Jay McCarroll sits in a corner of a New York hotel bar, stirring a drink with a stalk of celery. As the star of “Eleven Minutes,” a documentary about his life after “Project Runway,” he’s enjoying the renewed interest in his work and his career that the movie is bringing – from newspapers and network TV that are clamoring for time to walk with the fashion designer.
“Without the TV show and this movie, I wouldn’t be sitting in this hotel and drinking and not paying for it,” he says with a delighted grin. “Or staying in a nice hotel for free. That part’s nice.” (More…)
She’s got an hourglass figure, dark coppery hair and dazzling smile. Dressed in black, Vinessa Shaw seems to underplay her deceptive beauty, which comes through clearly in her latest film, “Two Lovers.”
Clearly, that is, to everyone except the guy she’s supposed to attract: Joaquin Phoenix. In James Gray’s romantic drama, she plays the nice Jewish girl that his parents fix him up with, even as he’s chasing an unattainable blonde goddess, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
Shaw, however, is more than happy to play second fiddle because the part is so substantial.
“I’ve played sweet characters before, but never a meaty character like this,” Shaw says, her green eyes flashing. “I was surprised because it’s a lead opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. I was shocked that James thought I could hold my own – but here I am.” (More…)
Matteo Garrone, battling a cold, settles into a chair in the Library at the Hudson Hotel. It’s a chilly, wintry day but Garrone projects a sunny nonchalance that seems at odds with the topic at hand: his film, “Gomorrah,” one of the darkest portraits imaginable of life under mob control in Naples, Italy.
For Garrone, being in New York to discuss his film is unexpected – and the fact that the film is a hit is even more so. A winner of awards at the Cannes and Munich film festivals, a selection of the picky New York Film Festival, the movie is the first by the former painter that’s actually made money for his producers.
“I produced the first three and made the next three with Fandango – and this is my first success at the box office,” Garrone, 40, says, sipping a Coke. “It’s a new experience and I feel good. I’m happy I didn’t disappoint. For me, box office is not the most important thing. I always had good relations with critics, but this is the first time the critics and a big audience have agreed. It’s rare to have both. We were very surprised by the success.” (More…)
It’s hard to find a movie that more closely fits the description “hand-made” than Henry Selick’s “Coraline” – or any of the stop-motion animation films in his brief but labor-intensive oeuvre, for that matter.
“Hand-made? Pretty much,” Selick, 56, says. “I guess the next step would be shadow plays in the local villages.”
Selick (pictured at right above, with Neil Gaiman) also directed “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach” (as well as the live-action/animation hybrid, “Monkeybone”). He adapted Neil Gaiman’s book, the story of a girl who discovers an alternate reality with an “other” version of her parents.
It’s a grass-is-greener story that’s reminiscent of everything from “The Wizard of Oz” to Selick’s own “Nightmare Before Christmas”: It’s built around a dissatisfied character who yearns for a better life – and discovers that she wasn’t so bad off to begin with.
“When I first read the unpublished book, it struck me as a universal story,” Selick says. “Everybody wishes they had different parents or imagines a different version of their life. There are many times I’ve wished I could make a slight adjustment – or a large one. Although, really, I’m happy with my current life.” (More…)
