(L-R) Logan Lerman and Molly Gordon in OH, HI! Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Modern dating is the focus of writer/director Sophie Brook’s OH HI!, in which a couple, played by Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, take a weekend trip to the country. The film is billed as a comedy about a relationship, or as the film has it, a “situationship,” but comedy/rom com/horror might be more accurate, as the comedy designation is undermined from the start. The film opens by flashing forward to the end, as Iris (Gordon) confesses to the camera about her “bad decisions,” before we flashback to the beginning of the couple’s weekend trip to the country.
That opening gives the dark comedy a bit of horror film edge right at the start, and we are never sure which way it is going to go as it unfolds. Comedy/horror may be a common genre but the rom com/horror combo is a more challenging match, no matter how dark the rom com, but Sophie Brook does raise some interesting modern dating questions, and the strong cast certainly does everything they can to help it work. OH, HI!, which debuted in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival, is undeniably weird, although whether that weirdness works for you or not depends on individual taste, but at least some audiences may find this ambitious film exhausting and fizzling by the end.
The film follows up it’s unsettling, edgy opening by flashing back to the beginning of the story, as the couple, Iris (Gordon) and Isaac (Lerman), are happily driving through the Upstate New York countryside, on their way to their farmhouse rental for their first weekend trip in High Falls (Iris’ misreading of a road sign gives the film’s title). Along the way, they pass red barns and idyllic scenery, while bubbling Iris playfully teases more reserved Issac. They stop at a roadside stand selling strawberries, where they have a little rom com incident, and a surprising bit of flirtation between Isaac and the strawberry lady, right in from of Iris.
Arriving at the rental farmhouse with plenty of strawberries, the film’s tone returns to blissful rom com, as Iris and Isaac settle in for their romantic weekend. Isaac cooks an elegant dinner of scallops, they drink wine, and dine out on the porch under the stars and string lights. Their conversation reveals their relationship is fairly new, and they are still getting to know each other.
The film’s set-up is interesting if unsettling, part comedy with a tense horror undercurrent, as it deals with the pitfalls and challenges of dating through apps, and raises intriguing questions about relationships, interpersonal communications, expectations, honesty, and romantic dreams. But OH HI! gets increasingly dark as it goes, with an unnerving encounter with an angry neighbor (David Cross) and a series of bad decisions on the part of the couple, particularly after discovering some S&M items in a locked closet leads to a situation that seems headed towards a contemporary MISERY and full-blown horror, as Iris becomes increasingly crazy and Isaac reveals bracing level of arrogance. Why such a beautiful, intelligent woman as Iris would want to hold onto this spoiled, privileged man is puzzling. Nearly as puzzling is Isaac’s sense of privilege, as he clings to the idea that his dishonesty isn’t deceitful and somehow justified by a careful parsing of words.
Yet director Sophie Brooks flips the switch again, and heads back to comedy and farce, with the arrival of some surprise intruders, Iris’ best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds), both wonderfully funny, providing a much needed interruption.
Whether you like this switching back and forth between rom com and horror is up to your individual taste but it didn’t appeal to this reviewer. Further, it seemed like the repeated switches became wearing, and even caused the story to fizzle by the end.
The one thing that does lift this film out of the corner it has painted itself into is the arrival of Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds. They offer a bright, outright funny turn that gets things back on track. At least until the script again jumps the rails, and becomes tedious and nonsensical as it stumbles towards an awkward end.
While the script goes down its rabbit holes, one cannot fault the actors themselves, who turn in excellent performances that often lift the film above the script. Gordon and Lerman have nice chemistry between them, which allows the actors to bring depth to their characters and scenes in increasingly strange situations. But Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds are the real standouts, marvelous in their roles as a functional couple, Max and Kenny, and the have great comic skills and chemistry to boot. They really do rescue the whole film midway, breaking it out of what looks like a descent into an inescapable pit of creepiness, although their efforts aren’t enough to save the film in the end.
Still, OH, HI! deserves credit for it’s high-concept intentions, even if it ultimately is brought down by its constantly-switching, mixed-tone script. Certainly, the film has something to say but it also has some weird ideas about how to say it. Despite all that, OH, HI! has its moments of humor, insight and brightness, often thanks to its strong cast.
At this time of quarantine, self-isolation, and (in several major urban areas) imposed curfew, who’s ready for a film about a person dealing agoraphobia? Yes, that’s right. A person who can physically leave the house , but mentally cannot. But there’s much more to this film than that. It’s a fictional tale set during the life of a celebrated and still studied actual author. So, this isn’t a standard biography, rather an imagined incident occurring during a real career. Much as with J.D. Salinger who was the subject of a standard bio in 2017, REBEL IN THE RYE, and a supporting player in the fictional COMING THROUGH THE RYE two years previous. There’s a couple of things that make this “what if” story unique. The first would be the fact that the author in question is a woman (a rarity in cinematic portrayals of the profession). And second, she was best remembered for the genre known as horror (both psychological and supernatural), though a couple of centuries after Mary Shelly. In between Poe and King there was Jackson, the woman known as SHIRLEY.
