The Angelika Film Center & Café at The Shops at Legacy celebrates its third year in operation as North Texas’ most upscale and stylish boutique cinema devoted to independent and specialty film. The Angelika’s elegant interior, comfortable auditoriums featuring leather seating, and uncompromising standards of service make the Angelika Plano the cinema of choice for even the most discriminating filmgoers.
Q: How did you become involved in the production side of CHAPTER 27? Were you cast in the role first, or were you involved in production from the beginning?
A: It all happened simultaneously. It was an unique opportunity to participate in a different way. But my main focus was the definitely the role. Secondary was helping, if I could, to bring the directors vision to life. The producers were very kind to let me apprentice, in a way, throughout the process.
Q: You obviously put on a lot of weight for your role as Mark David Chapman. Was that a difficult decision to make? Why did you choose not to just wear a “fatsuit”?
A: It wasn’t a difficult decision at all. I would say the difficulty came after the decision was made. It was important to take on the physical challenges of this transformational experience as well as the psychological/emotional. The weight helped indicate many things about the character for me. Although it was a very important and obvious part of the process it was still just one part of the overall journey. And one that I am definitely very happy to be finished with.
Q: You also adopted a sort of whiny, southern accent for the role. Did you have to watch footage of Mark David Chapman to really take on his persona accurately?
A: His voice was very specific. Jarrett and I spent a lot of time discussing his voice and the importance of including it in the performance. I spend most days for months listening to archival tapes and interviews of his voice. Also while in Decatur, Georgia I found someone who had a very similar accent. That proved invaluable.
Yes, archival footage was very important and very helpful. It taught me a lot about who he was. I studied everything I could about his behavior from the inside to the out.
Q: Why do you think CHAPTER 27 documented only the weekend before John Lennon’s murder as opposed to delving further into MDC’s life or psyche?
A: Probably best to ask director Jarrett Schaefer about this but he had a very specific vision for the film which I thought was incredibly interesting and non-traditional.
CHAPTER 27 opens this Friday, March 28 at the Angelika New York. Leto will be attending the 8:00pm and 10:20pm shows on both Friday, 3/28 and Saturday, 3/29. Don’t miss it!
PARANOID PARK, the new movie from the always compelling Gus Van Sant, has been garnering critical acclaim since it first made the festival rounds. New York Times critic Manohla Dargis continued the trend right before opening day with a categorically exceptional review in which she called Van Sant’s work, “…a haunting, voluptuously beautiful portrait of a teenage boy…”.
Click here to read the full review,
and here to see an exclusive interview with cast member Taylor Momsen.
PARANOID PARK opens tonight, March 7 @ the Angelika New York.
GIRLS ROCK!, opening this Friday, March 7 @ the Village East Cinema, is a rousing documentary about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, OR where girls ages 8 to 18 receive music lessons and life lessons of empowerment from a dedicated group of feminist indie rockers.
Director Arne Johnson answered a few of our questions about the making of the film below.
Q: What inspired you to make the documentary?
A: Well, I first heard about the camp through Sleater Kinney, the members of whom have taught at the camp various years. Carrie Brownstein, in fact, runs the assemblies every year and co-wrote the camp theme song. …
X-MEN writer Zak Penn does a 180 in directing his new movie, THE GRAND, a hilarious, low-budget poker-themed mockumentary that features an unbeatably witty cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, Ray Romano, Chris Parnell, David Cross , Werner Herzog and Richard Kind.
The always articulate director chatted with us last weekend about the making of THE GRAND….check out what he had to say below.
THE GRAND opens Friday, March 21 at the Village East Cinema! Visit www.villageeastcinema.com for tickets and showtimes.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for THE GRAND?
Last night’s Academy Awards proved fruitful for the Coen Brothers’ much acclaimed thriller NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, which took home 4 trophies including Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and the always coveted Best Picture award.
Other big winners included fan favorite JUNO screenwriter Diablo Cody (Best Original Screenplay), Daniel Day-Lewis for his role in THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Best Actor), Alex Gibney’s documentary TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (Best Documentary Feature) and Austria’s THE COUNTERFEITERS (Best Foreign Language Film).
For a complete list of winners, visit Variety, and visit www.angelikafilmcenter.com to find out when and where you can see all of last nights winners and nominees.
Rising star Taylor Momsen makes her indie film debut next month in PARANOID PARK, Gus Van Sant’s totally enthralling new film that has critics (and regular people who were lucky enough to catch it on the festival circuit) raving.
Fourteen-year-old Momsen, who recently shot to enormous fame with her role as Jenny on the Gossip Girl , invited us to chat with her about her role in this moody, adolescent drama that will make you glad you’re not in high school anymore.
Click the PARANOID PARK still below to watch the video interview.
PARANOID PARK opens March 7 @ the Angelika New York and March 14 @ the Angelika Dallas and Houston.
In honor of Radiolab’s season premiere episodes entitled LAUGHTER, the Angelika brings you more exclusive video clips. In our first clip, we watch Joe Randazzo, associate editor of The Onion, and Radiolab host Jad Abumrad discuss the evolution and anatomy of the laugh (and watch as they demonstrate some of their favorite laughs). Click below to view.
This second clip is best left to be explained by Abumrad: “The first episode of our new season is all about why we laugh. I know, it seems like a stupid question. We laugh because something is funny, right? Actually, the scientists we talked to say that laughter has little to do with humor. It’s usually about social interactions, and, more specifically, power. Tyler Stillman, a psychologist at Florida State University, used a joke about a two muffins in an oven to show that a bad joke can get a big laugh, so long as a boss is telling it to an employee. Sadly, it doesn’t work the other way around. It seems the person in power laughs least. Here at Radio Lab, we like to test things out for ourselves. So we used the WNYC offices as our own little laboratory, and tried to find out if it’s true that our bosses are funnier than us, even when they aren’t. Here’s what we saw.” Click below to view.
Don’t forget about the listening premiere this Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Angelika New York.
Radiolab is holding its Season Premiere Listening Party, au gratis, on Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Angelika New York - first come first serve and hope to see you there!
Radiolab, the syndicated, top-rated NPR program is premiering its 4th season at the Angelika New York on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7pm. The free “listening premiere”, held in conjunction with WNYC public radio, is open to the first 203 lucky fans to arrive at the theater - attendees will be treated to some pretty cool guests, including one of The Onion’s hilarious editors, an underground musical act and the chance to meet the Radiolab hosts themselves!
Hosted by award winning, cult-journalist heroes Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, Radiolab airs locally on WNYC and takes an accessible, documentary-style, intelligent (and kind of odd) approach to tackling existentialist-friendly topics and current events (past shows have featured such titles as Morality, Beyond Time, & Who Am I).
For more info, visit the Radiolab Website. And keep checking back at our blog for exclusive media from a some of the [wacky] participants….
