Summer 2017 CineArts Film Guide

FILM GUIDE SUMMER 2017

ON THE COVER: INCUBATING THE BIG SICK The CinéArts Spotlight pg 4

AL GORE ON AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL Getting Candid With the Former Vice President pg 12

A LOOK INSIDE STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2017 with Geoffrey Wexler pg 8

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“THE YEAR’S BEST FILM SO FAR” - Jordan Raup, The Film Stage

“A HAUNTING, MESMERIZING SPIRITUAL POEM” - Matthew Jacobs, Huffington Post

“ONE OF THE MOST ORIGINAL, CAPTIVATING STORIES TO GRACE THE BIG SCREEN THIS YEAR” - Matthew Jacobs, Huffington Post

“UNIQUE AND MAGNIFICENT” - Erin Whitney, Screen Crush

“A WORK OF CINEMATIC LYRICISM” - Sam Adams, Slate

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SOON

FROM

COMING

The Journey Directed by Nick Hamm With Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, John Hurt OFFICIAL SELECTION Toronto International Film Festival IN SELECT THEATERS STARTING JUNE 16

City of Ghosts Directed by Matthew Heineman OFFICIAL SELECTION Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival CO-PRESENTED WITH AMAZON STUDIOS IN THEATERS JULY 7

Rebel in the Rye Directed by Danny Strong With Nicholas Hoult, Kevin Spacey, Sarah Paulson, Hope Davis, Zoey Deutch OFFICIAL SELECTION Sundance Film Festival IN SELECT THEATERS STARTING SEPTEMBER 15

IFCFilms.com

/ IFCFilmsOfficial

/ IFCFilms

/ IFCFilms

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GETTING READY FOR HIS CLOSE-UP CinéArts Talks with Matt Spicer on his Directorial Debut Ingrid Goes West By Frank Gonzales

T

he movie going experience is unlike any other. It’s communal, with folks of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds sharing the same emotions simultaneously.

Your fear is mine, and my joy is yours. The new film Ingrid Goes West pounces on that idea to create a shared sense of uneasiness, angst and relief within the framework of a dark comedy.

It’s a credit to first time director Matt Spicer that he has a grasp on his characters and the talent to set a tone that give us much to think about. Especially in this digitally, social media crazed society, Spicer’s take on authenticity and reality ring true when the end credits come up. CinéArts talked to the director about the development of Ingrid Goes West and the road to bringing it to theatres.

Spicer co-wrote the screenplay for Ingrid Goes West and it was over a lunch that the idea came about. “The story was actually born from my having lunch with a friend of mine, my co-writer David Branson Smith.”.

“We were having a discussion about our love of Instagram, talking about the dark side of it and how it brings up all of these negative feelings in us. It makes us feel bad about ourselves because we’re not going on cool enough vacations, eating incredible desserts, or having awesome parties. It has that way of making you feel bad or less than someone else. I think the character of Ingrid grew out of that. She was a kind of a composite about all of our feelings about social media.”

But social media, like any lead character, has to have a second side to their persona.

The director recognized that all in the world of social media wasn’t bad, so likewise was Ingrid. “Dave and I realized that there were also a lot of positive feelings about social media and what we love about it. So we wanted to have characters that represented all of those kinds of things; Ingrid Goes West grew out of that conversation.”

To wrap that message in a way to make it

accessible and meaningful for the audience, not just an attack on our digital society through a dark comedy, Spicer knew he had to draw upon some of his inspirations to walk the fine line he wanted. “I love The Talented My Ripley and The King Of Comedy.

Especially in King I loved how Scorsese took this potentially unlikable, deranged character and made you love him and really understand him. I like the challenge of that.

“So I wondered if there was a way to do that. We knew we wanted to do a dark comedy, so it was how far can we push this?

So at the beginning of the movie you’re like ‘this girl’s totally nuts’ but as the movie goes on you begin to understand what makes her tick and even maybe relate to her, and feel similar feelings to how she is feeling.

You may not react the way she reacts, but you’re at least thinking ‘I know where she’s coming from, even if I don’t agree with how she’s feeling it.’”

The challenge to make a sympathetic character out of Ingrid, who at the outset is teetering on the brink of sanity, lies in the road all the characters took. This odd lot of personalities and their perspectives on reality keeps the audience challenged throughout. Spicer likened it to social media itself: do we love it or hate it? As he continued, “My feelings on social media are conflicted. Is it a good thing or is it a bad thing? There are great things about it and there are bad things about it. How has it affected our culture?

“Ingrid is flawed, but that didn’t make her all bad. And what about Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen), the object of Ingrid’s obsession? We wanted to show that over the course of the film it looks like Taylor’s perfect life has the layers pulled back to see that maybe the projected image isn’t the full story. So we tried to weave it suddenly at first, to have little cracks in the façade. I meant we all have cracks but some are just better at spackling over it than others.”

Spicer credits his lead actor, Aubrey

Plaza, for setting the tone for approaching the movie. “The way she talked about the character and said ‘I don’t want this to be just be a comedy. I want the audience to care, I want to emotionally connect with them, and I want to treat this character with the respect that she deserves.’ That was exactly what a director wants to hear from an actor!”

Ingrid Goes West in the end carves up social media, but never takes the time to separate out the good parts from the bad.

For the director it was important to make sure that there was balance, especially at the end. “I didn’t want to pass judgement on social media itself, but rather it’s a plea for authenticity in the modern age. So what is fake and what is real, and how do we define those things? And which version of ourselves are we going to put out there, the real one or the sculpted version that leaves certain things out about ourselves?

“We could have gone two ways but in the end both seemed like false endings to me. I don’t think we have the answer to that yet, but putting a period at the end of the movie felt wrong to me. We wanted to capture the fact that maybe now she is conflicted too.

We wanted to find the right balance.”

Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) is an unstable young woman with a checkered past of obsessive behavior. She secretly moves to Los Angeles to befriend Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) — an Instagram “ influencer” with a fabulous artist boyfriend, a camera-ready terrier, and an array of new products and brands to promote to her followers.

After Ingrid adopts a Taylor-made identity for herself, her attempts to prove she’s BFF material are underway — that is, until she meets Taylor’s obnoxious brother Nicky, who threatens to tear down her façade. Ingrid Goes West is a savagely hilarious dark comedy that brilliantly satirizes the modern world of social media and proves that being #perfect isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

In CinéArts theatres this August.