It all begins aboard a passenger train in the early 1950s, as restless anxious recent bride Rose (Odessa Young) is immersed in the world of the recently published short story, “The Lottery”. The tale has added impact by the fact that she and her hubby, aspiring literature teacher Fred (Logan Lerman) will meet the author later that day. A trip to the restroom (far from the “mile high club”) alleviates some boredom and tension. As dusk settles over rural Vermont, the young couple arrives at the home of Fred’s mentor/supervisor, Bennington College’s Professor of Music and Folklore Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) where a big party is in full swing. Sitting inside the two-story manor house is his irritated chain-smoking spouse, celebrated writer Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss). The plan is for the young couple to stay with the Hymans until they can find a suitable rental property, but Stanley has other plans. Since they’ve just lost a housekeeper, perhaps the new arrivals can stay rent-free, until new house help can be hired, with Rose doing the cooking and cleaning in between her classes and while Fred tackles his new job. The first private home dinner doesn’t go well as Shirley guesses that Rose is with child (she’s right) and hurls verbal barbs at her about their “shotgun wedding”. Rose is mortified, but Stanley convinces them to ignore his wife’s venom. The young couple stay put. As the days pass, and Fred spends more time with Stanley on campus, the tensions between the two women dissolve. They even become partners as Shirley sends out Rose (the author will not leave her home) to collect research information about a local young woman from the college who has been missing for many weeks. Shirley decides that this will be the basis of her new work, a full novel. But as she begins the story, her new friendship with Rose begins to blossom into something compelling and eventually passionate. How can their relationship continue in the repressed ’50s in New England?
When last we saw Ms. Moss she was carrying the recent “re-imagining” of the H.G. Welles classic THE INVISIBLE MAN just a few months ago (right when we could view it in a movie theatre…remember those). She returns here as a very different type of heroine whose complexity just emphasizes Moss’s remarkable acting gifts. During the opening sequences her take on Jackson is that of a true monster, one just as frightening as those that haunted Hill House. She sneers at the party guests from her “throne” couch alternating between gulps of booze and drags on an ever-present cigarette. It appears as though she’s saving up her strength to strike, which she does at the next night’s supper, with Rose her stunned prey. Moss takes a huge creative risk in making her so venal, knowing that she must win us back, which she does “in spades”. We see that Jackson is fighting several mental health challenges, though she will tolerate no pity. Her creativity fuels her as the big town mystery imbues her with the strength to pound on the manual typewriter, making it sound like a “Tommy-gun” (you’d think sparks would be flying from that Underwood). Some time later Moss shows us Jackson’s emotional vulnerability as her new friend seems to unearth long-buried passions. This performance, coupled with her superb TV roles, cements her reputation as one of today’s most versatile and compelling actresses.
Luckily, another superb actor is on board as her spouse/adversary. Stuhlbarg is once again playing an academic, but it’s a twisted turn on his nurturing art professor in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. Hyman is a strutting peacock, in class and at home. seeking to always be the center of attention. He feeds on it and almost drools at the prospect of “feeding” off the young couple. While shamelessly flirting with Rose, he cultivates admiration from Fred, well until he feels threatened by the ‘upstart”, and slams him back to earth with a scathing critique. But they still don’t see his full cruelty as he batters his spouse with passive-aggressive verbal slaps. He tells her to get out of bed, but says she’s “biting off too much” with plans for a novel. Stuhlbarg makes him a truly charming cad. Particularly as he clumsily pursues Young who brings a wide-eyed wounded feel to the confused Rose. She’s being trained and groomed to be the perfect faculty “wifey’ since Jackson is too much of a “pill”. But Rose’s new friendship with Rose literally awakens her to injustices in this new “role” for her. Young conveys this with a change in body language, standing straight as she goes toe-to-toe with anyone hoping that she’ll just “sit quietly”. Lerman as Fred is visibly “gobsmacked” by her refusal to be a placid part of his life plan. Though he seems more hurt by his father figure Hyman “gut-punching’ him with an academic “wake up call”. He’s a big part of this film’s formidable acting quartet.
Director Josepher Decker brings a languid dream-like quality to this quirky character study. What starts as a real-life riff on WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLF ( the troubled older couple drawing in the fresh-faced younger two) twists into an awakening fable and an unconventional love story. The symbolism often feels a bit heavy in the screenplay by Sarah Gubbins based on the book by Susan Scarf. As Rose strides across campus, she passes a bevy of nubile co-eds wrapping around the limbs of an old tree recalling Circe and her sirens luring sailors to the rocks, destroying ships (or in this case, marriages). And the whole missing student mystery too often echoes Rose’s off-kilter journey to enlightenment. Plus there’s a frequent confusion with the abundant dream montages, making us wonder if we’re in the head of Jackson or Rose (or both). But the locale of a sleepy college town (scandals aplenty) is expertly recreated in all its post-war ivy league glory (those proto-hippies, the beatniks, seem to be just lurking around the next corner). Despite the leisurely pacing, the bravado compelling performances of the cast, led by exceptional Moss, makes SHIRLEY an engaging look at a still influential literary icon.
2.5 Out of 4
SHIRLEY opens on selects screens and is available as a Video On Demand on most cable and satellite systems, along with many media platforms. SHIRLEY is also now streaming on the Hulu app.
Special Jury Prize – Auteur Filmmaking at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, here’s your first look at NEON‘s SHIRLEY starring Elisabeth Moss, Odessa Young, Michael Stuhlbarg and Logan Lerman.
The film will be available everywhere on June 5.
Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband. The middle-aged couple, prone to ruthless barbs and copious afternoon cocktails, begins to toy mercilessly with the naïve young couple at their door.
Elisabeth Moss starred earlier this year in THE INVISIBLE MAN, the box office hit and reboot of the classic monster movie, for Universal/Blumhouse and makes an appearance in the upcoming Wes Anderson film, THE FRENCH DISPATCH.
She will star in Taika Waititi’s NEXT GOAL WINS, opposite Michael Fassbender and Armie Hammer. Most recently, Moss starred in the Alex Ross Perry film HER SMELL, which she also produced, for which she was nominated for a Gotham Award and an Independent Spirit Award, as well as opposite Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Haddish in THE KITCHEN, an adaptation of the DC/Vertigo crime comic book series of the same name.
SHIRLEY is directed by Josephine Decker and written by Sarah Gubbins.
Decker says of her film and main character:
Shirley Jackson was a wildly unorthodox human and storyteller. Encountering her work was like finding a map towards becoming the kind of artist I would like to be. Daring. Intimate. Structured yet dreamlike.
Shirley’s work rides on the skin between imagined and real, seducing with its oddness and humble cracks until you can’t tell if you’re looking up the stairwell or into your own mouth. I felt strongly that this film needed to feel like a Shirley Jackson story. Cinematographer Sturla Grovlen and I tried to build an ever-evolving visual language for the film that would feel both real and surreal. I remember Sturla saying at some point on the shoot, “Usually, as you go along, it becomes easier to make choices. You understand the film you are making, and then it becomes clearer what you need to do in each scene. This is the only film I have made where that is not the case. The rules are constantly changing.” This was one of the challenges of the film and also one of its thrills.
Sarah Gubbins wrote a fantastic script that inhabits many worlds: the world inside Shirley’s house so different from the world outside Shirley’s house; the world inside Shirley’s mind at times inextricable from the world outside it. The layers kept folding in upon themselves. The napkin dropped. The spoon became a fork became a ghost. We were constantly chasing the reality, and I think this is one of the things I find most special about our film. I deeply adore collaboration, and on this project, we let the mystery remain a mystery. I hope that this was true on all levels of the process- – the acting, the production design, the cinematography. We had to work on the edge of what we knew so the process could remain fresh and alive, as mysterious as Shirley’s mind.
Indignation is indeed one theme in the movie INDIGNATION, based on Phillip Roth’s 2008 novel of the same name, along with death, life, and the “what if” of choices made. Set in 1951, young college freshman Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) is filled with indignation on several levels, even before coming to Winesburg College in Ohio from his working-class home in Newark, New Jersey. The Korean War, which Marcus avoids with his college deferment, is a looming presence throughout the story.
INDIGNATION perfectly captures both the look and the feel of a repressive, restrictive, conformist 1950s America. It was a buttoned-down time of tightly controlled emotions, with World War II still in the near past, Cold War commie-hunting in full swing and women safely back in traditional roles, and the youth culture and freethinking of the 1960s still in the future. .
The film beautiful recreates the look of the period, from costumes to a muted tones recalling photos and advertising of the time, all carefully researched. The attention to detail draws us into the world of Roth’s story.
This well-acted, beautifully-detailed, and restrained drama is the first directorial effort for James Schamus, a scriptwriter, producer and past CEO of Focus Features, a company known for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and FAR FROM HEAVEN among other art-house gems. Although Schamus left Focus Features, INDIGNATION is the kind of serious, grown-up film for which the studio is known.
This film is also one of the most successful adaptations of Roth’s works for the screen. Although the film diverges in some details from Roth’s novel, it remains true to the book’s sense, and particularly to the director’s response to it. The story is semi-autobiographical, partly based on Roth’s college experience at Bucknell University, although the name is changed to Winesburg College, a reference to Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio.” The story mixes elements of melancholy, romance and a meditation on life and fate.
In 1951, the Korean War, the smaller Cold War proxy conflict that predates the longer Vietnam one, means that worries about the draft and death on a battlefield dog the working-class Jewish neighborhood where Marcus and his parents live in Newark. The war hovers in the background throughout the film, and in fact, it opens The only child of a Kosher butcher Max (Danny Burstein) and his wife Esther (Linda Emond), Marcus has been the “perfect son,” as his mother puts it. Dutifully working along side his father in the butcher shop in Newark, Marcus gets straight As at school, earning his a scholarship from his temple. Attending college will exempt him from the draft and the Korean War. Fear of losing his only child in a far-off war grips his father. By choosing a Midwestern college, Marcus hopes to escape his father’s clinging and constant worry. Although he does not openly admit this to his father, his mother knows and understands..
A kind of culture shock awaits Marcus at Winesburg College, which is Christian as well as conservative. A self-disciplined and ambitious young man, he has great confidence in his own intellect but, typical of the time, he is emotionally reserved and shares little of his inner life. Marcus arrives on campus planning to focus entirely on his studies. He is assigned a room with the only two other Jewish students in the dorm, Bertram Flusser (Ben Rosenfield) and Ron Foxman (Philip Ettinger), but politely declines their invitations to socialize. Equally politely, he turns down a personal invitation from charming Sonny Cottler (Pico Alexander), the head of the one Jewish fraternity on campus, and his frat brother Marty Ziegler (Noah Robbins), to join. His studies and his job in the library take up all his time, he tells them.
