Interview: James Ponsoldt (The End of the Tour)
Steve Wagner interviews director James Ponsoldt about The End of the Tour, the critically-acclaimed biopic with Jesse Eisenberg, and Jason Segel as author David Foster...
Interview: Ron Davis (3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets)
When Michael Dunn murdered 17-year-old Jordan Davis in the parking lot of a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 23, 2012, the bullets not only ripped through Jordan’s body but also tore open the hearts of his parents, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, before finally slicing through the post-racial lie America pretends to believe about itself. Steve Wagner interviews Jordan’s father Ron Davis in a powerful exchange that takes on...
Interview: Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Ex Machina, one of the most daring, original films of the year is now on home media. Steve Wagner interviews writer-director Alex Garland about his stunning directorial...
Flick Nation Interview: Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Welcome to the Stepford Years. These are the days where men expect, or at least lust/dream after, a lover who is fully realized, perfect in mind and body, and most importantly, compliant in every way…if you catch my drift. Call it coping with pornocopia. Those girls seem to know what a man needs, why can’t mine be like that? We see this meme proliferating now in our films, indeed, some of our best films of the past several years. Ex...
Merchants of Doubt: Pretend Experts Cause Real Damage
The documentary film Merchants of Doubt exposes deceptive corporate media spokesmen who essentially lie for a living. ***** by Steve Wagner Kurt Vonnegut, in the introduction to his 1961 novel Mother Night, offered a moral to the story he was about to tell. “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” In the context of the story, this principle concerns the war-time activity of an American agent,...
Flick Nation Interview: Robert Kenner (Merchants of Doubt)
Steve Wagner interviews filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) about his latest documentary, Merchants of Doubt....
John Boorman’s Real Queen & Country: A Cinematic Master Brings the Love Home
The creative triumph of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood will likely be acknowledged, perhaps emulated, by filmmakers for years to come. As auteurs study the structural genius of Linklater’s masterpiece they may also draw inspiration from the type of story he decided to tell, and become familiar with other films that seek the same delicate dance between life and art. A wonderful place to start would be the autobiographical work from John...
Flick Nation Interview – Mary Dore, “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry”
Steve Wagner interviews Mary Dore, director of the documentary She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, which chronicles the events, the movers and the shakers of the feminist movement from 1966 to 1971. Taped 2/05/15 in San...
Flick Nation Interview: Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year)
Steve Wagner interviews actor Oscar Isaac (Drive, Inside Llewyn Davis) about his breakthrough role in JC Chandor’s 1981-set crime drama A Most Violent Year – as well as his process of character discovery and a little future project called Star Wars: The Force...
Flick Nation Interview: David Oyelowo (Selma)
Steve Wagner interviews actor David Oyelowo about his powerful turn as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, depicting the icon as a man, the ironic connection between Selma and Spielberg’s Lincoln, and how the recent events in Ferguson are a sobering echo of the...
Flick Nation Interview: Jeff Preiss (Low Down)
Steve Wagner interviews director Jeff Preiss about Low Down, a musical biopic about jazz pianist Joe Albany (John Hawkes) through the perspective of his daughter (Elle...
Flick Nation Interview: Jon Stewart and Maziar Bahari (Rosewater)
Steve Wagner interviews Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Maziar Bahari about Rosewater, Stewart’s directorial debut, based on Iranian-Canadian journalist Bahari’s first-hand account of his own detention and brutal interrogation by Iranian...
Flick Nation Interview: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Steve Wagner interviews Eddie Redmayne about playing Stephen Hawking in the film The Theory of...
Dennis Willis talks Movie Piracy and Google Glass on Bloomberg Best
Bloomberg Radio’s Greg Jarrett chats with Dennis Willis about the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and the MPAA’s “zero-tolerance” ban against wearable devices such as Google Glass....
Richard Linklater & Boyhood: In Search of Lost Time
by Steve Wagner As we leave behind a mostly forgettable (raccoons excluded) Summer and transition into (cue trumpets) prestige season, a number of awards contenders will attempt to salvage in quality what the 2014 box office has thus far lacked in quantity. If festival buzz and early reviews are to be trusted, The Imitation Game, Gone Girl, Foxcatcher and Birdman will be among the acclaimed films we’ll see going for the gold between...
Interview: Haley Joel Osment (Tusk)
Dennis Willis chats with Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment (Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, A.I. Artificial Intelligence) about his role in Kevin Smith’s Tusk, being associated with two iconic films from the 90s, and misconceptions about Steven Spielberg and Stanley...
Interview: Alex Gibney (Finding Fela)
Steve Wagner chats with prolific documentarian Alex Gibney ( We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) about his latest film Finding Fela, a look at legendary Afrobeat musician Fela...
Interview: John Turturro (Fading Gigolo)
Steve Wagner chats with actor-writer-director John Turturro (O Bother, Where Art Thou, Quiz Show, The Big Lebowski) about his latest film Fading Gigolo, a comedy featuring Woody Allen in a rare starring role as the pimp to Turturro’s gigolo. Fading Gigolo is now available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and...
Instant Review: Guardians of the Galaxy
It’s the most honest review you can find: in the car on the way home! Dennis Willis and Steve Wagner’s immediate reaction to Marvel’s latest blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy, minutes after seeing...
Interview: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Steve Wagner chats with acclaimed director Richard Linklater (Before Midnight, Dazed and Confused, Bernie) about his landmark film Boyhood, spending 12 years on one project, the memory power of pop music, and how Bernie is...
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