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INCUBATING THE BIG SICK The CinéArts Spotlight

T

he Big Sick began with a big opportunity for actor and writer Kumail Nanjiani, the kind that only strikes once.

Muslim family and his parents expected him to enter into a traditional Pakistani arranged marriage.

In 2012, Judd Apatow was at the annual South by Southwest Festival when he was asked to guest on “You Made It Weird,” a conversational podcast featuring stand-up comedians.

Apatow had never heard the show but he had just worked with one of the other guests: Nanjiani, who had a small role in The Five Year Engagement, a soon-to-be-released romantic comedy Apatow produced.

The 90-minute show flew by and as it did, Apatow and Nanjiani bonded. Apatow has long made a practice of developing projects with and for comedians, so Nanjiani didn’t take it lightly when Apatow subsequently contacted his manager to propose a meeting.

Nanjiani and Gordon dated for a few months, when she suddenly became gravely ill in the spring of 2007. Doctors placed her in an induced coma as a life-saving measure while they scrambled to figure out what was wrong.

He rode out the crisis alongside Gordon’s parents, who came in from North Carolina. After 12 days, doctors successfully diagnosed Gordon and brought her out of the coma. Three months later, Nanjiani and Gordon were married.

“I was thrilled of course,” Nanjiani recalls. “And then I was terrified. Judd and I had gotten along so great at South by Southwest, I thought I could only mess it up from here.”

Apatow had never heard anything quite like Nanjiani’s story. “I thought it was incredible – I’ve never heard of falling in love with someone while they’re in a coma,” Apatow describes. “It was not only true and it was also so heartfelt – and it was set in the world of standup comics, which has always fascinated me.”

But one story idea he had suggested otherwise – and surprisingly, it was one that came straight from real life: the unlikely story of what unfolded from the day his real-life wife Emily Gordon heckled him during his stand-up set in Chicago to the wild ride that eventually led to their marriage.

Mendel, too, was awestruck by the tale. “Our jaws were just on the floor,” he recalls. “Kumail’s story was gut-wrenching and funny and challenging and beautiful, which is everything we all want movies to be that they seldom are. I said I thought we’d be crazy not to throw ourselves into it and Judd felt the same.”

Nanjiani was back a month later to meet with Apatow and producer Barry Mendel – Apatow’s collaborator – to tell his story.

With Apatow and Mendel urging him to write, Nanjiani knew he was facing the challenge of his life. “I was excited but I was also petrified,” he confesses. “I hadn’t really grappled with the emotional experience of her illness yet. But it had been five years and the timing felt right. I think there’s a window when you still remember all the feelings but you have enough distance that you can break them down and get some perspective. You don’t want to wait so long that the feelings go away.”

It was 2006 and Pakistan-born Nanjiani was living in Chicago, building his career as a stand-up, while Gordon was just starting her career as a couples and family therapist. Though neither one was looking to be in a relationship, from the moment they met, they enjoyed being together too much to break it off. Yet things were complicated – largely because Nanjiani hailed from a conservative 4 | CINEARTS.COM

Meanwhile, as he’s done since his stand-up years, Nanjiani asked Gordon to read his work-in-progress. Gordon, a published author and contributor to The Huffington Post, The New York Times, GQ, Lenny and Rookie, gave notes and contributed her own recollection of events.

“I was getting such great notes,” he remembers, “a little bit into the process I said ‘we should write this together.’”

Gordon was surprised but delighted. “I honestly had not been thinking about it. But once he said it, I was like, ‘yeah, that would be pretty cool. I think it would be an amazing experience.’ And it was.”

The couple spent three years developing the script in close collaboration with Apatow and Mendel, figuring out how to shape the material. As Gordon explains, “There were so many ways to go, because there were different angles to the story: a struggling comedian; a guy with a Muslim family living in America; a guy with a sick girlfriend. So there was a lot to circle around.”

The couple stayed in broadly autobiographical territory to center the narrative of The Big Sick on Kumail – who scrupulously maintains a line between his dual lives: one as a striving young comic who lives in a crummy apartment and brings home the occasional girl; and another as the adored younger son of observant Muslim parents. His parents try to adjust to his comedy career, in part because Kumail has given them no reason to believe that he won’t eventually pursue a more serious one and enter into a traditional Pakistani marriage.

As Nanjiani sees it, Kumail hasn’t yet grappled with the idea that the person he was raised to be in one culture isn’t necessarily the person he’s becoming in a different culture. Says Nanjiani, “The world of Kumail’s parents is totally different from the world of Emily and his comedian friends. He is a totally different person in each of those different worlds -- and that’s not a good way to live. That became the core of the movie: someone trying to figure out how to be himself.”

Nanjiani wanted to channel the spirit of his own family in portraying the playful, jokey atmosphere that prevails during Kumail’s visits with his parents Azmat and Sharmeen, older brother Naveed and sister-in-law Fatima. “The dinner scene in the film is exactly how dinners with my family are. There are five different conversations going on, people are talking over each other and everyone’s very loud,” says Nanjiani. “It was important that each relationship be specific and unique.”

It felt good to write what they knew, says Gordon. “Often in movies and TV, when you see Muslim families they’re deadly serious.

It’s all about ‘focus on your studies,’ things like that. But just because they have expectations doesn’t mean you don’t have fun with your family. And that’s the reality of Kumail’s family. They annoy you and they’re weird but they’re also hilarious and dear.”

The pair also received a lot of good advice along the way from Apatow and Mendel. “Judd helped us break out of our experience to construct a story that people would watch and identify with,” Nanjiani explains. “The idea was to take something that happened and distill it down to its essence. As long as that event feels grounded, you can take it to new places.”

From the outset Nanjiani had some specific ideas about what he wanted to say in The Big Sick. “At its most basic, I wanted this movie to be about people trying to connect and the things that get in the way of that -- generational differences, religion, cultural, whatever it is. And how messy it is just to be person and live in a society and have different beliefs.”

Throughout the writing, it was important to the filmmakers to show both sides of the complicated issues surrounding arranged marriages. Says Nanjiani, “So often in movies, the disapproving parents are portrayed as Old World types who don’t understand the modern ways or don’t believe in love. We didn’t want to do that. We wanted the audience to see things from their perspective, which is a compelling one. That felt very three-dimensional. It felt like there are no right answers.”

