2015 Movies

Underseen Movie: ‘Danny Collins’ in Which Al Pacino Plays a Rock Star

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When “Danny Collins” was released back in 2015, it felt like Al Pacino had played every kind of character there is on the stage and silver screen. But with this film, he plays a character unlike any he has taken on before; a rock star. Granted, a lot of people treat Pacino like he is a rock star already, especially when it comes to his role as Tony Montana in “Scarface,” but this did feel like a new thing for him. For a moment, the thought of Pacino as a popular singer was a bit terrifying. Can he even sing? Will he come off like the male version of Kim Carnes? By the way, I love Kim Carnes, so let’s not get the wrong impression here.

Well, Pacino can sing, and he is one of the reasons why “Danny Collins” proves to be far more enjoyable than I expected it to be. The story of an aging musician looking for redemption has been told time and time again, and there is very little in the way of originality to be found here. Still, I found this film to be a sweet and heartfelt look at a man looking to reclaim parts of his life which he has long since lost.

Pacino modeled Danny on both Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart, and we first see Danny singing songs to adoring crowds who cannot seem to get enough of him. He used to write his own songs, but after his second album got such a negative response, he went on to sing everybody else’s hits instead. These days he has all the fame and fortune he could ever want, all the drugs and alcohol to keep his deepest fears at bay and, of course, a fiancé half his age.

But then one day, Danny’s manager, Frank Grubman (Christopher Plummer), shows up with a letter written to him by John Lennon from forty years ago. For some reason, this letter was never delivered to Danny, but in it, John tells him not to worry about fame and fortune being detrimental to his talent. Upon reading this long-lost letter, Danny begins to wonder what his life would have been like had he gotten it much, much sooner. As a result, he drops out of his current tour and travels out to New Jersey to reconnect with his family and, hopefully, rediscover his musical muse.

For a moment, I thought I was going to be cringing non-stop as Danny goes to meet the son he never got to know. We know that those kinds of father-son meetings are fraught with tension and a lot of understandably hurt feelings, and the one shown in Danny Collins is no different. The chemistry, however between Pacino and Bobby Cannavale who plays Danny’s son, Tom, is very strong, and their acting really lifts this material up and away from the generic kind it could have easily fallen victim to. Cannavale previously acted opposite Pacino in a Broadway production of “Glengarry Glen Ross,” so these two have a rhythm of working together which they have clearly gotten comfortable with.

Jennifer Garner plays Tom’s wife, Samantha Leigh Donnelly, and she is a lovely presence to watch here. What I loved about her performance is how down to earth she is to where you never catch her acting. Samantha is a doting mother to hers and Tom’s daughter, Hope, and she is already pregnant with their second child, so you know she is capable of handling more things than either Danny or Tom can on their own. She proves to be the calm in the stormy relationship between estranged father and son, and she makes it clear to the men in this family that they had best listen to what she has to stay.

While we’re at it, I have to applaud young Giselle Eisenberg for her exceptional performance as Hope. It says a lot about the 7-year-old actress that she can hold her own with Pacino and company from scene to scene.

Right from the start, Christopher Plummer makes his manager character of Frank Grubman anything but a cliché. I liked how effortlessly Plummer made Frank the much-needed conscience Danny has desperately needed throughout his career, and he remains compulsively watchable throughout as he takes what could have been your typical backstabbing show business manager and turns him into a reasonable human being.

Another real delight to be found in “Danny Collins” is the great Annette Bening who gives her character of hotel manager, Mary Sinclair, a wonderfully biting sense of humor. Of all the characters here, Mary is the one who is not easily enamored by Danny and is not about to be seduced by his endless charisma. Throughout, I enjoyed the back-and-forth Bening and Pacino have, and her performance serves as a reminder of what a brilliant actress she can be. May we never forget this important fact.

As for Pacino, I very much appreciated his work here. There is none of the bombast which he became inescapably identified with after his Oscar winning performance in “Scent of a Woman.” He is also great at hinting at the fears tearing away at Danny as he tries to write his first song in lord only knows how long, and he makes you root for him to do more than just sing “Baby Doll.”

