Archer is set to get some original animated company on FX. The cable network has ordered a pilot for Cassius & Clay, a futuristic, post-apocalyptic, action buddy comedy that has been described as in the spirit of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Co-created by Adam Reed of Archer, with Megan Ganz (most notably a writer for Community and Modern Family), Olson will voice a hard-drinking, fast-talking bullshitter named Ordwood Cassius, while Bell voices Shopcarter Clay, the fastest gun in the South.

Susan Sarandon will join Bell & Olson as a series regular should the show get picked up for a full season. Sarandon will play Connie Mack, the ruthless owner of the town brothel. Outside of the main three women, JB Smoove, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeffrey Tambor, Stephen Root, Katy Mixon, and Robert Patrick will provide guest voices. Cassius and Clay is one of the newest developments by Floyd County Productions, following the 13-episode single-season animated comedies Chozen and Unsupervized (both of which aired on FX).

From its premise alone it would be easy to discard Man Up in the same waste bin with Kate Hudson’s career from ’06 to ’09 and rejected Katherine Heigl movie pitches. After a night of heavy drinking, and yet another failed first date, Nancy (Lake Bell) gets mistaken for another woman at the train station only to end up on a blind date with Jack (Simon Pegg), a man that she actually could see herself dating. It feels unfair to try and defend the movie against all the romantic comedies that this one isn’t, because Man Up is an exceedingly charming unlikely love story with quick wit and hilarious performances despite any semblance to worse films. Having held its premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, the movie is hardly a revelation within the rom com subgenre. The best thing about Man Up that less successful versions of this movie lack is Lake Bell in the lead role.

To this point in her career, Bell has largely been relegated to the supporting parts in films like It’s Complicated or No Strings Attached. Even her memorable TV appearances (Boston Legal, How to Make It In America, Children’s Hospital) feature her among an ensemble of funny actors. It was Bell’s feature filmmaking debut in 2013, In a World…, that helped to exhibit her magnitude and versatility in a starring role. As Nancy in Man Up, Bell once again demonstrates her mastery of accent work, seamlessly adopting a British inflection to her lines. She’s able to sell rapidly exchanged pieces of dialog and broadly absurd physical comedy; however, Bell appears so earnestly genuine that it’s impossible to deny her likeability.

Man Up begins by moving through a raucous hotel-set engagement party as a couple sneaks away to copulate in their room. Locked away by herself in the next room is Nancy, reciting a list of mantras into her mirror. She hopes to overcome her anxiety about the man downstairs whom her friends have set her up to meet, but first orders room service to avoid being at the party. Eventually, her date goes poorly and the next morning Nancy is hung-over on a train to London for her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Across from Nancy’s seat, a peppy, optimistic 24-year-old named Jessica (Ophelia Lovibond) flips through a copy of a self-help book before giving her copy to Nancy out of concern. Unfortunately for Jessica, the man she’s arranged to meet for a blind date, Pegg’s character, sees the self-help book with Nancy and mistakes her for the 24-year-old he planned on taking out.

The implementation of a misunderstanding as the impetus for romance has been a staple of cinema since movies like Bringing Up Baby, yet its overuse has made the more recent occurrences frustrating to watch. Man Up largely, though not entirely, avoids this issue two ways. Firstly, the meet cute between Nancy and Jack is actually fairly relatable and sweet, with both characters attempting to diffuse an awkward situation in a friendly way. Secondly, the misunderstanding is dealt with somewhat early rather than strung along for the duration of the film to provide a cheap, unnecessary twist in the third act. Nancy reveals that she’s not the woman Jack anticipated going on a date with less than halfway through the movie, and the two characters reassess their situation and advance the plot. The changing relationship dynamics throughout Man Up helps keep the Jack and Nancy romance engaging.

