Q&A with Alexia Anastasio star and director of Little Fishes
We get an in depth view on the ins and outs of behind the scenes of an independent feature film.
Q: How did this all start?
A: It started with me being a fan of playing make believe. Oh, you mean this movie. Oh, yeah, That started with me being a fan of movies that make people think and feel. I love John Cassavetes, Lars von Trier, Yasujirō Ozu, Maya Deren, Jane Campion, Lea Pool, Sally Potter and Patricia Rozema to name a few. They all bring you into their stories and do it in a way that you are completely immersed in the characters moment. I decided to organize a Mumblecore Film Festival which I hosted 4 Q&A’s after the screenings with the directors and producers last year and that was when I got the idea and support to make my own. I now plan to tour with this film and others like it world wide. You can get updates for that here: https://www.facebook.com/mumblecore
Q: What is your favorite part about making Little Fishes?
A: Working on set is always my favorite part. Each day on set I am usually repeating out loud - oh wow - this is going to look beautiful and because I was lucky enough to work with the most talented cast and crew ever it does.
Q: Was it hard getting the actors to agree to do a daring movie?
A: I found it easy. I made sure that I told each actor before they got to set that they would be kissing another actor. I asked if they were 100% okay with that. It’s all about preparation and they appreciated it.
Q: What is it like being a director and actor in your own film?
A: I love acting and directing simultaneously. I love the creative control. I like being able to do improv on set and play with the form. I am always open to contribution and ideas from my fellow actors. I allow my actors to have voice on set and give suggestion. This technique builds mutual trust and respect on set. One contribution was my fellow actress, Brenna Gwyn Snowe, ran the bathtub with a little too much water in it and when I got in water spilled over the side and we both had a good laugh. It made the scene.
Q: How do folks find out more about your work?
A: Well you can see my last film, Adventures in Plymptoons! on many platforms like Hulu, Vimeo, Amazon by going here: http://adventuresinplymptoons.com/
You can sign up for my email list and get updates whenever I have a new project on my website: http://www.alexiaanastasio.com
And you can view the new trailers and sneak peak scenes and even give to the campaign for Little Fishes here: http://www.littlefishesmovie.com
BIO: Alexia Anastasio is an artist, actress and filmmaker. She was featured in HBO's Bored to Death, VH1 “If you like...” commercial and Vetiver "Everyday" music video. Her work on the feature documentaries includes: Editor of Vampira: The Movie; Associate Producer of The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels; Co-producer of Beyond the Noise: My Transcendental Meditation Journey; Director of Adventures in Plymptoons! documentary on Oscar nominated animator Bill Plympton; Director of documentary, Ginger Girls: The Secret Lives of Redheads and Director of narrative, Little Fishes.
Q: How did this all start?
A: It started with me being a fan of playing make believe. Oh, you mean this movie. Oh, yeah, That started with me being a fan of movies that make people think and feel. I love John Cassavetes, Lars von Trier, Yasujirō Ozu, Maya Deren, Jane Campion, Lea Pool, Sally Potter and Patricia Rozema to name a few. They all bring you into their stories and do it in a way that you are completely immersed in the characters moment. I decided to organize a Mumblecore Film Festival which I hosted 4 Q&A’s after the screenings with the directors and producers last year and that was when I got the idea and support to make my own. I now plan to tour with this film and others like it world wide. You can get updates for that here: https://www.facebook.com/mumblecore
Q: What is your favorite part about making Little Fishes?
A: Working on set is always my favorite part. Each day on set I am usually repeating out loud - oh wow - this is going to look beautiful and because I was lucky enough to work with the most talented cast and crew ever it does.
Q: Was it hard getting the actors to agree to do a daring movie?
A: I found it easy. I made sure that I told each actor before they got to set that they would be kissing another actor. I asked if they were 100% okay with that. It’s all about preparation and they appreciated it.
Q: What is it like being a director and actor in your own film?
A: I love acting and directing simultaneously. I love the creative control. I like being able to do improv on set and play with the form. I am always open to contribution and ideas from my fellow actors. I allow my actors to have voice on set and give suggestion. This technique builds mutual trust and respect on set. One contribution was my fellow actress, Brenna Gwyn Snowe, ran the bathtub with a little too much water in it and when I got in water spilled over the side and we both had a good laugh. It made the scene.