“Danny Collins” marks the directorial debut of Dan Fogelman, the screenwriter of such films as “Crazy Stupid Love,” “The Guilt Trip” and “Last Vegas.” He based it on the true story of when musician Steve Tilston received a long-lost letter from John Lennon, but he basically took the idea of that story and went from there. My hat is off to him for introducing this movie to us as something other than “based on a true story.” There’s an opening epigraph which says this film is kind of based on a true story, but not really. Kudos to Fogelman for introducing his film with something other than one of the most overused cinematic terms which has long since lost its meaning.

This could have easily been schmaltzy affair that ran on too much emotional manipulation, but Fogelman manages to keep the proceedings from ever feeling completely cringe-inducing. The plot is very formulaic, and there is a certain disease thrown in for one of the characters which may not have been entirely necessary, but he keeps things running smoothly to where you realize a lot of heart went into this.

But what really elevates “Danny Collins” above the usual formulaic norm are the performances and a director eager to not give us the same old stuff (not entirely anyway). This film was made for a fraction of what most motion pictures cost to make these days (and this does not include advertising), so it should be clear that this is a labor of love more than anything else. I left this film with the hope Danny will find the courage to be a songwriter once again, and that means a lot as I often lose my mojo as a writer to where I get nothing written. Here is hoping we all find our way back when we lose our way in life.

* * * out of * * * *

The Cast of ‘The Lazarus Effect’ Talks about Life After Death

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WRITER’S NOTE: This article was originally written back in 2015.

The supernatural horror film “The Lazarus Effect” takes a cue from movies like “Frankenstein” and “Re-Animator” as it features a group of scientists who are intent on bringing the dead back to life. It stars Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass as Zoe and Frank, a couple of medical professionals who have found a way to resurrect the deceased through the use of a serum they have named Lazarus. But during one experiment, Zoe suddenly gets electrocuted and dies, and Frank, in desperation, gives her the serum which successfully returns her to the land of the living. But in the process, Frank comes to discover that Zoe has developed some incredible abilities which makes him wonder if she brought something truly evil back from the dead with her.

One plot point in “The Lazarus Effect” concerns a nightmare Zoe keeps having where she is trapped in a burning house, and there is a door ahead of her which seems to have a raging fire waiting to burst out from behind it. Even more unsettling is that she also sees a pair of hands at the bottom of the door struggling to escape whatever fiery fate is coming their way. This nightmare gets a new meaning once Zoe is resurrected.

This nightmare reminding me of Joel Schumacher’s film “Flatliners” which starred Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon as medical students who are very eager to discover what happens after you die. Each is made to die for a minute or two before they are resuscitated, and their afterlife proves to be a realm where they are tortured for the grievous and painful sins they committed in the past. Seeing that “The Lazarus Effect” kind of deals with the same thing, it made me wonder why these movies deal with the high psychic price to pay once we leave this mortal coil.

I got to ask the cast of “The Lazarus Effect” this during the film’s press conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, California. To first to provide an answer was Donald Glover who plays the lab assistant, Niko. Best known for playing Troy Barnes on the cult television comedy “Community,” Glover said that death remains the one thing we don’t know about.

Donald Glover: I feel like we kind of live right now in a time where humans feel like we know everything now especially when we just pick up the phones and happily answer and people feel like everything is done. It’s like, “We did it guys! We have internet.” It was cool talking to Olivia (Wilde) and Mark (Duplass) about how people are actually doing research, and I was reading articles about doctors actually bringing people back to life. There was a New York cab driver who was like dead for, I think like, a while (laughs). They just brought him back, and now they are doing studies on post-death and stuff like that. This is why I really like this film. It felt special because there’s realness and people really don’t even understand what we are after that (death). I think it’s scary because we just don’t know it especially when we’re being told all the time we know everything.

Duplass followed up on Glover’s response by saying it reminded him of something he read about movies like “The Lazarus Effect.” In the process, he also elaborated on how the approach to this resurrection movie differed from others like it.

Mark Duplass: When a movie examines this type of subject matter, usually it’s either in the future or everyone is wearing some sort of like leathery, shiny black suits, and it’s kind of like not human (laughs). So, we all loved this idea, and that’s part of the reason David (Gelb, the director) cast a lot of us because maybe we’re more on the naturalistic side of performances, that we’re just so normal looking and normal acting research students going through this very un-normal thing. It was just exciting.