The pace at which all of the characters deliver their lines maintains a lively energy as scenes barrel forward. When the writing hits a false note, as it does a few times in the movie, the bevy of silliness and funny repartee surrounding it elevates the mediocre moments. There’s an infectious tone in Man Up, one that’s played for some broad laughs, but is mostly written to feel real. While the extent to which certain situation are heightened can be preposterous, the performances of both Bell and Pegg ground the film in a version of reality, and provide likable, empathetic characters in the lead roles.

The inconsistency of the humor does put a slight damper on Man Up as a whole. Rory Kinnear plays Sean, an old schoolmate of Nancy’s who had a crush on her, and goes to the extent of manipulating an uncomfortable kiss from her in the women’s bathroom. Kinnear’s performance becomes such a caricature that Sean feels like a character written for a different, dumber film. Sean and Nancy’s “intimate moment” gets interrupted by Jack, who enters the restroom despite Nancy’s not having been away for an egregious amount of time, and doesn’t act apologetic for intruding. The scene registers as forced in comparison to the rest of the absurdity in Man Up, which develops more naturally despite its wackiness. The occasional logic flaw breaks the momentum of some scenes, but is far from enough to disrupt the thoroughly pleasant experience in Man Up.

Fewer and fewer romantic comedies have broke through with audiences in the past few years. The only films in the genre to surpass $100 million at the domestic box office anytime this decade were Just Go With It ($103M), Valentine Day ($110M), and Silver Linings Playbook ($132M). Occasional subversions of the romantic comedy norm (Appropriate Behavior or They Came Together recently) manage to earn attention with critical acclaim, but rarely does the genre produce something quite as comfortable and entertaining as Man Up. The movie likely won’t amass a huge box office haul or garner the type of enthusiastic reactions that its more unique romantic comedy counterparts receive, but its charms are hard to resist and welcomed in an environment lacking quality films of its type. The combination of Bell and Pegg with fast-paced material and a few broad set pieces makes Man Up a completely enjoyable modern rom-com.

Don’t tell Tess Morris that the romantic comedy is dead. As a self-described “romantic comedy scientist,” she’s an ardent defender of not just her upcoming romantic comedy Man Up, but the genre as a whole. Her creative counterpart Ben Palmer wasn’t quite so bullish on the prospects of rom-com prior to reading Tess’ script. “I thought I would know what this script would be, I thought I knew what a British romantic comedy would entail, and it probably wasn’t for me.” Within the first couple of pages of Morris’ script, Palmer recognized that Man Up had qualities to make it an  endearingly entertaining romantic comedy. Together with their lead actors Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, both Palmer and Morris crafted a sweet, funny film that feels fresh amidst its familiar beats.

Chatting with Way Too Indie at the Tribeca Film Festival, Man Up screenwriter Tess Morris and the film’s director Ben Palmer go over their new movie’s entry into a harsh climate for the romantic comedy. They also discuss the benefit of casting great actors to star in your comedy, being inspired by a real-life missed connection, and the origins of the term “cute meet.”

Watch the full video interview on Way Too Indie’s YouTube channel

Romantic comedy, at least in recent years, has sort of taken on a negative connotation. Did you ever find that an obstacle when putting together Man Up?
Tess: No, I absolutely love the romantic comedy genre and I get very angry when people are dismissive of it.

Ben: Careful, Zach.

Tess: Sorry, careful, Zach. Yeah. I get quite irate when people say, “Oh the rom com is dead or whatever,” because I think you never hear that about thrillers or horrors or any other genre of filmmaking. For me, I wanted to write an unashamedly romantic, comedic film. It’s really only now that it’s coming out that we’re finding a lot of people saying to us, “I really enjoyed it! A romantic comedy!” And we’re like, [straining], “Yay!”

Ben: I think that’s good though. I think that’s good. It was certainly an obstacle for me because I’m the first to admit–

Tess: –because you’re an idiot.

Ben: Well, yeah, I am. When I was sent the script, I thought I knew what this script might be. Thought I knew what a British romantic comedy might entail and it probably wasn’t for me. It was within reading the first couple of pages of Tess’ script that you go, “Oh hang on a minute. This is very different. It’s sharp, it is really, and it’s very, very honest. And it’s really funny.”