One of the things Marcus resents most is the requirement to attend the weekly chapel service, not because he is Jewish but because he is an atheist. Nonetheless, Marcus cooperates with the rule and keeps his opinion to himself – at least, until confronted by Dean Hawes Caudwell (Tracy Letts), the college’s Dean of Men in a meeting in the dean’s office. During this powerful, pivotal scene, Marcus tries to evade the dean’s probing questions while maintaining his personal integrity, but eventually references Bertrand Russell’s “Why I Am Not a Christian.”
The scene is an acting tour-de-force for both Lerman and Letts, as well as one of the dramatic turning points for the film. Letts’ Dean Caudwell is an overbearing personality convinced he is mounting a charm offensive as he bullies Marcus – encouraging him to join a fraternity or the baseball team, asking him about dating. But Marcus’ life-long self-discipline leads him to repeatedly try to politely deflect the dean’s assault. During the course of their verbal fencing match, Marcus, suffering from undiagnosed appendicitis, gradually lets down his steely guard and reveals his long-hidden indignation.
In an earlier scene, Marcus’ plan to focus only on his studies is altered when, while working in the library, he finds himself hypnotized by the swinging ankle of a beautiful blonde fellow student. Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon) seems to be everything Marcus is not – wealthy, sophisticated, elegant, coolly bold. Borrowing his roommate’s car, he takes Olivia on a date to the town’s one fancy French restaurant. While Olivia is charmed by Marcus’ mix of inexperience and intelligence, the date leaves Marcus confused. Despite her seeming confidence, Olivia has a troubled side, a survivor of a suicide attempt. Somehow, the two find themselves slowly but irresistibly romantically drawn to each other. .
Lerman is very good as Marcus, where his innocent and boyish looks help in playing the character as calm on the surface but tense underneath, with the character often described as “intense.” Gadon is the perfect mix of vulnerability and poise, wary yet frank, and she generates most of the romantic warmth in the relationship. The director shot in New York, which allowed him to draw on a talented pool of Broadway actors for supporting roles. Both Lerman and Letts, the only person to win both a Tony award for acting and a Pulitzer prize (for “August: Osage County”), are outstanding in their duel of wills, which starts with the riveting scene in the dean’s office. The most romantic scenes, strangely, take place when Marcus is hospitalized. Their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of Marcus’ mother, whose practical concerns extract a promise from her son, in a pair of scenes featuring moving performances from Emond.
There is something of Greek tragedy in this moving, melancholy tale of best-laid plans gone awry, and the story’s what-if scenario gives it a timeless element. INDIGNATION is not for the action crowd but for for fans of finely crafted drama and splendid acting, it has much to offer.
‘Fury’ is the nickname of vehicle at the center of FURY, a Sherman tank – the formidably efficient warhorse of the American army during WWII. FURY is a harrowing, tightly focused combat unit tale set during the war’s waning days that is at its best during its many bloody and intense battle sequences. The story is set during the Allies’ final ground assault on the Third Reich. Fury’s five-man crew is led by Sgt. Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt), a seasoned tank commander with the 2nd Armored Division who’s seen it all. In spring of 1945, Collier finds him and his crew deep in hostile Germany where, although faced with certain defeat, the Nazis intend to fight to the death. FURY opens just after the death of one of its crew. His replacement is Norman (Logan Lerman), a green, conscience-stricken clerk trained “to type 60 words a minute” (it’s never well-explained how he ends up in the tank). The rest of the team is Scripture-spouting “Bible” (Shia LaBeouf), Spanish-spouting driver “Gordo” (Michael Pena) and rapey neanderthal mechanic “Coon-Ass” (Jon Bernthal). Fury and its crew are part of a tank squadron that doesn’t seem to have any real mission aside from rolling into German villages and wiping out remaining enemy soldiers. The story’s exciting if unlikely climax has Fury broken down with several hundred marching Nazis closing in. This episodic structure mostly works, making for plenty of sweaty male bonding as well some surprises such as when a superior-powered German tank pops out of nowhere, wiping out the rest of the fleet and leaving Fury the sole survivor.
FURY is extraordinarily violent. Director David Ayer leaves nothing to the imagination regarding the brutality of war and the carnage some weapons are capable of. The battle scenes, using real vintage WWII tanks, are superbly executed, not only from a practical effects perspective, but in the way that Ayer keeps us on the edge of our seats. Less successful are the quiet stretches between the battles – scenes that don’t amount to much. There’s a prolonged dinner-table sequence that finds Collier and Norman spending some peaceful moments with a pair of surviving German women in a bombed-out town that takes a long time to go nowhere. A short-lived romance between Norman and the pretty German girl Emma (Alicia Von Rittberg) is shoehorned in for no reason but to illustrate how tragic and dehumanizing War is. The acting is fine, especially a commanding Pitt as Collier, but the characters are stereotyped to the point where you know exactly who’s doomed and in what order. As Norman, the young green recruit, Lerman is such a baby-faced innocent you just know he’ll find a way to buck the odds and survive. There’s a terrific early scene where Collier cruelly forces a stammering Norman to shoot a Nazi prisoner in the back, but this young character predictably goes from “I couldn’t shoot – they were just kids” to “Fucking Nazis!” in calculable time. Pena and Bernthal aren’t given much room to develop their characters but still manage fine, physical performances and despite a big-boy moustache, Shia LaBeouf is miscast as he always is in any movie meant to be taken seriously. I would like to have seen more about the desperate, dangerous and exacting job of manning a tank. While I did get a good sense of the camaraderie and trust among these virtual siblings I never got a feeling for the details of being in a tank crew or the sense of claustrophobia that I got with something like DAS BOOT or, even more appropriately, the outstanding but forgotten 1988 film THE BEAST starring Jason Patrick about a Russian tank crew trapped in Afghanistan.