For Mendel, the screenplay digs beneath the surface to what really binds families together, even when religious and cultural taboos are broken.

“We wanted to delve as deeply as possible into the discomfort of beliefs not shared,” comments Mendel. “That is the crux of this family story: which is stronger, love or beliefs? It’s easy to say love should be stronger but in practice it’s not so simple.”

Watching Nanjiani find his own strong, original voice was especially exciting. Sums up Mendel: “It was witnessing somebody in the process of becoming. He became so willing to delve into parts of himself he’s not proud of and reveal them in a way that is brave, cool and funny. It became a story where you see someone grow in a very authentic way. It’s very intense stuff and the fact that this team was able to make comedy from it is really a testament to Kumail and to the talent of everyone involved. The world feels so divided now and this movie is about people coming together.”

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UNWRAPPING AN ANIMATED PRESENT IN U.S. THEATRES A CinéArts Interview with Geoffrey Wexler of Studio Ghibli and the Studio Ghibli Fest 2017

By Frank Gonzales

W

e all have our favorite films, but there’s nothing like your favorite animated film that captivated you as a child and mesmerized you for two hours.

For me it was Fantasia. For my daughters it was My Neighbor Totoro.

“What film is that?” you might ask.

It is a Japanese animated movie we all saw on VHS tape and watched over and over and over. I recommend it to any parent with toddlers. You will ALL stop whatever you’re doing to watch it.

This masterpiece, from the mind and vision of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, kicks off Studio Ghibli Fest 2017, presented

by GKIDS and Fathom Events. The series of six titles from the Ghibli catalog are visionary, entertaining and profound. If you’ve never seen a Studio Ghibli film, don’t miss this!

As a fan of many of the studio’s titles I was excited to discuss the workings of Studio Ghibli from the inside out by discussing the series and the studio with the head of its international division, Geoffrey Wexler. We all know that a great animated feature takes years to go from idea to screen the first time, but Wexler reveals the painstaking process of taking a masterpiece and preparing it for international distribution. He’s the “dub and sub” guy, a job he clearly relishes.

As he spoke about so passionately in a recent CinéArts interview, Wexler is excited to share these titles with American movie going audiences.

“I’m very excited about this series. I’ve been working with GKIDS, our partner with the rights to American theatrical distribution, as the series has grown from a few dates last year to this larger series this year. We are presenting six wonderful films and in working with Cinemark, GKIDS and Fathom we are very happy to expand the reach of these films in America.”

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For Wexler the films of Studio Ghibli are about passion: the passion the directors, writers, and artists brought to the original project, and his own, as he prepares them for release outside Japan’s borders. “This is my passion project: figuring out just exactly ‘how do we bring these films to non-Japanese speaking audiences? How do we bring these films to audiences not familiar with Japanese culture, because for many it is their first contact with it?’

“For many people their first impression about Japan comes from a Studio Ghibli film.

The first Japanese words and concepts they learn might be from a Studio Ghibli film. So it’s quite a responsibility we have.”

Wexler has been the producer of the English versions of five titles for the studio, as well as being in charge of reviewing and polishing the English-language versions of the entire catalogue over the past six years. It’s a role he thoroughly enjoys. “I love talking about my passions, my joys and my pains; it’s a wonderful, heavy responsibility to bring these films to American audiences. I take my job very seriously, happily.”

It is an arduous process to keep these beloved titles true to the director’s vision, one that takes many months to accomplish, not just grabbing a few actors to read an English script. For Wexler it’s not lip service. “If you look at the timeline of the process, getting the actors into the studio to act and perform their lines is actually about halfway into it. The irony is that by the time we do get into the recording studio I should really just sit back and be quiet! A lot of my work at that point is completed and I’m there to give a big ‘thumbs up’ to the director after each take. It’s actually about a six- to eight-month process of working on the subtitled version and the dubbed version. That’s from the very beginning to having a digital print ready to send to the

distributors.”

Wexler is proud, rightfully so, of his studio’s sterling reputation and that of the American distributor GKIDS. It’s what drives him to excellence. “I don’t know of any other studio that presents its portfolio of films so consistently in North American theatres and around the world. In North America that’s entirely thanks to GKIDS’ leadership. Thanks to GKIDS, there are Ghibli films up on-screen around North America year-round.”

He adds that his job fits in nicely to the whole key behind these releases. “I want people to watch the film, to see the film, and not be distracted by language issues. That’s why many people would rather not read subtitles, so they can really watch the film. I am here for them!

“Our films are all characterized by the word ‘beautiful.’ The actors say it every time.

Every single actor that I’ve encountered over the years, at some point during the recording session, will stop mid-line and say ‘Wow, that’s beautiful!’ I can sense when it’s about to happen. I turn to the director and say ‘here it comes.’

But it’s not just about the words and the soundtrack, it’s about creating an authentic presentation that is true to the original vision of the director. “I have to be true to the original film. There’s a Japanese word that loosely translates to authentic and faithful, ‘chūjitsu’ and I’ve adopted it as my motto to bring these films to audiences in a special way.

Especially the dubbed versions. With those versions you can really watch the film. There’s no looking at the image and then reading the subtitles and then back to the image, over and over, and doing the switching that can be so distracting.

“That being said I am also very proud of the subtitled versions. I’ll ask a guest ‘what did you think of the subtitles?’ And if they don’t

really have an answer and kind of shrug and say ‘I didn’t really notice them’ than I’m very happy.”

out. Especially for kids and their parents, it’s rollicking but at the same time has a great message about perseverance.

some of the sound mixes. So I’ve been able to have the honor to contribute, in some way, to all twenty-one of our films!”

It’s this attention to detail, with equal amounts and subtlety and nuance, that separates Studio Ghibli films from others.

Wexler admits that while that attention to detail already sets the bar high, there are other factors he has to overcome. “The Japanese language just doesn’t match up one-to-one with English. Even the structure of the language, all the basic grammar, is different.

So we have challenges with the flow and the timing.

“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has the reputation of being the film that straddled the creation of the studio in the 1980s. It’s got a very clear environmental theme and it really is beautiful. It’s where a lot of the themes of Ghibli movies started. It’s interestingly serious but not glum. It walks nicely the line of being both interesting and entertaining with a message that doesn’t hit you over the head. A remarkable film.