At no point did it feel sort of schmaltzy or sentimental or patronizing, which was my expectation. At the same time it didn’t feel like it was trying to be snide and cynical, or take the piss out of the genre as well. It was very heartfelt and very emotional. It had all of those ingredients. That’s a very hard thing to pull off.

Tess: I like it when men respond to this film because—I like to think that I just write people. I’m not necessarily only writing the ladies.

It’s not a “chick flick”.
Tess: It’s not a “chick flick” in that sense but at the same time we also want to sell it as a “chick flick” in a good way because it is also a “chick flick” and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s kind of like, “It’s a film!” [laughs] It’s a romantic comedy that men and women, cats and dogs, whoever can go see. Of any sexual preference. Of any whatever. I was saying to someone earlier, I think when you come out of the film you should just feel hopeful. Not necessarily about your love life but about life in general.

Ben: When we did the screening somebody came over to me and grabbed me by my shoulders, a guy, and said, “I loved your film! I’m going to go out there and get myself a girlfriend now!” And he all but spun around and ran out the door.

Tess: And then we were like, “We should film him for a documentary!”

The follow up, Manning Up.
Tess: Yeah, exactly.

When did you first start writing the film?
Tess: Well it actually happened to me. I was under the clock at Waterloo and a guy came up and said, “Are you Claire?” And I said, “No, I’m not Claire.” Then he walked away and I thought, “Maybe I should have said that I was Claire.” Maybe just because I’m single and then I didn’t say that because I’m not a total maniac like Nancy. I then thought, “What a great premise for a set up in a film.” From that moment on I had my cute meet. I could then just run with it.

I also wanted to set something over a small period of time. Just mainly because I’m a lazy writer and I find it much easier when I’m given a sort of contained environment to do something in. Also I just feel like there hasn’t been a one crazy night British movie for a while. It was all based on something that actually happened to me and we were saying earlier I wish I could find that dude and thank him.

Ben: Well this is your opportunity.

Tess: Yes, if you’re out there guy that thought—this is like 5 years ago, probably, October 2010.

Ben: Describe him.

Tess: Kind of light brown hair.

Ben: Right. That’s narrowed it down. Waterloo.

Tess: You were a man.

Ben: You came and said something to her.

Tess: You thought I was Claire, you may be married to Claire now, that’s fantastic if you are. If you’re not…anyway, sorry.

You can throw him into the special thanks for the theatrical.
Tess: Exactly.

Is that a Britishism? The “cute meet”? I usually hear it as “meet cute”.
Tess: Yeah, I say it as “cute meet.” I use the Billy Mernit word. He’s a writer who wrote a brilliant book called Writing the Romantic Comedy.

Ben: Tess is a rom com scientist.

Tess: I am a rom com scientist. Badge.

You’re learned.
Tess: Yes, PhD in Romantic Comedy. [Mernit] calls it the “cute meet” and it’s only recently actually that a few people have gone “meet cute.” I don’t really know, actually.

Ben, at what point did you become involved with the script?
Ben: You’d written the script quite a while ago, hadn’t you?

Tess: Yeah, I wrote it on spec in 2011 and then I think you came on in 2013 from the end of the summer.

Ben: Four or five months before shooting. Got sent the script. I thought I knew what to expect and I had to convince myself that I definitely wouldn’t be doing it. That they’d sent it to the wrong person because I have slightly more cynical, irreverent sort of humor I suppose. The sort of comedy that I normally do.

So I thought—I was away on holiday—I’ll look at this on my phone, I’ll read the first 10 pages maybe and then I’ll politely say no. And I didn’t, I read the whole thing because she’s a brilliant writer. It suckered me in within the first couple of pages and it totally challenged my expectations of a romantic comedy. So I finished that and found my agent and said I’d love to do this.