A: Well you can see my last film, Adventures in Plymptoons! on many platforms like Hulu, Vimeo, Amazon by going here: http://adventuresinplymptoons.com/
You can sign up for my email list and get updates whenever I have a new project on my website: http://www.alexiaanastasio.com
And you can view the new trailers and sneak peak scenes and even give to the campaign for Little Fishes here: http://www.littlefishesmovie.com
BIO: Alexia Anastasio is an artist, actress and filmmaker. She was featured in HBO's Bored to Death, VH1 “If you like...” commercial and Vetiver "Everyday" music video. Her work on the feature documentaries includes: Editor of Vampira: The Movie; Associate Producer of The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels; Co-producer of Beyond the Noise: My Transcendental Meditation Journey; Director of Adventures in Plymptoons! documentary on Oscar nominated animator Bill Plympton; Director of documentary, Ginger Girls: The Secret Lives of Redheads and Director of narrative, Little Fishes.
"The Randomers" Indie Irish film-making at its finest.
This film was shot in Ireland in Counties Galway & Mayo using local actors, musicians and scenery - the production didn’t even have a budget for catering but the cast and crew were eager to work on this challenging project nonetheless.
THE RANDOMERS tells the story of a girl on the West coast of Ireland played by Sarah Jane Murphy who places an advertisement seeking a guy for a relationship 'without speaking' and finds exactly what she’s looking for in Joseph Lydon.
“There’s something about him she doesn’t know,” says award-winning director Graham Jones. “But he’s not going to be chatty about it. I’ve always wondered why romantic movies are so dialogue-driven. After all, not even the most talkative relationships seem deeply rooted in words…”
Unlike his previous movies such as FUDGE 44 and HOW TO CHEAT IN THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE which were released through cinemas or DVD, this Graham Jones film is freely available online for anybody to watch - just go to THERANDOMERS.COM and the film will start playing!
check out THE RANDOMERS trailer.
American Hustle
A comedic caper with a Martin Scorsese 'Casino' like sensibility and, similarly, a kick ass period soundtrack.
I can't say that I 100% embraced American Hustle the way I did Silver Linings Playbook but the acting is always watchable, the fashions and hair suitably over the top and ridiculous and the script pretty strong. I get the feeling I will enjoy it more a second time.
I felt like it meandered too much, didn't have terrific focus and I thought that Jeremy Renner, while fine, was too young for the role. The impact of his position in the plot I felt through Bale's reactions rather than anything, actually, that Renner did. I thought Jennifer Laurence was good but not completely confident or assured in the role and very often I could see her "acting". It's difficult to shake the fact that Christian Bale, as marvellous as he is in the film, is 'doing' Robert De Niro which gets really confusing and weird when De Niro, himself, shows up for a brief cameo half-way through. Amy Adams is good in all but accent which wavers everywhere. The plot involves her putting on the performance of that of an English lady but her English accent is not defined enough to be English and her American accent isn't strong enough to be clear who she is and what she's doing. This is only a problem in as far as the fact there is a plot point and a reveal that sort of hinges on you being able to tell the difference. Lastly Bradley Cooper is tremendous in the movie, none more so than, in one scene, doing a perfect, physical impression of a surprising and awesome Louis C.K. character. Cooper clearly has hidden talents and is fast becoming O. Russel's De Niro (or DiCaprio to bring it up to date) with him doing, by far, his best work with the Director. I hope they have a long fruitful partnership, I could watch their stuff once a year, no problem.
The plot is all very well and dragged out a bit but the genius of the film is in its character portrayal and in its dark, a lost Coen-esque sense of humour. It doesn't always balance this well with the drama though and it makes a bit light of a situation we're meant to feel rising danger in and the tone is a bit all over the place, to be honest. In parts Broadway Danny Rose and in other parts Casino.
The ending, too, isn't exactly A) a shock B) explained clearly and C) gripping enough to let you walk from the cinema thinking you've seen a great con man caper.
Also, the film, like almost all films these days is 20mins too long.
That being said, however, there is great performances, clever writing and fun, assured direction to enjoy. No words on whether O Russell is still being a massive cock on set though, I like to think not.
No real strong complaints, just not the unmitigated work of genius some would have you believe.
Thinking about it again it's like the Coen brothers seen through the eyes of Scorsese but not as successful as that sounds, still a damn good effort though.
7.5 out of 10
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
I have just got back from Anchorman 2 and wanted to get my thoughts down while they formed in my laughter filled head.
The good news is my brain is scrabbling to remember all the really great lines and bits in the movie, this means there were, thankfully, lots of them. The second thing I should point out is that I could watch the Channel 4 news-team play tiddlywinks for 2 hours and be happy. So I am definitely a soft sell member of this movies key target audience of loyal Anchorman fans.
Bare that in mind and make of it what you, inevitably, will.