Wexler concludes the interview with one last note that speaks to the uniqueness of this series. “Something that audiences might not realize is that all of these films are being exhibited using new digital prints. They are splendid! Even though these titles have been around for a number of years, what’s particularly special and remarkable is that few people have seen them on the big screen. Not just in the U.S., but even in Japan!

“The Academy Award-nominated Howl’s Moving Castle has many moving parts. It also has a variety of characters are quite different than those in our other films. It is visually stunning using a variety of animation

“Many of my colleagues in Japan are jealous of me because I do get to see these on the big screen. In Japan we don’t have the theatrical screenings like you will have in the Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 series. Theatrical

techniques. What’s particularly interesting is that all of the characters evolve and grow because of their challenges. That’s an accomplishment, and it is absolutely beautiful to watch.

screenings of our library of films are only in a few countries so far, even as I’m trying to arrange more.

“But we believe the most important thing is to bring the film to the audience as the director intended it. So if it’s a little bit impenetrable in some places, so be it. If it’s mystical and surprising in some places, so be it.

“I get into some pretty vigorous debates with my American colleagues about how much to polish off the edges or how much to explain things. But in the end we occasionally do have to make choices because the languages don’t match up and some things just don’t translate. The English lines we have to work with – especially when we have puns or idioms to deal with – are sometimes done with a wink and a nod to the audience. We try to echo faithfully the humor of the original, even if we use an U.S.-type line that doesn’t exactly match up to Japanese. But we really try to match up the spirit – that’s paramount.”

The titles chosen for this series bring something delightful, whimsical, mysterious and unique to audiences that best represent the mind and talent of Studio Ghibli. Wexler comments on the films in the series: “My Neighbor Totoro could be considered the signature film of the studio and one that no one seems to tire of, adults and their children and their grandchildren! This is a prototypical Studio Ghibli film, with a female protagonist meeting something that may or may not exist in the world, but you’re happy to believe it does, and a lot of unanswered questions that help audiences suspend belief for a couple of hours. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t enjoy this movie.

“Kiki’s Delivery Service is identified as a film that takes place in a foreign town, entirely away from Japan, yet there are many elements of how Japanese live. Kiki is in the sky and in the air, and one of the clever things about her growing up is how she has to struggle with things that she cannot control, and how she makes her own choices. For parents of girls, she’s a great role model showing us how you have to strive hard and fail before you can succeed. It’s actually a pretty useful message for everybody.

“Castle in the Sky really epitomizes a rollicking adventure. There are twists and turns all over the place and it just doesn’t stop, but it doesn’t exhaust the viewer. That’s the great thing about our films. They can have exhilarating adventure but never get worn

“Spirited Away is an Academy Awardwinning Best Animated film that has many, many layers. There is a dark layer, a spiritual layer, a playful one, and elements of drama and comedy. This is one you cannot watch enough, especially the bathhouse scenes.

There are so many things in the bathhouse that mean something to the story that every time I watch it I’m reminded just how remarkable this movie is. It’s packed full of all kinds of crazy characters, even a street lamp that come to life!”

“So I encourage families to come see these movies, even if they have seen them before, because this is the best way to enjoy them: in the cinema, an experience with other people, cut off from the outside world for a couple of wonderful hours, and enjoying these incredible digital prints. I cannot recommend it highly enough!”

Following the success of the “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke” cinema events, GKIDS, the acclaimed distributor of multiple Academy Award®-nominated animated features, and Fathom Events, the leading distributor of event cinema, are proud to announce a partnership to bring the biggest series of anime titles to U.S audiences throughout 2017. The series features Studio Ghibli’s revered animated classics, a selection of GKIDS new release titles and an ongoing animated short film mini-festival.

Just by talking to Wexler by phone, over many thousands of miles, you feel his passion for what he does. He considers it a privilege to do what he does. “I really want to bring these beautiful, clever and interesting films to audiences the way the director meant them.

The 2017 partnership kicks off with the iconic And I never tire of them! I’ve seen each dubbed “My Neighbor Totoro,” from Hayao Miyazaki and film that I’ve produced dozens of times, and Studio Ghibli, on Sunday, June 25 and Monday, they still touch me in many ways.

June 26. “My Neighbor Totoro” is the first title in “Even for films that pre-dated me here at Studio Ghibli Fest 2017, a six-film monthly series Studio Ghibli, I have worked on them because which continues with “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” we’ve created new digital prints and Blu-Rays “Castle in The Sky,” “Nausicaä of the Valley of the over the past several years. I grabbed the Wind,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and a special opportunity and we took the time to revisit all cinema-run of the Academy Award-winning of the subtitles for all of those films and even “Spirited Away” timed for Halloween.

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CONTINUING THE FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING An Exclusive Q&A with Former Vice-President Al Gore of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power

by Frank Gonzales ABOVE: Al Gore in Paris, France for "24 Hours of Climate Reality" in An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power from PARAMOUNT PICTURES and PARTICIPANT MEDIA. Photo Credit: Jensen Walker © 2017 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

C

inéArts was honored to have a moment of former Vice President Al Gore’s time to discuss An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power, and the progress of the fight over Global Warming. Since the 2006 release of the Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, more and more discussion and debate has taken place around the world. Now, eleven years later, we have an opportunity to see how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

CinéArts (CA): Where are we today in the fight over global warming? In the time between the first film and this second one, have we seen more discussion, more action, and more change?

Al Gore (AG): The fight to solve the global climate crisis has never been more urgent, but it also holds more opportunity than ever before. Each day we pour 110 million tons of man-made, heat-trapping global warming pollution into our atmosphere as if it were an open sewer. All that man-made global warming pollution traps as much extra heat energy in the Earth’s atmosphere every single day as would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every 24 hours. That extra heat is disrupting the water cycle, evaporating much more water vapor from the oceans, leading to stronger storms, more extreme floods, deeper and longer droughts, among other climate related problems. So we must change and we must do so urgently.

But when we look at solutions to the global climate crisis, what has developed since An Inconvenient Truth was released is truly unprecedented. The Sustainability Revolution that is now unfolding is similar to previous major societal transitions; however, it is unique in that it has the breadth and scope of the agricultural and industrial revolutions –

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which completely transformed the world over a century and a half or more – coupled with the speed of the information revolution. So, the changes that have developed over the past 10 years are happening very fast. The cost of electricity from renewable sources, primarily from solar and wind, is plummeting – along with the cost of energy storage and the cost of hundreds of new efficiency technologies that are less well known, but very powerful.