I know you mentioned that cute meet actually happened to you, but that whole misunderstanding as the impetus for romance it’s kind of a staple of the romantic comedy. Were there influences you were drawing from when you were putting together Man Up?
Tess: I would say what I definitely had a sense of is [that] I wanted to find a modern way to do it. I supposed the one that did it well quite recently was The Proposal but then he’s pretending to be someone else rather than mistaken kind of identity. I wanted to find a way to have two people meet without knowing anything about each other which is very, very difficult in the modern world. I’m basically a bit of an Internet detective. If someone says to me, “Do you wanna get set up with a guy?” Give me a name and a location and I’ll know everything about him. I’m not even on Facebook and I can do that. Sounds a bit stalkery [laughs].

It’s impressive Googling.
Ben: Terrifying Googling.

Tess: But the point is that I thought for the audience [that] I’m not, for the sake of the audience, that I’m not going to make a whole film that is about someone pretending to be someone that they’re not. I didn’t want to do that. I want her to reveal who she is within that end of act one beginning of act two sort of sequence. I definitely thought, “Right. How can I do this and make it believable?”

That’s the thing. Not to be too hard on the romantic comedy but a lot of the ones you see and don’t like it’s just that the believability, the authenticity isn’t there. Is it the characterization of these two, of Nancy, that makes Man Up work much better?
Tess: I think it’s a combo.

Ben: It’s a lot of everything like that.

Tess: I obviously wrote them like that and then we got a dream team of Pegg and Bell to bring them to life for us.

Ben: There’s so many facets that go into it. It’s the storytelling, obviously, and it’s not feeling like you’re being patronized. Or told how to feel. In combination with that you’ve got your two leads. The film effectively lives or dies by the chemistry of those two performances. Those two performers. Thankfully with Simon and Lake they are so brilliant and they had that sort of spark from the first time we did the read through. When Lake came over from the States and sat with Simon we did like one blast through the script. They were so…

Tess: They just liked each other.

Ben: Yeah, they’re funny performers and they would crash each other’s lines. There was a real spark but also it felt very real. It’s how people talk to each other. It’s not heavy handed or cloying.

How did Lake Bell and Simon Pegg first get involved and did you format the script with them in mind?
Tess: Well we got Simon first and that was brilliant because he was actually about six months before Lake. Maybe a bit before. I actually did a draft with Simon. He obviously had some thoughts, some notes, and it was obviously just fantastic for me. I remember him going to me, “Can I sort of, like, send you some notes?” And I was like, “Uh, yes! You’re like one of my favorite writers. Really! Please! Send me your notes!”

So he did that and brought loads more to Jack. I suppose the draft he read maybe was slightly more Nancy-centric, and obviously because Nancy is very much based on sort of…me. I loathe to say that, exposing soul. But you know what I mean, I felt like I had definitely nailed her and I remember Simon saying to me, “I like Jack but he’s a bit of an idiot, isn’t he?” I said, “Yes, that’s exactly what he is.” So it was great having his kind of input. His comic timing is genius obviously.

Then Lake came on board a bit later. It’s quite interesting. Two actors who also write… But it was like a dream scenario. Lake did exactly the same as Simon in terms of offering up her own, “Can I say it like that? What about this?” So really I got incredibly lucky. I can imagine if you got actors that don’t write but want to write. But I had Lake & Simon who were two brilliant writers going to me, like, “What about that bit? What about that bit?” I remember having a big conversation with Simon about the Barbie joke on the train. Lots of stuff like that.

Ben: Based on that read through because they were so messy with their dialog, like we do. You talk over people’s lines, you don’t hold back. That all helps with that authenticity that you’re talking about and that realism. When they did this read through you’re going, “We definitely need to cross-shoot this whole film.”

Which is what we did. Then that gave us the freedom to shoot multiple, multiple takes. So you do those first few takes where you preserve everything in the script and you don’t overlap any of the lines. Then you crank it up faster and faster.