While it may not have exceeded my high expectations, FURY is a good, old-fashioned war film and is recommended.
FURY, the all new David Ayer film, hits theaters this friday. Recently, WAMG was invited to attend the film’s press day where writer/director David Ayer joined stars Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal in a press conference to discuss the accuracy of the film, boot camp, and working with Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf. Check it out below!
FURY takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
The film also stars Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Eastwood.
Logan, I was going to ask you about your character, because he goes through this transformation from somebody who is just a clerk typist to becoming a die-hard soldier. I was just wondering, for you, did you feel like you were going through a kind of boot camp yourself in terms of being involved in this? Did you guys hang out beforehand? Did you feel like buddies?
LOGAN LERMAN : Yeah! We had a long, long training period on this film. A lot. David is kind of known for putting his actors through a pretty tough training process. We had, you know, months where we did so many different things to feel comfortable with this world that we were living in, and then also get to know each other. We had a good, solid month where we spent every day fighting each other in the mornings, and learning about the tanks, and our positions in the tanks. Most importantly was that last week. We had a boot camp, and we got to know each other very well, and we did become close in that period of time.
MICHAEL PEÑA : I just wanted… I remember Logan came in, and we started sparring. I think, from my point of view, there’s something that changed in him. I mean, a couple of times we’d beat him up, you know what I mean? Not gonna lie. We had gloves on, and gear, and all that good stuff, but there was, at one point… I don’t even know when it happened… You don’t try to really beat each other up, but you try to get some good shots, and you can tell when you get hurt, or you hurt the other person, and he learned. He’s like “I don’t care if I get hurt. He’s going to hit me once really good.” and that’s the change. Something, because we did end up in the barrage together, and there’s something that happens when you spar. It really does activate this kind of animalistic instinct that you have, and you really get to bond in a weird way. I did it with Jake Gyllenhaal, and I did it with these guys. There’s something that brings out a lot of honesty when you’re getting punched in the face.
LOGAN LERMAN : And it just breaks barriers, you know? Once you feel comfortable with punching someone in the face, you can do anything with them.
MICHAEL PEÑA : Yeah, so David Ayer has that weird, like- You know how, instead of theaters moves, or whatever it is, it’s trust exercises! Yeah!
My question’s for Jon. So, killing zombies or killing nazi’s? What kill is better? It’s a joke question, but… [Laughs] What was your mental preparation for some of you guys for just getting into – you said almost animalistic – for just getting into that zone?
JON BERNTHAL : Since you asked me a joke question I guess I’ll take it. You know, look, to echo what these guys said I think we were all enormously grateful for the preproduction on this movie. It’s not about putting us through hell, or anything like that. This movie mattered so much to our boss, and it mattered so much to all of us. The level of commitment and the level of investment, you know, three-four months before we started, was there. We were all kind of asked to go outside of our comfort zones, all asked to take steps together that we might have been a little afraid to do on our own, but we all kind of pushed each other and got there. We were constantly being tested, and constantly being pushed. I really feel like we became a unit before we walked on set. I’ll never forget the first time we came out for our screen test. Normally screen test is a kind of serious day on most movies, but I remember this time it was sort of our day to meet the crew, and I think – and I don’t mean this in a weird way – but I think people were genuinely afraid, you know. We came out there, and…
MICHAEL PEÑA : We also smelled…
JON BERNTHAL : Yeah. We had really been through it by that point. Through the boot camp, through the fighting, through the tank training… Honestly, our rehearsals were really more violent than the fighting… to be honest with you. Anything and everything happened there. Again, I think that part of David’s genius is that he gets you to commit, and gets you to take steps and go way beyond your comfort zone, and this thing was like life and death before we started.
My question is for Logan. Was your character’s relationship with Brad Pitt seems more like a brother relationship, or more of a father relationship? I couldn’t really decide. How do you see it? On the set between takes, what is it like to work with Brad Pitt?
LOGAN LERMAN : There’s definitely a father-son relationship there, and he is critically, in this very short time of a day, educate his new recruit… this son, on how to survive. Working with him was great. He was really generous with everything that he gives when you’re working with him. He gives a lot and asks for very little. It’s incredible to work with him.
Is he a funny guy?
LOGAN LERMAN : Is he a funny guy?
Did you laugh?
LOGAN LERMAN : We didn’t have many laughs. No. Not a lot of laughs. There wasn’t a lot of levity. He’s a nice person, though. We definitely worked hard together.
I really enjoyed the film guys. Congratulations. David, I thought Shia’s performance was fantastic. I thought he gave a great performance, and it’s much different than what we’re use to seeing him do. Could you talk about casting him, and casting him as that type?
