes me think of Steve Coogan’s line from Ruby Sparks, “how do I go back in time and be him.”

Truth is we are the same in many instances. We’re just on different sides of the globe and one of us is in the big leagues while the other is at the scratch and sniff end of the business. But we both love movies and fantastic adventures. We both wrote to the filmmakers we loved long before the director became celebrity. We both longed for more info from behind the scenes – long before such material was in abundance.

He grew up in Pittsburgh, the son of a doctor and a reporter. He came of age in the glory days of monster movies and adventure fiction. Then he headed west and after college it wasn’t long before his writing caught the attention of producers and thus a career was spawned.

Spending those early years working with Charles Band and his company, Empire, Joyner was prolific, and soon the writer became a director. All the while he was working on a dream project, a work we all have in us, that he was fighting to bring into the light.

It was a love of Jules Verne and the “what if” type scenario that gave birth to the early version of the story that would become his current masterwork Nemo Rising; a long-awaited sequel, if you will, to 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

His story would go through several incarnations before finally reaching the form into which it has now solidified. Swirling around him were big blockbuster versions which never quite surfaced. Names like Fincher and Singer and stars like Will Smith were linked to these big dollar deals.

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Unfortunately even Joyner’s long-form TV version came close, but didn’t get handed a cigar. So at a friend’s insistence he wrote the book and his publisher, in spite of the property being linked at that time to a screen version that fell apart, agreed to still put the book out.

Thus Joyner’s Nemo has risen and at last we can, for now, revel in it’s existence. I believe it is only a matter of time before it shall acquire enough interest – and the new major playing field – the field of series television may yet be the staging ground for Courtney’s long-suffering tribute to the genius of Verne and the thrilling enigma of a character known as Captain Nemo.

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Long have I waited to chat with him and it was well worth the wait. So, here now I present my interview with the man that director Richard Lester (The Three Musketeers, Robin and Marion, Superman II)  once mistook for a girl that was eagerly interested in film.

Ladies and Gentlemen . . . C. Courtney Joyner.

 

The Making of: A Conversation with Robert Meyer Burnett by Kent Hill

I love behind the scenes documentaries – always have. What began as 60 minute specials and from there graduating to EPKs (or Electronic Press Kits) have become full-blown features, at times several hours long. And the longer the better I say.

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Robert Burnett has been that guy. The guy behind the scenes. Armed with light-weight equipment and a small crew, he has captured the people who make the magic and the war it is to bring a dream to life on film.

He has been there to witness the making of the multi-Oscar winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has seen what it took to orchestrate Superman’s return. He has ventured back in time and brought us wonderful retrospective looks at films like Disney’s cult classic Tron.

But Robert is also a passionate filmmaker in his own right. Having made his own film Free Enterprise, directing episodes of the TV series Femme Fatales along with short films as well. He is a prolific producer having shepherded films like The Hills Run Red and Agent Cody Banks 2. And, just when you’re about to say, “Stop it Rob, you’re just too talented,” he is also an experienced editor; often times chopping his own work, whether it be for DVD special features content or the films he has worked on.

Beneath all of his success, Robert is a massive film lover, citing The Right Stuff, All That Jazz and The Godfather among the countless films he adores.

It was a real pleasure to chat with him about all he has seen behind the scenes, but more so to simply chat movies with a man who knows his stuff. Turns out he loved his time here in the great southern land (Australia), along with our beer and music. It is my hope Rob finds his way back so that I might take him up on my invitation to share a cold VB (Victoria Bitter) and talk movies…

…but until then, enjoy our chat.