It has that very ping-pongy nature to the dialog. How much of that is in the script and how much of that is just through the rehearsing and practicing of these scenes?
Ben: There’s a lot in the script. There’s a lot in the script straight away and that was the enticing thing from the off. That Tess had captured that dialog and that banter so perfectly.

Tess: I love dialog. It’s my favorite thing—I was going to say in film but just in life. I love listening to how people talk. I’m a bit weird like that, I’ll always have my notepad on me and if people say things—you can’t really be friends with me because things will end up in a film that you have said.

Ben: Let that be a warning.

How different or similar then is it from the one you first wrote or read?
Tess: It’s not different. I mean, obviously I’d say that, I wrote it.

Ben: There’s the usual cutting and trimming just to get that pace and that energy throughout.

Tess: We had a scene that we lost. I don’t know if it’s going to be in the deleted scenes but the “More Than Words” thing. It was quite a key scene where Simon and Lake sing “More Than Words” by Extreme. We have to put that on the internet somewhere at some point. But the problem is they got too good at it, they were too good at singing. They were like amazing.

Ben: There was restructuring as we were going along just a little bit. But I think because it was tightly script, the final film feels like there should be elements of improvisation in there because there’s a naturalism to it. There’s obviously quite heightened, big set pieces, but the core of it feels very realistic.

In a way it’s a compliment if people think that people think it isn’t heavily scripted. It means you’re doing something right. I think that was the approach, making those characters and that dialog feel as real and as honest as possible so then when you hit those more farcical set pieces you believe those characters and you roll with it. You don’t question it in a way.

There’s some very big moments and Sean is quite a heightened character but your bedrock of Jack and Nancy, you’re in and you’ve got them. So people just buy it after then.

And there’s a building to that absurdity as well.
Tess: Yeah, exactly. It builds. When I watch it now with people seeing it for the first time I’m really acutely aware how in the third act people suddenly go, “Ahhh.” Because I think they suddenly realize what’s been plotted for them. Someone was saying the second time they saw it they got even more from it the second time. I think there are quite a lot of jokes that maybe you could miss in the first viewing of it. Basically pay to go and see it twice.

Ben: It’s a very mercenary approach. But you need to I think.

Tess: Yes. Twice. Twice viewed.

Other than branching out to the darker side of comedy (think Inherent Vice or maybe Marley & Me), Owen Wilson rarely leaves his comfortable broad and quirky comedies for more dramatic films. This obviously makes his upcoming role in intense international thriller, No Escape, worth noting. In the film, Wilson plays an American businessman who has moved his family to southeast Asia to become mixed up in a violent political uprising. Will he be able to expand his talent and be sympathetic without his trademark sarcastic attitude?

No Escape is directed by John Erick Dowdle, who is most known for underrated horror films Quarantine and Devil, so this appears to be an interesting change for him, as well. The film co-stars Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan.

Released by The Weinstein Company, No Escape is set to hit theaters on September 2, 2015. Check out the trailer below!

No Escape trailer

Remember Don LaFontaine? He’s the movie trailer guy; the “In a world…” guy. You know, the deep, gravelly voice that announced countless movie trailers in the ‘80s and ‘90s. LaFontaine, who has now left us, left a hole in the movie industry as grand and deep as his legendary baritone rumble. In the fictional world of In a World…, Lake Bell’s writer/director debut (she also stars), three voiceover artists bite, backstab, and dupe each other as they battle it out to assume LaFontaine’s now vacant throne.

Carol (Bell) is a smart-ass semi-slacker and aspiring voiceover artist with a kind heart. Her dad thinks her dream of voiceover success is a big joke and treats her like a loser. He happens to be the biggest winner of them all, Sam Sotto (the invaluable Fred Melamed), a pot-bellied egomaniac with a voice as smooth and rich as molasses and the most successful voiceover artist since LaFontaine (he’s still bitterly jealous of the deceased because, as you’ve probably surmised, he’s a self-involved dick.) Sam’s protégé is young, big-shot voiceover artist Gustav Werner (Ken Marino), a McMansion-owning scumbag whose douchiness is only matched by his mentor’s. He finds Carol’s dream just as laughable as Sam does. The two buddies are successful trailer guys, but from their bloated egos you’d think they were the biggest stars in showbiz (they conspire by the pool, they make snide one-liners at swanky parties, they spit misogynistic vitriol in the sauna.)