These costs have come down so rapidly that they have created a new world of opportunity to accelerate our transition to a clean-energy economy and solve this crisis.

CA: What is Truth to Power?

AG: It has a bit of a double meaning. We all know the phrase “speak truth to power” and that is in one sense exactly what this film is intending to do – encourage and inspire audiences to speak truth to power, to engage in this issue and to call on their friends, neighbors, communities and elected leaders to act along with them.

There is also another meaning in which truth is itself a form of power. Mahatma Gandhi said “Satyagraha,” which roughly translates to “truth force,” was the most powerful force in the world. The truth does have a way of drawing people toward it.

Even if it is as inconvenient as the last film described it the truth can win out because solving the climate crisis is a moral challenge.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren not to leave them with a planet that is partly destroyed. We want them to be proud of us for finding the courage to listen to what the scientists warned us about and find a way to respond that safeguarded their future.

CA: It could have been very easy to make this film even more doom and gloom, showing how much the problems have worsened, yet

this is an uplifting movie. How were you able to take potential negatives and make them positives?

AG: Anyone who devotes themselves to helping solve the climate crisis will inevitably have an internal struggle between immense hope and fear. However, despair leads us nowhere; it is really just another form of climate denial. As I’ve said, we have to overcome this challenge and we have to do it quickly. But it requires hope, because that’s what humanity is all about. In this case hope is not an act of will, it is justified by the exciting revolutionary developments now underway in renewable energy, battery storage and energy-efficiency – all of which are bolstered by an unprecedented commitment of people around the world to act on climate.

We can and we will solve the climate crisis.

The only remaining question is if we’ll do it fast enough.

CA: What were the most compelling stories and who were the most interesting people that you encountered? How are they making a difference in their environments?

AG: I have the great privilege of meeting inspiring people everywhere I go who are doing the most amazing things, so there was no shortage of compelling stories or interesting people for this film. The people I meet are inspiring to me not just because of the work they’re doing, but because their reasons for acting are not based in politics or ideology. To a person, they are working to solve the climate crisis because they want to have a positive impact on the world.

Through the organization I founded, The Climate Reality Project, I train and work with teachers, parents, business and government leaders, and faith leaders who are dedicated to this issue. Many of the more than 12,000

Climate Reality Leaders we work with don’t have jobs that bring them into direct contact with the climate crisis, but they seek out ways to be effective advocates for climate solutions.

That is what fills me with hope.

CA: The sense of urgency to stop global warming has not wavered, but the fight to make it happen has become even more intense. What tools and strategies are shown in the film that viewers can bring to their local governments to make a difference? Is this the most important takeaway from the movie?

AG: I believe that the first film, An Inconvenient Truth, helped to inspire and build the climate movement and many new chapters of the story told by that movement were written by people who went to see the movie. So I hope that people will go see this new film, write more new chapters and hasten the transition away from the dirty polluting practices that are using our atmosphere as an open sewer.

Al Gore giving his updated presentation in Houston, TX in An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power from PARAMOUNT PICTURES and PARTICIPANT © 2017 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

It’s our hope that people walk out of the sequel inspired to use their voice and take action. The answer will be different for different people but the first advice I can give is to learn everything you can about the climate crisis.

Next, call your congressman, mayor, senator, governor and other elected officials representing you to let them know that this issue is important to you and depending on what they say or do, you will either support them or work like hell to defeat them in the next election. Go to town hall meetings; make sure you’re registered to vote; and convince your friends and family to do the same.

Al Gore giving his updated presentation in Houston, TX in An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power from Paramount Pictures and Participant Media. Photo Credit: Jensen Walker © 2017 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Become a climate conscious consumer. It is non-trivial to send a signal to the market place that you want the most climate friendly products and services. In many cases, this signal has been what caused the business community to change profoundly and try to be the greenest option in their sector.

Win the conversations on climate with your friends and family, in your workplace, civic organization or school. Don’t shy away from conversations about climate; don’t be hostile, but be persistent in not letting climate denial go unchallenged.

A decade after An Inconvenient Truth brought the climate crisis into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Former Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes – in moments both private and public, funny and poignant -- as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power opens in CinéArts theatres July 28, 2017.

VP Al Gore with former Mayor of Tacloban City Alfred Romualdez and Typhoon Haiyan survivor Demi Raya, in the Raya family home; Tacloban City, Philippines, March in An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power from PARAMOUNT PICTURES and PARTICIPANT MEDIA. © 2017 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

J U LY 2 8 T H An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power from Paramount Pictures and Participant Media. © 2017 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

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RIDING THE ROLLERCOASTER TO THE BOOK OF HENRY An Interview with Director Colin Trevorrow By Frank Gonzales ABOVE: Jaeden Lieberher stars as Henry in Colin Trevorrow’s THE BOOK OF HENRY; a Focus Features release. Credit: Jojo Whilden / Focus Features

C

olin Trevorrow is on a rollercoaster.

There’s no other way to explain the mad, crazy trip he’s been on since bursting on the scene with the indie hit and Sundance favorite Safety Not Guaranteed in 2012. He then took on as his next project the mega-big Jurassic World. And before he heads off to direct another out-of-thisworld behemoth, Star Wars: Episode IX, he finally got back to directing the movie he originally planned to be his second feature, The Book of Henry.

For the director this non-stop ride of big and small budget features isn’t something he planned, but certainly is enjoying. As he recently put it in a CinéArts interview, to use a quote from one of his prehistoric blockbuster predecessors, “life found a way” to make a simple path a more circuitous and adventurous one.

Trevorrow’s history with The Book of Henry goes back to 2012 when the producers brought the script to him and he jumped at the chance to make it. He saw something unique in Gregg Hurwitz’s script and thought he could not only do it justice, but build up his own place in the directorial universe. “I think we’re always trying to find our identities as film makers and make sure we communicate to the audience who we are so there can be a personal relationship: you create your own filmmaker stamp so they know what they’re getting.

“I’m not sure that I’ve done that since

everything I’ve done has been pretty different, but as a result this was the movie I thought I was going to do after Safety Not Guaranteed. I was trying to do it for similar reasons: it plays with the traditional narrative, and plays with the audiences expectations of what’s going to happen.

People are so savvy now with how a story works.”

But when Steven Spielberg comes calling, you have to answer, right?