Indeed, death is something many of us do not want to think about, but the question of what happens to us when we pass away continues to linger in our minds. “The Lazarus Effect” is not meant to give a definitive answer to that, but along with “Flatliners,” it makes you want to make peace with all the bad things you did in your life before it is too late.

“The Lazarus Effect” is available on physical media and streaming platforms.

Bernardo Ruiz and Oscar Hagelsieb Talk About ‘Kingdom of Shadows’

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WRITER’S NOTE: This interview took place back in 2015.

The U.S.-Mexico drug war is one many of us watch from a distance, but the documentary “Kingdom of Shadows” forces you to look at the war more closely than usual as it puts a human face on the damage left in its path. Director Bernardo Ruiz observes the ongoing conflict through the perspectives of three individuals: activist nun Sister Consuelo Morales who prods government officials to take action against the drug cartels who have kidnapped many people, Texas rancher and former drug smuggler Don Henry Ford Jr. who offers a descriptive context for the evolution of drug trafficking, and undercover agent turned Homeland Security officer Oscar Hagelsieb who offers a unique perspective on America’s role in the drug war. The majority of what we see takes place in Monterrey, a devastated and violence scarred town in Mexico that Oscar felt less safe to be in than when he was a soldier in the Middle East.

Watching “Kingdom of Shadows” is deeply moving and unsettling as we see how vicious the war on drugs has become, and it makes the intense thriller “Sicario” feel all the more real and unnerving in retrospect. Bernardo takes a real close look at the cost of this war from both the U.S. and Mexico sides, and he gives us an unflinching look at the human rights crisis it has generated and which only recently made international headlines.

I was among a group of reporters who got to sit in on an interview with Bernardo Ruiz and Oscar Hagelsieb while they were in Los Angeles to promote “Kingdom of Shadows.” Bernardo also directed the documentary “Reportero” which chronicled a veteran reporter and his colleagues at a weekly newspaper challenging drug cartels and corrupt local officials during an unprecedented wave of violence against journalists in Mexico. Oscar’s life began in a drug infested neighborhood where he was raised by undocumented parents, and despite having been an undercover officer for several years, he explained why he was more than willing to show his face in this documentary.

Bernardo talked about the kind of resistance and challenges he faced in making “Kingdom of Shadows,” and he explained why he introduced Oscar the way he did. Oscar was asked how he manages not to take his work home with him, and he explained why the legalization of marijuana will cause the drug war to become even more violent.

Please check out the interview below, and you can also check out the trailer as well. “Kingdom of Shadows” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital.

Exclusive Interview with the Cast of ‘The Gallows’

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Looking through my vast collection of movie interviews, I came across this one which I did with the cast of “The Gallows.” Released back in 2015, it is a found footage horror film written and directed by Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff, and it opens up on a production of a play called, coincidentally, “The Gallows” which was done at Beatrice High School back in 1993. Everything looks to be going smoothly, but then an actor named Charlie Grimille is accidentally hanged and killed when the prop noose around his neck ends up malfunctioning, and the students and parents look on in horror.

The film then moves forward twenty years later to 2013 when the school attempts to put on a new performance of “The Gallows” in honor of Charlie’s memory. But, as you can expect, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the young adults who are part of this production soon find that they are not alone as something ominous is hiding in the shadows. Suffice to say, they find themselves in fear for their lives, and some learn in the worst way how certain things are better left alone.

This interview took place at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles, California, and it quickly proved to be one of the most cinematic press days I have ever been a part of. “The Gallows” stars Cassidy Gifford (the daughter of Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford), Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown who would go on to appear in “The Gallows Part II,” and Ryan Shoos who co-starred in “The Red Tie Massacre.” We had fun talking about the improvisation they did on set, working with the video cameras given to them, and of the advantage of playing characters with the same first names as theirs.