DAVID AYER : I’m trying to remember how he ended up in my kitchen, but he did. I’m a big believer that there is a right role for the right actor at the right time in their life, and in our conversation, what I got from him was the sense of commitment, and a willingness to commit and transform, and be immersive, and really submerge himself into this role… let the role take over his life. To that end, he did a vast amount of prep work. He embedded himself in a National Guard unit, he shadowed the military chaplain so that he could understand how to minister the troops, and how scripture related to the soldier’s life. He really went deep with it. He understood the time period in a great way. He’s a fantastic actor, and there’s an incredible rawness to him. One thing he did… it’s easy to show up as an actor. You get to set, and you wanna be seen. His goal was to disappear into the fabric of the film, and feel like the mother of this family, and become the emotional center of it… this sort of conscious of the tank. He really did a fantastic job at being that.
David, in preparing for this film, both as writer and director, what type of mental preparation did you do to take on such a project? And with such talent?
DAVID AYER : Well, it’s interesting. For me, when I’m on set and we’re shooting I tell my director of photography my big joke… we’ll, it’s not really a joke. “Don’t think! Just do!” and for me, it’s kind of the same thing because as a director you’re a manager. You have this huge amount of resources, this incredible pressure, this timetable… You come up with a series of complex plans that you develop with your department heads. You hope it all works out. You hope the tanks don’t break down. You hope the weather’s favorable. It’s a vastly expensive endeavor, and the world’s watching so it’s really easiest to simply put one foot in front of the other and take it day by day, and to have a vision and to have a goal. The shorthand answer is don’t think.
My question is for David. I was just curious about the logistical aspects. The tanks in this are quite specific to the reality of what happened. I’m curious what kind of help you had? Maybe from the military? Also, if you kind of consulted with any World War II tank vets in getting the authenticity as real as it was?
DAVID AYER : So, one of the complaints that you see in a lot of movies about World War II is that the armor’s inaccurate. It’s interesting because the film takes place at the end of the war, so you have this sort of admixture of every iteration of the Sherman tank in the film, which is accurate. As far as accuracy goes, you could try to build tanks but it’s never going to be correct. There’s a lot guys out there that are fans of the World War II genre, we call them rivet counters, and they’re gonna wanna look up the foundry marks, and serial numbers on the turrets, and figure out where each tank actually was because all of those records are out there. Every bolt, every detail… is the aircraft gun mount correct? Is that the right shovel in the shovel slot? Is it the post war version? Is it the 1951 British export version? People note these details, so that accuracy is important. We worked with certain European collectors. As we started researching the movie, we started realizing that the movie’s in Europe because a lot of this armor and these vehicles weren’t out during the London lease program during World War II, but it’s actually illegal to re-import any of it. This material that went overseas stayed overseas, and there it is now in the hands of these collectors. It’s interesting in working with a collector…
‘Can we paint your tank?’
‘No.’
‘Can we light it on fire?’
‘No.’
So, it becomes a challenge but fortunately we found people who were really game, and they let us paint their tanks, and modify them, and get them absolutely correct to April, 1945.
David, what do you pinpoint as the toughest day of filming? And Logan, considering the lack of experience and knowledge about what he’s been thrown into, what would you say was the most difficult thing to understand about the character and his situation?
DAVID AYER : So as far as the toughest day of filming, it’s interesting; one would think that standing in the mud at 3 a.m. with the rain and pyro and explosions and tanks and all sorts of things like that happening would be the toughest day. That’s actually where I’m at my happiest. The toughest day for me was the dinner scene that we shot in the apartment. It’s…nobody came out of there in tact, let’s just say. It was bare-knuckled acting, and it’s the kind of thing where the next day you shuffle over to the actors and look at your feet and [say], ‘Hey, are we…are we still buddies?’ I still don’t know the answer to that.
LOGAN LERMAN : I would say the toughest aspect to working on this film and figuring out how to portray Norman was mapping his arc and his change from afraid to kill to killer. There’s a lot of things that happen to him on this day that this movie takes place, and to make it realistic, you try to have a gradual change and pick the right moments. That was probably the most difficult aspect to portraying Norman.
When you made HARSH TIMES you took a financial risk in mortgaging home. Looking back, was that the best risk you’ve ever made in your career?
DAVID AYER : Rule #1 in Hollywood is: don’t make a movie with your own money. I’m going to follow that rule in the future, and it’s going to make my wife happy that I do that. It’s still terrifying to think about that and that risk that I took. I’m not a film school grad. I’m sort of a wrong-side-of-the-tracks guy. No one was going to hand me a directing opportunity unless I created it for myself.
Have seen plenty of WWII movies, great tank warfare, and the first I can recall with a Latino in the lead. What kind of research did you find on Latinos in the military?
MICHAEL PEÑA : It was actually way harder than I thought it was going to be, to be honest with you. It’s good to have a buddy who has written a Latino in every movie he’s had. END OF WATCH was an amazing role, and I had to read it three times to make sure I did have that part. But there’s not a lot on Wikipedia; there’s not a lot just in standalone newspaper clippings. It was shocking, to be honest with you, because there was about half-a-million Latinos that actually fought in World War II. So we just started creating a character, really, and estimating what it would be like. So we made him a zoot suit-er; that’s why he was wearing the chain outside. I had a lot of help on this, because every time he would give me direction, he would speak to me in Spanish and for the cadence, because there’s not a lot of that way of talking in any other movie or in videos that I saw. I started watching some of the older movies – if you guys remember, there’s a top hot [reference], and I thought Gordo probably watches all of these movies and thinks they’re really cool. So I tried to put in a lot of stuff that I think would be cool in ‘30s and ‘40s movies. I think the biggest one is just us talking about this guy, how it was tough at home, because it seemed nobody really liked him at home, and then here he is getting shot by Nazis. So there was a level of depression I try to deal with, with drinking in the film; that’s the way he was coping. It’s hard to imagine somebody being hated on both sides, so that was my crutch in the movie.