Trevorrow saw this opportunity as a slight detour to fulfill a childhood dream. “I was given the opportunity to make Jurassic World! I was able to direct a movie as a ‘twelve year old boy!’ and that’s what I did. I had fun playing with those toys.”

But his promise to the producers of The Book of Henry never wavered. “I still had a real need to make Henry. Not even so much that it was personal to me but that it could be personal to a lot of people.”

The movie on the surface looks like a suspense thriller involving a single mom raising two boys, one of whom is a genius.

But for the director the script brought to light some pretty complex issues and themes.

“I was very attracted to the idea that violence to achieve some kind of vengeance is the mindset of a child and you grow out of that.

“Naomi Watt’s character, Susan, really goes on a journey from being someone who is dealing with an extremely challenging situation and feels that there is no one in her community who is willing to help. So she

goes about it the wrong way, through the eyes of a child and has to learn herself how to make her own decisions and determine the right things to do.”

And these kinds of issues didn’t seem so far removed from the larger-than-life spectacle of Jurassic World. The director continued, “One of the elements that drew me to The Book of Henry was that it looks small, but really has all the components of a big, mythic story. This movie has values that I think we all share. Jurassic World does too.

“That was really a movie about not losing sight of the awe of nature and the natural world in the face of technology and corporate profit and all of the things that were at work in that movie. I think the goal of mainstream entertainment is to reach as many people as possible and connect these people with ideas that we all share.”

Trevorrow brought that sentiment to The Book of Henry. “I don’t think you need two hundred million dollars to move people in a theatre. For me this movie has this vengeance that we feel, this anger that we all have with the world when we think it’s all going out of our control. I think people can understand that feeling of wanting to handle it yourself. That isn’t the answer but being able to send a message like that, whether you do it on a big scale or a small scale, can affect people equally.

(Article continues on Page 22.)

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CINÉARTS FILM GUIDE | FALL 2016 | 17

SOFIA COPPOLA SOUTHBOUND A Q&A with the Screenwriter/Director of The Beguiled

By Frank Gonzales

ABOVE: Nicole Kidman stars as Miss Martha Farnsworth in Sofia Coppola’s THE BEGUILED; a Focus Features release. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Focus Features

S

ofia Coppola has created a standard for herself while seeming to raise the bar at every turn. From her Oscar-winning Lost In Translation, to her imaginative take on Marie Antoinette, to her look at modern excess and envy in The Bling Ring, she has continually pushed her creative self in new and exciting ways. This June she brings to the big screen her version of Thomas Cullinan’s novel The Beguiled, a star-studded, atmospheric thriller set in the deep South during the Civil War. Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, The Beguiled recently world-premiered at the 2017 Festival de Cannes and is sure to mesmerize CinéArts moviegoers this summer.

CinéArts spoke to Sofia Coppola to reflect on her new movie and expand on its themes.

CA (CinéArts): What drew you to this story? How did the novel move you to want to make this into a movie? Or did the original movie (1971, starring Clint Eastwood) play a role in you wanting to do a remake?

SC (Sofia Coppola): I saw the 1971 film and it stayed in my head. I loved the premise - a Northern enemy soldier taken in by a Southern girls’ school, by girls and women who were cut off from the world and hadn’t seen a man for a long time. That film was told from the male soldier’s point of view, so I wondered about telling the

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story from the female characters’ point of view.

CA: You had quite a remarkable cast for this film. How did you come to select these women for their parts?

SC: I’ve always loved working with Kirsten and feel the same way about Elle.

So I thought it would be fun to have some of my favorite girls together. And I have always admired Nicole, so I pictured her as I was writing the script, which helped me focus that character. I was so happy she accepted!

CA: What did Colin Farrell bring to the role that you were looking for?

SC: He’s so masculine and charming! I wanted a striking woman’s hunk, someone sexy and mysterious and complicated. I think he was perfect for the role.

SC: It was fun to play that up and there are still power dynamics that we can relate to today. I think audiences will have fun with this aspect of the movie.

The Beguiled is an atmospheric thriller from acclaimed screenwriter/director Sofia Coppola. The story unfolds during the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school. Its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events.

Coming to CinéArts Theatres on June 30, 2017.

CA: The atmospheric quality of the Deep South seems to play an active role in the movie. Was this intentional or something you discovered as you started filming?

SC: Yes, I love that setting. The South is very exotic to me and I wanted to have a sense of the place- the heat and the beautiful trees with Spanish moss. It’s beautiful but with a darkness underneath it from its history.

CA: In these times of modern sexuality, was it difficult or inspiring to work on a project filled with sexual repression?

Director Sofia Coppola

2017 BEATRIZ AT DINNER

Starring Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloë Sevigny, David Warshofsky Written by Mike White Directed by Miguel Arteta

JUNE 9, 2017

LADY MACBETH

Starring Florence Pugh Produced by Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly Written by Alice Birch Directed by William Oldroyd

JULY 14, 2017

THE ONLY BOY LIVING IN NEW YORK

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Pierce Brosnan, Kiersey Clemons, Tate Donovan, Cynthia Nixon, Wallace Shawn, Callum Turner and Jeff Bridges Directed by Marc Webb

AUGUST 11, 2017

CINÉARTS FILM GUIDE | FALL 2016 | 19

LOOKING FOR SOME GOOD CONVERSATION An Interview with Miguel Arteta, Director of Beatriz at Dinner

By Frank Gonzales

ABOVE: Connie Britton and Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner. Photo Credit: Lacey Terrell

D

o you remember the line from The Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living, or get busy dying?” It acted as the spark for change and hope for Andy and Red. In much the same way, after looking at the new film Beatriz at Dinner you’re left asking yourself “Get busy talking, or get busy doing!”

Beatriz at Dinner may be a small little movie, but it asks big questions. Written by Mike White and directed by Miguel Arteta, this CinéArts title could leave as many question marks in your head as well as answers. And having folks walk out of the theatre discussing the reflection of the movie in their lives was all by design.

The film takes place one evening at the home of a real estate developer who has invited a few friends over to celebrate a new deal.

Salma Hayek, as Beatriz, is an outsider to the party; a therapist of the hostess Kathy (Connie Britton), who has car trouble and must wait for a tow truck to arrive the next day. A clash of cultures, classes and values ensues as Beatriz interacts with Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), the most important man at the table.