Please check out the interview below. “The Gallows” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital. Watch it if you dare…

Exclusive Interview with Tye Sheridan on ‘Last Days in the Desert’

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Credit: François Duhamel / Broad Green Pictures

Continuing my explorations of interviews I have conducted in the past, I came across this one with Tye Sheridan and his performance in “Last Days in the Desert.” Written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, it focuses on an imagined chapter of when Jesus (played by Ewan McGregor) went on a fasting and praying journey for forty days in the desert. Among the people he encounters on his travels is a character known as The Boy who is portrayed by Sheridan. The Boy is taking care of his ailing mother and building a house for her and his father to live in. But while he is eager to help his parents, he really wants to visit Jerusalem and hopes Jesus can lead the way for him.

I got to talk with Sheridan back in 2015 when he was promoting “Last Days in the Desert.” These days he is best known for playing the young Scott Summers/Cyclops in some of the “X-Men” movies and the lead role in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One.” When I talked with him all those years ago, he was coming off of “The Tree of Life” in which he made his film debut, Jeff Nichols’ “Mud,” “The Stanford Prison Experiment” and “Entertainment” where he played an actor doing an unorthodox clown act.

While talking with Sheridan, I discussed how interesting his resume was in how it led up to him playing his character in “Last Days in the Desert.” We also talked about how he prepared for this role and how his costume helped to inform his performance. In addition, we discussed the challenges of filming in the California desert, and it gave me a strong appreciation of those who have experienced the hottest of summers Texas has to offer.

Please check out this exclusive interview below. “Last Days in the Desert” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital.

Exclusive Interview with Lorene Scafaria about ‘The Meddler’

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While recently going through my large archive of interviews I have done over the years, I came across the one I did with filmmaker Lorene Scafaria on her film “The Meddler.” Released in 2015, it stars the great Susan Sarandon as Marnie Minervini, an aging widow who, to cure herself of loneliness and heartbreak, moves from New Jersey to Los Angles to be closer to her daughter, Lori (Rose Byrne). In the process of trying to restart her life, Marnie starts getting a little too involved in Lori’s life to where her daughter gets increasingly aggravated, she comes to make various new friends she desperately wants to help out, and she becomes especially friendly with a retired policeman named Randall Zipper (J.K. Simmons) to where a new chapter in her life begins to form.

Born in Holmdel, New Jersey, Scafaria previously wrote and directed “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” which stars Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley as strangers who form an unexpected bond, and she penned the screenplay for “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” a romantic comedy starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings. Since making ‘The Meddler,” she gave us “Hustlers” which featured a critically acclaimed performance by Jennifer Lopez which somehow got snubbed by the Oscars, and she has directed several episodes of the acclaimed HBO series “Succession.”

I had a lot of fun talking with Scafaria about “The Meddler” and how the screenplay was inspired by similar situations with her mother. We also discussed what it was like working with Sarandon and Simmons, and we even talked about the time when she used to fake book reports to get a bunch of Pizza Hut gift certificates. It turns out she was not the only one who did such a thing.

Please check out the interview below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven’t already. There are many more videos yet to come!

“The Meddler” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital.

Exclusive Interview with Gaspar Noe on ‘Love 3-D’

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I have been a big fan of Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noe ever since I first watched his highly controversial 2002 thriller “Irreversible.” Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel, it was a rape revenge film told in reverse order like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento,” and it featured, among other things, a rape scene done in one shot which lasted nine minutes, and another in which a man’s head is completely bashed in with a fire extinguisher. Many were quick to walk out of this film as they felt it promoted violence, but I can tell you few others are as anti-violent, anti-rape and anti-revenge as this one is. Moreover, it features scenes of sheer intimacy and thoughtfulness which some critics were not quick to see at first glance. Noe invites you to look beneath the surface, if you can, and see there is more to what meets the eye.

The same also goes with Noe’s other works which include “I Stand Alone,” “Enter the Void,” “Climax” and “Vortex” as he examines various issues with a thoughtfulness that often eludes his harshest critics. There is more to this director than simply shocking his audience, and he gives a lot of unforgettably surreal imagery with the help of acclaimed Belgian cinematographer Benoît Debie who can light a scene ever so beautifully. His movies do not exist just to leave a permanent psychological scar on you. They leave you with a cinematic experience few other filmmakers could ever possibly give an audience, and I am always thankful for such motion pictures.