You have some funny lines you say in Spanish…in the script or ad libbed?
MICHAEL PEÑA : That’s David going, ‘Hey, say this shit, dude.’ I’m not kidding. But it would be funny.
DAVID AYER : But it’s a little bit sad that Latinos made a huge contribution to the war effort in World War II, not just in uniform; between 250,000-500,000 served and there’s no records, so it’s hard to say. And then obviously on the home front as the white boys went to fight, they had to fill these jobs in the factories, and it was really the first period of franchisement for the Latino community in America because they had jobs, they had money, and they were fighting for their country and their freedom. What people don’t realize is there are 17 Hispanic Medal of Honor winners in World War II that won our nation’s highest honor. It was an incredible contribution. As I looked at the period photographs of these tanks crews, you start to see more and more Latinos. I’d show Mike and [say], ‘Hey, look at this guy!’ and you start to see it once you look for it. You realize how prevalent and how present they were in the war, but unfortunately in a lot of these films they just haven’t shown that aspect; they haven’t shown that diversity.
MICHAEL PEÑA: But also what was interesting…I did End of Watch, and that was a completely different character. I remember reading it and being like, ‘Oh, man,’ I was really excited and was like, ‘Thanks for writing me the part.’ And then I was like, ‘Shit!’ It just seemed like a very difficult part to do because he wasn’t like a – me, Jon Bernthal and Shia would get together and say, Logan’s got a storyline, Brad’s got a storyline, use three have to form Voltron in a way. Shia was like, you’re the head, I’m the – I was like, wait, let’s figure this out. But literally, months and months of that. It was really cool that it wasn’t like anything I’ve seen of Shia. He really didn’t care, shining or not. We basically made a pact – you’re as strong as I am, and I’m as strong as you are – and tried to form that triangle and really help the scenery for the movie and paint the picture of war.
For Michael, I liked the Gordo name, which wasn’t really explained. But considering your contribution to the Latino community, do you have plans for doing a Spanish or Mexican film production?
MICHAEL PEÑA : Oh, yeah. I worked with Alejandro Ińárritu, and I worked with Diego Luna, and I’d like to keep on working with those guys. I remember growing up and people changing their names and turning their bank on Latin roles, and I just decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to do that, that I wanted to do something for my people and be inspired just like Edward James Olmos did in STAND AND DELIVER. I ended up doing calculus in high school because it was just a strong image in my head that that’s what I wanted to do. But I would love to do movies in Spanish. I might have to get better at Spanish; I’m not too bad. He can tell you how the name Gordo came about.
DAVID AYER : There was a comic strip that came out in 1941 called “Gordo,” and it was one of the actual first positive depictions of Latinos in U.S. media. The author of the strip – I don’t remember his name – actually ended up serving in World War II, but because of that comic strip, it was sort of common for Latinos to be given that nickname, Gordo.
Brad is one of the most famous movie actors, someone people think they know a lot about. During the early bonding period, what was something intriguing, unexpected or fun you learned about his during that?
JON BERNTHAL : Look, I’ll be honest with you, man – I can’t say enough good about Brad. I understand a lot of people kiss his ass, and I guess if we’re here I’ll just have to kiss it. I felt like he was completely, not only willing, but eager and desperate to dive in every inch as far as the rest of us. At no point did he try to separate himself or hold himself on a pedestal. I respected him immediately for that. And it seemed to me that the colder it got and the wetter it got or the tougher it got, the bigger the smile on his face was. I don’t know what it’s like to be a big movie star and all, but I would imagine that he enjoyed the fact that David in no way let him get away with anything. He was one of the guys and had every bit as much responsibility as we did – that goes for the bootcamp, that goes for the fighting, that goes for the tank training – and he wanted that; he craved that. Any time the chips got down at all in bootcamp or whatever, I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s kind of cool just looking over and being like, ‘Man, that’s Brad Pitt. If he’s doing this shit, I better do it, too!’ You know what I mean? And there’s something to that. He’s a lovely guy, he’s a family man, and I’m proud to call him a friend.
This film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
WAMG has your passes to one of this Fall’s most anticipated films.
FURY takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
The film also stars Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Eastwood.
FURY opens in theaters on October 17.
Stop by the Gamlin Whiskey House Guy’s Happy Hour on Friday, October 10 from 5-6PM for half priced appetizers, drink specials and FURY giveaways.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win passes (Good for 2) to the advance screening of FURY on Wednesday, October 15th at 7PM in the St. Louis area. We will contact the winners by email.
If you are a winner, you will need to head over toSONYSCREENINGS.COMand register to receive your two passes.
Answer the following:
Director David Ayer garnered widespread acclaim and accolades for his hyper-realistic portrayal of life behind the blue line in END OF WATCH(2012). Ayer co-wrote what WWII submarine thriller starring Matthew McConaughey?