Arteta saw this film as a chance to get the conversation moving, as he recently told CinéArts. He said he knows this type of think piece is unusual and unique, but not unknown, “Some of our favorite American movies do not pre-digest things at all at any level. A film like Badlands is one; where you’re left with more questions than answers at the end of the movie. With Beatriz this idea is definitely brought to life, so hopefully we can challenge the audience to think ‘how do I feel about all of this?’”

was amazing how Mike was able to talk about things that were very relevant in a casual environment.”

But what really impressed Arteta was how the writer made the arguments for both sides, pro-empathy for caring for the world versus pro-greed in taking what it gives you, in as smart a way as possible. The director continued, “The movie is not just saying ‘if you are pro-empathy then the pro-greed side has no point. Doug Strutt, the character portrayed by John Lithgow, lives by principles; he really lives by what he believes.

“Strutt is more committed to what he believes than most people.

And he makes a compelling argument, like when he asks Beatriz ‘Should we all be so sad?’ He’s got a point. So I feel like Mike did a phenomenal job of giving both sides’ honesty, intelligence and the truth to how those people live.”

The director took the ideas of the script and developed a visual accompaniment to move the message of Beatriz at Dinner. At the heart of the visuals were close-ups of Hayek and Lithgow, which the director says, “The close ups of Doug and Beatriz, when they were almost looking directly into the camera when they confront each other; it’s palpable and you feel them observing each other.”

Arteta says that Hayek especially stood out. “The close ups of Salma, expressing her conflict and her lack of understanding, the way she cannot comprehend this other creature, are what makes the movie special.

The director came to project by way of his long-time collaborator, Mike White. He recalls that upon reading the script, “I was really blown away. I had never read a script so fast! I thought it was extremely intriguing to put a conversation out there about a rather large subject.

“That was the first thing I saw when I read the script. These close ups of this very intelligent person, trying to take in this man and wrap her head around him. There’s a scene where Doug explains why he loves big game hunting and there are long shots of Beatriz watching him talk about this. To me that was my favorite part of the movie. Just her watching and sort out what he’s saying.”

“Our world is really getting distilled into two views: greed versus empathy. It’s really the most relevant conversation of our times: What is going to happen to our planet? And yet it’s really almost too much to think about at a very ordinary dinner party. I thought it

As we watch Beatriz try to digest this conversation, we too are propelled into a bigger conversation that sneaks up on us. The director continues, “In that moment of shock to Beatriz, Doug makes a very compelling argument about the dance of man and

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nature. The spiritual aspect of it. And it cuts to what the movie is about.

“To me the movie is less about the nature of nature, but rather the nature of human nature. Here is this beautiful planet that sprung to life in a million beautiful ways, and then one species became dominant over it. So did he become dominant because he has the ability to destroy the planet and himself in self-eating greed, or does he become dominant because we are supposed to be caregivers to the planet? What was nature’s plan? Why did nature make us so clever and dominant?”

Clearly Arteta relishes in creating tension in the characters, but one with equal footing between the two. As he remembers, this allows the movie to bring the questions off the screen and into our laps. “Doug and Beatriz genuinely believe what they believe with equal intensity. So it makes the rest of the characters not have that same level of conviction and that makes a good proxy for the rest of us. Are we gentle capitalists or gentle caregivers to the world?

“If you are going to care that deeply, one way or the other, it has to

Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner. Photo Credit: Lacey Terrell

be with a purity of conviction. The other characters in the film didn’t have this, so that’s what made it so interesting about this dinner party. I hope when people watch the movie they go ‘Oh my God, I’m not so unlike Kathy.’ They believe they care, but when push comes to shove how much do they actually care?”

Arteta credits his actors with making the film jump from script to screen and eventually into the laps of moviegoers. His two leads carried the weight of the film, much as their characters carried the weight of the world on their shoulders. For him, Hayek was the perfect Beatriz. “Mike and I had been wanting to work with Salma for a long time and so he had written this for her. It’s a particularly good role for her because in real life she is somebody who really is a great empath, and very smart. She allows herself to be, instead of act the role, which is my favorite kind of acting.

“Salma is an amazing actress, who can easily play someone who is carrying the weight of the world. Part of what we were trying to do was show how we have created a system about greed and capitalism that sadly has left no space for others who don’t care for that lifestyle.

We lament that lack of caring, and Salma took that weight on her shoulders in a subtle and beautiful way.”

With Lithgow, the physical presence of this character matched the demeanor of Doug, though not in an overbearing way. Arteta was honored to have Lithgow in the cast. “John is a national treasure and I was so blessed to work with him. The thing I kept remarking to others was how so amazingly effortlessly he worked. He just grew into the role, and was having such a good time growing into it.

“John never played into any evilness of the character, he was just

‘Hey I got things figured out. Life is good to me.’ It was almost fun to hang out with that character. The word effortless kept popping into my mind. It’s hard to appreciate how one can make it look so organic and simple and easy to become Doug Strutt, so I was amazed at how he embodied that character. It takes great talent to key into a character, especially one as complex as Doug.”

Another subtle touch the director employed was opposing Doug’s physical presence with the smaller, though no less intimidating presence of Beatriz. As Arteta remembers, “John Lithgoww is six foot four and Salma is five foot two! We were like ‘this is fantastic!’

All the other women were in heels and approaching six feet. It was a conscious decision to play her as this less colorful, much shorter person who has to strain to look up to these people all night.

“But it was pretty awesome to see her and John square off. The camera has to be at a sharp angle because of the close ups, but it also emphasizes how formidable of a presence Salma Hayek is: she does not look diminutive. She’s shorter, but she’s not small. And it was neat to see John Lithgow’s character look down at her, but quickly

Jon Lithgow in Beatriz at Dinner. Photo Credit: Lacey Terrell

recognizing that this shorter Mexican woman will become the most formidable presence at the party.”

Which leaves us with the remaining cast members who, in this film, represent all of us. Especially the character of Kathy, portrayed

by Connie Britton. The director adds, “Connie, the way she played her part was so great. She was self-delusional, living in a great big greedy, selfish environment, yet seeing herself as a giving, caring person. She thinks she is Beatriz’s friend but when push comes to shove there is a power dynamic there that she is firmly enveloped in. And I think that this is a conflict that most of us live with every day: we want to care about the world, BUT, we also care about the good life.”