So, it was quite an honor to interview Noe back in 2016 when he was doing press for “Love” which he shot in 3D. The movie stars Karl Glusman as Murphy, an American student studying movies in Paris alongside his girlfriend, Electra (Aomi Muyock), whom he is having quite the sexual relationship with. The on one day, they come across a Danish teenager named Omi (Klara Kristin) with whom they engage in a threesome, but from there relationships take some truly powerfully emotional turns to where what was once found may forever be lost.

“Love” is, and will probably always be best known for its scenes featuring unsimulated sex, but for me this movie deals more with the emotions of love which lift us up to delirious heights, and also bring us down to such rock bottom lows we may find impossible to climb out of. Noe and I talked about these themes and other things during our time together, and he made it clear how this film should in no way be considered a porno.

Indeed, when it comes to the average filmgoer of any nation or ethnicity, I fear they will react in the following manner:

“Oh no, it’s a penis. A big hulking phallus. GET IT AWAY FROM ME! GET IT… oh wait, it’s just an AK-47. Whew! Thank goodness. I was worried for a second.”

Click here to check out my exclusive interview with “Love” star Karl Glusman.

‘Spectre’ – The Global Criminal Organization Returns to Haunt James Bond in the New Millennium

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WRITER’S NOTE: The following review was written in 2015.

James Bond fans will be thrilled to know that the gun barrel sequence has been returned to the opening of this latest 007 adventure. For the past few Bond films, it has been relegated to the end to make clear just how rebooted this long running franchise became when Daniel Craig came on board to fill that tuxedo and enjoy the shaken, not stirred martinis. But now it precedes the action-packed prologue, and it’s just as well because “Spectre” aims to be more along the lines of the classic 007 adventures where the suave spy does battle with a secret organization which is bent on world domination and ends up seeing so much more than the NSA does on a daily basis. Still, it does have a strong focus on character as the past continues to haunt Bond to where the dead are not really dead.

First, let us get this out of the way: Is “Spectre” better than or as good as “Skyfall?” No, but this was kind of a given since the previous installment reached such extraordinary heights which the average Bond film usually never reaches, and this includes grossing over a billion dollars at the box office. In the end this did not matter much to me because, on its own, “Spectre” is a compelling and thrilling movie which reunites Craig with the brilliant Sam Mendes whose work on the last installment was impeccable. With this latest Bond film, they both are determined to dig even deeper into 007’s fractured and turbulent history, and it reintroduces us to certain character types and criminal organizations which defined many of the early Bond adventures.

After a thrilling action-packed opening sequence in Mexico, one of this franchise’s very best by the way, Bond is informed by M (Ralph Fiennes) he is being suspended from duty as his mission there was not authorized by him or the British government. However, we later learn he received a cryptic message from a previous mentor informed him to kill a man in Mexico and attend his funeral in Rome, and this is just the beginning to his uncovering the criminal organization whose name is an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Suffice to say, they got everything covered.

Mendes hasn’t lost a step here, and he is also served well by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (“Interstellar”) who gives even the dirtiest scenes an inescapable beauty. This movie also has a great opening and unbroken shot which lasts several minutes as we watch Bond attend a Day of the Dead parade, head upstairs with a lovely lady presumably to bed, and then he suddenly goes out the window in pursuit of his latest nemesis who has seriously pissed off her majesty’s secret service.

The main villain is Franz Oberhauser, and he is portrayed by the brilliant and endlessly entertaining Christoph Waltz. This is the same actor who gave us one of the most fiendish villains in cinematic history in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” but he’s not out to replay Hans Landa here. When we first see Franz, he doesn’t even have to speak up or raise his voice to show how powerful he is. Everyone simply stands at attention, and no one questions his decision making at any point. This makes Waltz’s job even easier as his character clearly exerts a power very few bother to question. Some claim he is too quiet in his first scene, but for him to yell at everyone or shout to keep everyone in place would strike me as being desperate to keep everything under control. Franz doesn’t need to do this because everything has long since come under his control.

As for the Bond women (calling them Bond girls does not feel the least bit appropriate anymore), they are played by Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux. Bellucci plays Lucia Sciarra, the widow of an assassin killed by Bond, and she mesmerizes us in the far too few minutes she appears onscreen. Bellucci is said to be the oldest Bond woman ever, but does this really need to be pointed out? I don’t care how old she is because she still sizzles and holds her own against Craig even as he seduces her to the audience’s delight.