So, continuing with the good, the first 30-45 minutes of the movie, the getting the boys back together and the establishing of the key story elements are absolutely fantastic. Hilarious, well played and a great 'welcome back' to the world of Burgandy. After the joyously strong opening, the film struggles a bit without a strong, 3 act structure to hang the jokes on but it is still very funny. However the laugh count has reduced from 3 every minute to 1 or 2 big laughs every 10 minutes.
Much like McKay's and Ferrell's films The Other Guys and The Campaign, Anchorman 2 has a fairly blatant satire at its core of the 24hr news cycle. It conflicted me a little because while I will never ever knock comedies that try and make a point, I am not sure it belongs or fits well with the Burgandy and news team characters. The joke of the first film was an acutely realised absurd pomposity and arrogance of four, highly damaged male characters and the reckless decade they inhabit. That is somewhat missing here as they aren't really battling anything here or confused by anything. The characters in the sequel just go through a series of rises and falls, stumbling through comedy sketch after sketch, always with an eye on the satire of the absurdity of shitty cable news, or with an eye to telling a joke and, often, beating it to death, but with very little regard for a story. So the first film comes off looking like it had an actual structure and while it, too, has many ludicrous and surreal flights of fancy, the story is always moving forward. This sequel, by comparison, is more like the 'unofficial-only-on-dvd' sequel Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, a movie compiled (rather than planned) using different takes, cut scenes and a whole removed sub plot from the first film. This is not to disparage it, just an attempt to vocalise what this film IS.
The sequel, like the first, shot two movies worth of footage and the first rough cut was 4hrs long. By a process of test screenings, private screenings and tinkering we get the finished result. Although I hate test screenings, I am sure this was the same on the first film, it's just in that case they had not one but two 3 act structured stories they could use. In Anchorman 2, it feels like, they, probably, just picked the funnier stuff; Whether it made sense or had a flow to it, or not.
Anchorman, at times, is a weird movie but just like Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, Anchorman 2 is weirder. There's a whole sequence in the middle of the film set around a lighthouse that is just bizarre and not always laugh-out-loud funny bizarre but always intriguing, surprising and weird. Ferrell and McKay, given the chance to finally make the sequel have gone a bit hog wild in parts. It feels like several of the more left-field funny or die sketches strung together. The ending, too, takes some of the reality bending concepts of the first film and explodes them up to 22 (twice as much as 11). Again, because of the way this was edited and put together, the direction seems less focussed and pleasing than McKay has achieved in something like, the relatively normal by comparison, Step Brothers, for example. Not that I cared too much. In fact I welcomed it. McKay and Ferrell as a team are experimental, weird, wonderful, intelligent, odd, satirical, surreal and just damn funny but the mainstream eat it up. Possibly because they're also delightfully silly but I like to think that the mainstream gets a bit starved for crazy shit sometimes and so embraces people like Ferrell to make sure the scale doesn't tip too far into Blandville.
In terms of the performances the film is, honestly, the Ron and Brick show. This isn't a huge concern however as Ferrell and, especially, Carrell slip back into the roles as if they'd never been away. It's a little sad, however, that Veronica, Fantana and Champ get little to do once the initial 40mins is up. As for the new additions to the cast it's really only Kristin Wiig that gets to match the madness of the men, James Marsden is sort of miscast in the role. I've never really liked him much and, while he certainly looks the part, is no match for the others around him in the comedy stakes. He tries his best and doesn't stink up the joint but there are plenty who could've played it better.
The last point to make is that Anchorman 2 does suffer from the Austin Powers/Waynes World syndrome of recycled gags, or in this case it's more like welcome referential humour nodding at particular character tropes or gags of the first film and either expanding or changing them in some way. This is not over done and it's not grating but it's definitely there. Most of the time it's welcome and even, by a weird area of human nature and humour that loves familiarity, demanded, so don't worry but it was definitely worth mentioning.
All that being said and I realise this review may have sounded negative in parts, I loved the film. It's the weirdest, most experimental and silliest mainstream Christmas comedy and sequel since Gremlins 2 and it's funny. If, like me, you have watched Anchorman and Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie a lot and just want to spend more time with those guys, you won't be disappointed and there's enough to make the uninitiated chuckle too, though they will, probably, have no idea what's going on. The nice thing is that they have filled the scene with lots of in-gags and sight jokes that will lend itself to delightful 2nd, 3rd, 4th viewings and so on. There's also been talk of releasing the other 2 hrs of this film as an alternative version so, I imagine, the DVD/Blu-Ray set of this will be a never ending treasure trove of great lines and ludicrous scenarios.
Time to cherish a movie like this, even with its flaws. because studios just don't bet on weird ideas like this anymore, as can be attested to by the, quite frankly, odd array of really shitty film trailers which preceded this.
7.5 out of 10