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This film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
On October 17, director David Ayer’s film FURY opens in theaters. For many whose fathers and grandfathers served during World War II over in Europe, this movie will undoubtedly take on a very personal meaning.
Sony Pictures has released six powerful new clips and photos from the movie.
FURY takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
“The war’s almost over and this dying elephant – the Nazi empire – is on its last legs,” Ayer explains. “It’s a different world from your usual war movie, where we celebrate victorious campaigns like the invasion of the European continent, or D-Day, or the Battle of the Bulge, these famous battles that American troops have taken part in. One of the forgotten time periods is this last gasp of the Nazi empire, with an American army that has been fighting for years and is on its last reserves of manpower. The men are exhausted. In World War II, you fought until you either won or died, or were grievously injured and got sent home. The fanatical regime is collapsing, it’s a confusing environment where anyone can be the enemy – it’s incredibly taxing on the fighting man’s soul.”
For FURY’s score, David Ayer turned to Steven Price, who earlier this year won the Oscar for his score to GRAVITY.
Price also made heavy use of a choir, often chanting and singing in German. “The idea was that while the characters are supposed to be winning the war, in fact, they’re in the middle of Nazi Germany and surrounded. We wanted to give a very unsettled feeling – the whole score gives you a sense of being in danger. So I used the choir in different ways — sometimes as a group, sometimes solo, very closely miked. It’s this constant presence, this undercurrent of unsettling darkness.”
Kevin Vance, one of the military technical advisors on the film, says that the commitment to realism meant a commitment to a furious, visceral film unlike any WWII film that has come before.
“In most World War II movies, we have this association with ‘the good war’ – and it is,” he says. “But over 60 million people died in World War II. That’s a dichotomy that hasn’t been fully explored, and that’s what David demanded of this film.”
One way that the filmmakers were able to “get it right” was to enlist the aid of a number of veterans of the 2nd Armored Division who served during World War II.
“David is ferocious about authenticity,” says Pitt. In order to make that authenticity happen for the crew, he relates, “he set us up with some beautiful experiences. We got to meet several vets who were all in their 90s; they had survived D-Day landings, and the Battle of the Bulge… it was a very humbling experience to sit in their presence and listen to their stories. They had very visceral descriptions of what it was like to be in the tank: the heat, the exhaust, it was oily, the smell of death was always in the air. Most of them were undertrained, they were underequipped, they were dealing with incredible hardships and weather, lack of food, lack of sleep. And they had to push on under the most harrowing of conditions.”
Details of the tankers’ memories come alive in FURY – for example, that every fifth bullet from the machine gun is a tracer; that there are so many tracers that the heat can melt the barrel; that the difference between outgoing and incoming artillery is the incoming’s telltale whistle; that the outgunned Sherman tanks could find ways to use their exceptional mobility against the Germans’ mighty Tiger tanks. It’s these details that make the film feel true-to-life.
“Veteran accounts are hugely important, because they bring it to life,” says David Rae, one of the military technical advisors on the film.
“They give you the actual ground truth of how a crew fought through different theaters – through Normandy, North Africa, through the low countries, and finally to Germany, that final push. They give you interesting stories that you can grab hold of and emotionally attach yourself to.”
FURY will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX format and released into IMAX theatres in select international territories starting Oct. 16.
FURY, which features a strong supporting cast including Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood, will be released in more than 25 overseas IMAX markets through early 2015, including Australia, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the U.K.
This film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
Brad Pitt, the guys and a 33 ton Sherman Tank are ready to break through enemy lines in the brand new poster for the upcoming movie, FURY.
Directed by David Ayer,FURY starsBrad Pittas “Wardaddy,” a Sherman tank commander who must guide his men into the heart of Nazi Germany during the last month of World War II. The film includes Shia LeBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood.
The first to bear a fully-rotating turret with a 75 mm gun, the Sherman Tanks were named after the American Civil War Union General William T. Sherman. (Sherman made the infamous March to the Sea from Chattanooga to Atlanta).
With almost 50,000 manufactured during World War II, these remarkable tanks provided critical armored support to Allied ground troops. For more on the Sherman Tanks, clickHERE.
Columbia Pictures will release the World War II film during awards season on October 17 andwill be the closing night film at the58th BFI London Film Festivalon Oct. 19.
What kind of Oscar contender will the film be? With a big cast led by Brad Pitt and directed by END OF WATCH director Ayer, Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood/Indiewire postulates, “The awards question is whether this movie leans toward the artful naturalism of Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” the spectacular humanism of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” or the accessible commerciality of Peter Berg’s “Lone Survivor”.
The Fury crew with Wardaddy (Brad Pitt), Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal), Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) and Trini Garcia (Michael Peña).
Director David Ayer gives a rundown of these men from his upcoming film FURY in the new “Brothers Under The Gun” featurette.
“Combat’s a brutal, dirty business. It’s incredibly taxing on the fighting man’s soul.”
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
FURY’s crew includes Andrew Menzies (production designer, 3:10 TO YUMA), Roman Vasyanov (director of photography, END OF WATCH), Dody Dorn (editor, END OF WATCH, SABOTAGE) and Steven Price (composer, GRAVITY).
Also featuring Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood, the film opens on October 17.