Seydoux is best remembered from her role as the beautiful but cold-hearted assassin in “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” and here she plays Dr. Madeleine Swann, a psychologist who has a link to a person Bond dealt with in the past. She proves to be a strong Bond woman here as she brings up her tragic upbringing which has informed her defensiveness around those she doesn’t know very well, and she makes clear of how she has a strong dislike of guns. She’s a wonderful presence here, and she and Craig make quite the couple.

Dave Bautista co-stars as Mr. Hinx, a character designed to spark our nostalgic memories of Oddjob. Mr. Hinx is a henchman of few words, but his actions speak a lot louder than his words and leave a lot of damage in his path. This is not a henchman content with throwing a hat around as his hands do all the work and leave quite the impression.

Ralph Fiennes confidently fills the shoes of Dame Judi Dench’s M as Mallory, and like the previous head of MI6, Mallory finds he can control Bond as well as she could, which is to say only so much. Naomie Harris returns as Eve Moneypenny who has since settled in to becoming M’s assistant, Rory Kinnear remains reliable as always as Chief of Staff Bill Tanner, Jesper Christensen reprises his role as Mr. White from previous installments, and Ben Whishaw steals every single scene he’s in as Q. Seriously, watching Whishaw is such a delight this time out as he infuses the role with a wonderfully dry sense of humor as he reminds Bond of how he has a mortgage and two cats to feed.

And, of course, Mendes brings back composer Thomas Newman to give “Spectre” an emotional and propulsive film score which will has me eagerly awaiting its release on compact disc. I especially enjoyed his collaboration with the Mexican contemporary classical percussion group Tambuco on the music they composed for the Day of the Dead scenes. As for the theme song “The Writing’s on The Wall” which is performed by Sam Smith, it’s good but nowhere as priceless as Adele’s “Skyfall.”

But let’s not leave out the man of the hour, Daniel Craig. Ever since he made his debut as 007 in “Casino Royale” he has not only made this iconic role his own, but has also given Ian Fleming’s classic character a humanity and a depth his predecessors hoped to give as much of. His respect for Bond is never in doubt as he brings 007 around full circle to where we learn even more about his past than we did previously, and how it has come to define his present state in life. It’s still up in the air as to whether this will be Craig’s last time playing the famous British secret agent who likes his martinis shaken, not stirred, but I have to believe he has at least one more Bond film left in him.

How you come to view “Spectre” may depend on the kind of expectations you bring to it, and it’s hard not to have high expectations after the brilliant “Skyfall.” Do yourself a favor and leave them at the door and just enjoy it for what it is; a gorgeous and extravagant Bond film which, while a bit too long (editor Stuart Baird is missed here), has us wondering where 007, a man who another character describes as being a “kite dancing in a hurricane,” will go from here.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

Exclusive Interview with Dominik Garcia-Lorido about ‘Wild Card’

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WRITER’S NOTE: This interview was conducted back in 2015.

Dominik Garcia-Lorido is an actress on the rise. So far, she has turned in memorable performances in movies like “The Lost City” and “City Island” which had her co-starring with her father, Andy Garcia. On television she co-starred on the Starz television series “Magic City” (sense a trend here?) as Mercedes Lazaro, a housekeeper training to become a stewardess for Pan Am Airlines. Now she co-stars opposite Jason Statham in “Wild Card” which was directed by Simon West and written by the great William Goldman who adapted it from his novel “Heat.” It is also a remake of the 1986 film “Heat” which starred Burt Reynolds and is better known for the behind-the-scenes troubles which resulted in six directors coming and going from the production.

Garcia-Lorido plays Holly, a young woman living in Las Vegas who gets brutally assaulted and calls on her friend Nick Wild (Statham), a lethal bodyguard with a gambling problem, to help her get revenge on those who did her wrong. I got to speak with Garcia-Lorido on the phone while she was doing press for “Wild Card,” and she helped fill me in on the kind of character Holly is. In addition, she also discussed how she approaches each character she plays and described what it was like being a student at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television.

Ben Kenber: Could you tell me more about your character of Holly? We only get to know so much about her in the movie.