Therein lies the real catch of Beatriz at Dinner. The feeling that what’s left at the dinner table becomes the take home leftovers we get to relish. As the director concluded, “I hope the audience will come out with the feeling of ‘where do I stand?’ My movie is a conversation starter.

“Certainly we live in times that are frustrating and confusing, and sometimes overwhelming. It seems to me to try to encourage some conversation. That’s one of the best things we can do with a movie like this. I hope people are not too frustrated that there are no easy answers, but rather see Beatriz at Dinner as a springboard for things to think and talk about.

“In an era of superhero movies where everything is so easily consumable, I hope that this movie can connect with an audience in a totally different way. I hope when I meet people who have seen the movie that we can have an engaging conversation.”

CINÉARTS FILM GUIDE | FALL 2016 | 21

(Riding the Rollercoaster to The Book of Henry, continued from Page 15.) people equally.”

That’s some pretty heady stuff for child actors to handle, isn’t it? The director was quick to credit open communication as a key to his three young leads, Jacob Tremblay, Jaeden Lieberher, and Maddie Ziegler. That and having veterans who know their way around a set. “I’ve always leaned into working with young actors who have been in films before. It’s a laborious process and it does help for them to find a character if they’re not completely distracted by everything around them. It’s easy enough for an adult to be thrown by it!

“But I speak with the children the same way as I do with adults. There are a lot of issues in this movie that are pretty challenging so it was important that they understood those. They needed to know what we were doing and why we were doing it. We had to have adult conversations and talk about the anger that they would feel.”

This approach paid dividends for the director in enabling the actors to really understand all that was happening and how to approach their emotions. “Jaden has a terrific scene in the movie about how the worst thing in the world is apathy. So a child’s point of view, that righteous sense of right and wrong that we all remember before the world gets grey and nuanced, really that’s part of what the movie’s about.

That kid could see clearly that what is happening is wrong and must be stopped and there’s no other way to look at it. But now he’s being confronted by how adults look at the world.

“So these kids, the actors, were able to have a much more nuanced view of it and were able to recognize the choice that Naomi Watt’s character makes is wrong and were hoping that she does not go through with it. We would have all of those talks and ultimately that was what allowed them to immerse themselves in their characters,

which they all do beautifully. I think all of their performances were really wonderful.”

The director is equally appreciative of the limitless talent of Watts, who he says presented him with a totally different type of challenge. “Naomi’s ability to totally immerse herself into a character is a tremendous strength but it’s also tempting for a director to just ‘press the buttons on the emotional vending machine’ because you know she can do it!

“I probably could’ve gone ‘Give me a B3, give me an A2!’ and she could have done anything! So that would be a lazy thing to do, since she’s the easiest actor in the world to direct. But this role was really hard.

So she immersed herself in the pain this woman was feeling in a way that kind of took it out on all of us. It was a very difficult movie to make.

“In many ways The Book of Henry was much more difficult than JURASSIC WORLD because this is a very emotional movie. And I know the kind of emotions that we are trafficking in this film aren’t really evident in the trailer, so I think that’s going to surprise a lot of people. Ultimately this movie lands as a suspense thriller, but it travels a very human, a very emotional way upon that road. And Naomi is the compass for all of that.”

The end result is something the director hopes will surprise and delight customers expecting one thing hinted at by the trailer and getting another, altogether different experience. Trevorrow is excited at this prospect. “There is a major element in this movie that people aren’t familiar with, based on the trailer. I think we’ve done a great job in keeping all the secrets of this movie under wrap. So when people see it they will realize that in the context of what they’ve seen so far, it is very different than what they think they’re going to get.

“There’s that point where you are really questioning whether Naomi Watts, when she’s carrying a rifle, making a choice of

whether she is really going to eliminate someone who is purely evil. You really want to believe that she might pull the trigger.

So it’s important for us to really have the audience ask that question to themselves, ‘what would you do if you could be the one to eliminate something you believe to be purely wrong? Would you do it?’”

So that’s the fun for Trevorrow, isn’t it?

The element of surprise? “That’s what I love the most, but it’s also the most difficult to do, to not have the audience feel like they’re being manipulated. Especially this movie which takes some real sharp turns in many unexpected places. To keep the audience with you tonally while attempting turns like that is extremely challenging. So that’s what drew me to it.”

We’re glad he took the time to stay on the rollercoaster with The Book of Henry.

And we’ll be even happier to join him on the ride on June 16th when the movie opens in CinéArts Theatres.

Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single suburban mother Susan Carpenter (Naomi Watts) works as a waitress at a diner, alongside feisty family friend Sheila (Sarah Silverman). Her younger son Peter (Jacob Tremblay) is a playful 8-yearold. Taking care of everyone and everything in his own unique way is Susan’s older son Henry (Jaeden Lieberher), age 11. Protector to his adoring younger brother and tireless supporter of his often self-doubting mother – and, through investments, of the family as a whole – Henry blazes through the days like a comet.

Susan discovers that the family next door, which includes Henry’s kind classmate Christina (Maddie Ziegler), has a dangerous secret – and that Henry has devised a surprising plan to help.

As his brainstormed rescue plan for Christina takes shape in thrilling ways, Susan finds herself at the center of it.

The Book of Henry is directed by Colin Trevorrow from an original screenplay by acclaimed novelist Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X).

A Focus Features Release.

Left Image: (L to R) Director Colin Trevorrow and Jacob Tremblay on the set of THE BOOK OF HENRY, released by Focus Features. Right Image: (L to R) Jacob Tremblay as Peter, Jaeden Lieberher as Henry, and Naomi Watts as Susan star in Colin Trevorrow’s THE BOOK OF HENRY, a Focus Features release. Photo Credit: Alison Cohen Rosa / Focus Features

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From the director of

'In Bruges' and 'Seven Psychopaths'

IN THEATERS THIS OCTOBER

ThreeBillboardsTheMovie.com

CINÉARTS FILM GUIDE | FALL 2016 | 23

ACADEMY AWARD WINNER ®

EMMA STONE ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE ®

STEVE CARELL

FROM THE DIRECTORS OF

‘LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE’

IN THEATERS THIS SEPTEMBER www.battleofthesexes-movie.com

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A REAL LIFE STORY

stepmovie.com

IN THEATERS THIS AUGUST

#STEP IS LIFE

CINÉARTS FILM GUIDE | FALL 2016 | 25

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