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The Usual Suspects: A Review by Nate Hill 

No matter how many times I watch The Usual Suspects, and believe me it’s been many, I still get the same diabolical thrill, the same rapturous excitement and the same rush of storytelling and dramatic payoff as I did the very first time I saw it. Every performance from the vast and diverse cast is a devilish creation packed with red herrings, juicy dialogue and bushels of menace, every scene piles on the mysticism of the criminal underworld beat by beat, until the characters begin to pick it apart and the whole thing unravels like a great serpent coiling forth bit by bit, scale by scale, swerving toward the shocking, disarming third act that has since become as legendary as it’s elusive and terrifying antagonist. In the crime/mystery corner of cinema, there’s no arguing that this delicious piece of hard boiled intrigue reigns supreme, and it’s easy to see why. In a seemingly random police lineup, five career criminals are harassed by an unseen hand, pushed into carrying out dangerous heists and violent manouvers by a shadowy campfire tale among the world of organized crime, a Boogeyman called Keyser Soze, if he even exists at all. Slick and sleazy ex cop Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) heads up this dysfunctional crew of vagabonds which includes hothead McManus (Stephen Baldwin in a role originally intended for Michael Biehn, which kills me to this day), weirdo Fenster (Benicio Del Toro, using an indecipherable mishmash of an accent that would be the first of many), spitfire Hockney (Kevin Pollak) and Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) the runt of the litter. The lot of them are intimidated into performing risky enterprises by lawyer Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite) until the climate of their actions reaches a boiling point and answers emerge from the darkness. This is all told in retrospect by Spacey, to a rabid customs agent (Chazz Palminteri) who has designs on ensnaring Soze. Spacey scored Oscar gold for his heavy work here, spinning a tale whose layers interweave and pull the wool over our eyes time and time again before offering any glimpses of truth. Byrne is a fiercely guarded storm as Keaton, a man with secrets so deep even he doesn’t know who he is anymore, letting the anger set and smoulder in those glacial eyes of his. The supporting cast adds to the class and confusion terrifically, with fine work pouring in from Dan Hedeya, Suzy Amis, Giancarlo Esposito and a wicked cameo from Peter Greene, who provides a moment of inspired improv. The score of the film rarely relies on dips and swells until all is said and done, keeping a tight lid on the orchestra and feeding us nervous little riffs of anxious portent that keeps tension on a tightrope and anticipation on call. A mystery this tantalizing is irrisistable the first time around, but the trick is to make your story rewatchable, and I’ve seen this thing over a dozen times. Every viewing provides some new angle to the story I didn’t see before, or I notice a subtle interaction in the very naturalistic and funny dialogue which escaped me in the past. My favourite thing to do is watch films with someone who hasn’t seen them before, observe their reactions and opinions on every little story beat and cinematic flourish, it’s almost more fun for me than the actual film itself. The Usual Suspects is a showcase piece for that activity, because you get to see this very complex revelation unfold through new eyes as you watch them experience the revelations. Whether your first viewing or your fiftieth, it never loses its power, and the spell it casts just doesn’t dim. Masterpiece.

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE – A Review by Frank Mengarelli

X-MEN APOCALYPSE completely forgoes and abandons the immense promise we were given with DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. The entire film is a bloated and dull calamity. It is misguided at every turn. The direction, poor writing, and uninspired performances lead us to yet another third X-Men film that unintentionally tries it’s hardest at undoing the smart entertainment from its former two films.

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The setup, is yet another rehash of the idealist Professor X uniting with his former best friend and now arch nemesis, Magneto, to save humanity from yet another unstoppable force.  There is little to like about this film. Evan Peters as Quicksilver is the best part, but even his slow-motion scenes become a mundane walk-through. Hugh Jackman shows up in a forced and out of place cameo that leaves you wishing he wasn’t even in the film.

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Unlike the previous two X-Men prequel films where each story capitalized on it’s time period, APOCALYPSE does absolutely nothing to remind us that this film takes place in the 80’s aside from Jean Grey having shoulder pads and a trio of them seeing RETURN OF THE JEDI.  There is not any character progression for an of the existing characters, or any of the new ones.  They just exist.XA

FIRST CLASS wasn’t a great film, but it built a solid foundation for the epic and remarkable DAYS OF FUTURE PAST that brilliantly and organically rebooted the entire X-Men franchise. This new film completely squanders the fresh start we were promised. I loved DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, but pertaining to X-MEN APOCALYPSE, there ain’t nothing good about this shit at all.