Dominik Garcia-Lorido: The backstory for her was just that she was a teenage runaway who came to Vegas. Nick always knew her and he says it in the movie. I think it’s still in the movie, when he says, “When I first met you, you are this kid with braces” and all that stuff. I think she’s like the love of his life and they just couldn’t make it work, but he’s still very close to her. She’s an escort in Vegas and does very well for herself, and she seen a lot and has grown up really fast and can really take care of herself. This isn’t the first time she’s probably been disrespected on the job, but to this extent was really the first time that she’s been this disrespected.

BK: I definitely get the sense that she’s grown up a lot faster than anyone should have to.

DGL: Exactly. I just never thought she was this young girl. When we went to shoot my first scene where he (Nick Wild) comes in and sees me, we shot at that location at this big house, we see that she lives a good life. She lives very well and does very well for herself. She’s not this broken down hooker doing drugs. She’s got her shit together and this is her job.

BK: Holly does get very disrespected in some scenes which I’m sure were not the least bit easy to shoot. What was it like shooting those scenes?

DGL: You know, those kinds of scenes are those kinds of scenes. Whether it’s a love scene about two people in love or whether it’s like this, they are so choreographed. That’s just like the perfect word for it; they are so choreographed. Milo (Ventimiglia) was such a nice guy and I felt really comfortable with him and he made me feel very comfortable. I felt very safe doing those scenes, but yeah that’s sort of how they are. We shot so much more than what you see of this flashback scene. And then being hauled into the hospital and on a gurney there were a couple of actors that were medics around me, but one was a real nurse and I was asking her questions before we shot in between takes about how would my breathing really be. That’s really scary. That’s a lot of acting you have to do when you’re shooting really fast. You have to show pain and that’s where you do the most acting. I was just asking her; how would I be breathing if I just experienced trauma? How would I be speaking? Would I be crying? She was very helpful with that. So that’s like always a little hard to do. You want to get that right.

BK: “Wild Card” was based on the novel “Heat” by William Goldman, which in turn was adapted into the movie “Heat” back in 1986 which starred Burt Reynolds. Were you aware of that movie before you started making this one?

DGL: Well, I wasn’t aware before I read the script, but then I knew it was a remake when I got it. But I never watched it.

BK: Did you ever get the chance to talk to William Goldman?

DGL: I never did. I don’t know if any of the actors really did unless Jason did. I don’t think any of us really have that opportunity.

BK: The making of “Heat” was said to be a very messy affair.

DGL: Yeah, that’s what I heard.

BK: I imagine the making of this movie went a lot more smoothly.

DGL: This wasn’t messy at all. I think there were a lot of difficulties with the director on the first film. I think Burt Reynolds punched him or something, I don’t know. We were really taken care of with Simon (West) and the producers. It was smooth sailing.

BK: Did you base Holly on any people you knew, and what were your influences on the role?

DGL: I didn’t base her on anyone I knew. I tried to personalize it in some way I can. With anything I play, I try to be as honest as I can. I wear my heart on my face more than Holly, but Holly wasn’t that to me. Her vulnerability is like creeping through the cracks, and she has poker face. She has to.

BK: Absolutely, she can’t let everybody see what’s going on inside her.

DGL: she still fresh from the night before, I think was important to me to show that a little bit because Nick needs to see the pain in this.

BK: I saw that you attended the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. What did you learn there that really helped you the most as an actress?

DGL: UCLA was such a strenuous program. We did so much. In our first year we were constantly working. Every weekend we were seeing a play and writing a paper on some aspect of the play whether it was the lighting, the production design, the costumes, the acting or whatever. During the week we had so much work. UCLA just taught me to be a hard worker, number one. It really just has you focusing on the craft and all aspects of it. I never had done that much work before. I cruised through high school before that. So I think that’s just the training because acting is a lot of work. I had a good acting teacher there that I continued to work with for a little bit when I left named Marilyn Fox. I’ve seen her act and she’s the kind of actress you want to be. She’s so grounded and so honest. She’s just always brought that out of me. I learned a lot and I grew a lot there.

Thank you to Dominik Garcia-Lorido for taking the time to talk with me. “Wild Card” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital.

Alejandro Iñárritu Takes Us Through The Brutal Wilderness in ‘The Revenant’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Alejandro Inarritu pushed cinematic boundaries in 2014 with “Birdman,” and now he did it again in 2015 with “The Revenant.” Based on the novel by Michael Punke, the movie transports us back to 1823 when frontiersmen and fur trappers traveled the states of Montana and South Dakota, and some of them soon came to discover just how unforgiving nature could be.

Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Hugh Glass, a member of a hunting party searching the land for animal pelts. In a seriously intense scene, Hugh ends up getting mauled by a bear to where he looks to be on the verge of breathing his last breath. One party member, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), becomes insistent on killing Hugh as dragging his seriously wounded body through the elements threatens to slow everyone down and put them all in the crosshairs of Indian tribes looking for revenge.

Fitzgerald ends up trying to smother Hugh to death, but he is interrupted by Hugh’s Native American son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) who calls out for help. But Fitzgerald, overwhelmed by a fear of dying, ends up stabbing Hawk to death and gets the rest of the group to leave Hugh for dead and move on to safer grounds. But despite being so mortally wounded, Hugh rises up and pursues Fitzgerald over thousands of miles as he is driven by an unshakable force known as vengeance.

Inarritu, along with the brilliant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, puts us right in the middle of the action to where we, like the characters, never feel safe for a second. Arrows are flying everywhere and we are in an environment which we are not as familiar with as we would like to think, so the specter of death is always just around the corner.

What’s especially brilliant about “The Revenant” is how it captures both the beauty and unforgiving nature of the wilderness. The vistas captured are incredible to take in but this is also a movie you will want to put on a heavy coat while watching what Inarritu has caught on camera. The weather is so fierce here to where you can’t help but wonder how anyone could possibly survive it. Heck, I cannot help but wonder what watching it would be like in a 4DX theater. Could theater owners bring the temperature to subzero levels and provide audience members with parkas?

With “The Revenant,” DiCaprio finally nabbed the Best Actor Oscar which had eluded him. While I wished he had gotten his first one for his go-for-broke performance in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” it seems very fitting he got it for a performance which has him suffering through the worst a human being could ever be forced to experience. In movies like “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed” and even “The Basketball Diaries,” he has shown a fearlessness in delving into a character’s dark side or a part of them which can never be easily controlled.

DiCaprio makes you feel every ache, pain and broken bone Hugh experiences in his infinitely long journey. Much has been said about how incredibly difficult it was to make “The Revenant,” and it looks like few had it harder than this actor did. We watch DiCaprio traverse a viciously cold landscape while lacking the ability to talk, and he even resorts to an “Empire Strikes Back” form of survival by keeping warm in a dead animal’s carcass. DiCaprio has never been an actor to fake an emotion or deliver a moment less than truthfully, and he certainly doesn’t do that here.

Also excellent in “The Revenant” is Tom Hardy who, just like he did in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” portrays a character forced to survive in the harshest and most unforgiving of environments. Fitzgerald could have been just another one-dimensional villain in this movie, but Hardy imbues him with a wounded humanity that makes him far more lethal and frightening. Just watch the scene in which Hardy faces down the barrel of a gun and just try to think of another actor who could be as convincing as him in a moment like this.

Tremendous performances, amazing cinematography, the most vicious bear attack in recent cinematic history along with a haunting music score by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bryce Dessner and Alva Noto help to make “The Revenant” one of the best and most unforgettable movies of 2015. Inarritu remains unwavering in his directorial vision and he has given us a movie that grabs you and never lets you go until the credits start rolling. While some motion pictures get overshadowed by their behind the scenes struggles, this one does not. Of course, this will not stop people from talking about the making of “The Revenant” for years to come.

Oh by the way, this movie is “inspired by true events.” This is much more honest and fitting than saying it is “based on a true story.”

* * * * out of * * * *

WRITER’S NOTE: When this movie was released, some were under the mistaken impression that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character got raped by a bear in one scene. This rumor ended up spreading like a wildfire, but anyone who has seen “The Revenant” can attest this is not what happened at all. DiCaprio gets attacked because he accidentally comes across some bear cubs, and this shows that you never ever mess with the mama bear.