When a career-defining trailer gig opens up (for a sort of feminist Hunger Games-ish mega-blockbuster), Sam and Gustav are considered (mostly by themselves) top contenders, but Carol’s been quietly building steam in the industry herself, even (unknowingly) beating out Gustav for a few gigs. She’s wriggled her way into the dark horse position, and the jockeying turns into a maelstrom, with Sam backstabbing Gustav, Gustav sleeping with Carol (he corners her in a secret room full of oddities in his mansion and makes out with her nose), and Carol shoving her dad’s disgust for her ambition right back in his face.

The film is also a family drama, an ensemble comedy, a Hollywood satire, and a cute romance, with some feminist through lines thrown in for good measure. This is its biggest setback; there are so many subplots and asides at work that it becomes narratively scatterbrained and unwieldy. Dimitri Martin plays Louis, Bell’s nerdy-nice-guy producer and love interest. They make a nice pairing, and Martin’s shy tip-toeing is sweet. In other romantic news, the always on-point Michaela Watkins plays Bell’s sister, Dani, who’s happily married to Moe (Rob Corddry), though she flirts with danger as her eye wanders to her dashingly European boss, Jason O’Mara. Oh, and then there’s the family dynamic between Carol, Dani, Sam, and his creepily young girlfriend.

These subplots are acted very, very well by the cast, which is brimming with standouts (Nick Offerman, Geena Davis, and even Eva Longoria also join the fray.) However, what ends up happening is they detract from Bell’s guided tour of the sleazy, cutthroat world of voiceover actors, which is In a World…’s best asset; it provides the most interesting, unique, and hilarious moments. I only wish Bell made more room for it.

What’s really great about Carol’s storyline is that it ends on a note of female empowerment which is incredibly uplifting and fulfilling. I grew to care about Carol very much, and to see her come out the other side the way she does made me leave the film happy. It just feels like Bell was so dead-set on fitting every clever idea she had into the script that she ended up with a busier script than it needed to be. Still, In a World… is a clever, character-centric comedy that’s got a great cast and is framed by such a strangely peculiar backdrop that it sets itself apart.

In a World trailer

Ever wanted an autograph from the lovely Lake Bell? Well here is your chance. Way Too Indie is giving away a signed movie poster of Bell’s upcoming film In A World, a film that she wrote, starred, and directed. The film is about a voice actor who tries to find her voice in a cutthroat world of movie trailer voice-overs. In A World opens in select theaters on August 16th.

Way Too Indie is giving away: an exclusive In A World movie poster autographed by Lake Bell to one (1) random winner. Roadside Attractions will be supplying the material.

How do you enter the giveaway?

Leave a comment or Email Me your favorite movie trailer.

For additional giveaway entry Tweet at us your favorite Lake Bell role: @WayTooIndie #InAWorld

Take the movie trailer voiceover quiz

Synopsis

“An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.”

Watch the trailer for In A World

Read our interview with Lake Bell

Do not forget to check out our interview with Lake Bell where she explains why she’s so fascinated by accents, what British people think of Americans, her writing process, and more.

In Lake Bell’s (Childrens Hospital, No Strings Attached) directorial debut, In a World, she examines the complex relationships of a group of people involved in the ultra-exclusive world of voice acting. Bell sat with us to talk about why she’s so fascinated by accents, the “sexy baby” epidemic, what British people think of Americans, her writing process, and more.

In a World opens this Friday, August 16^th.

The voice acting world serves as the framework for the film, but it’s not what the movie’s about.
Totally. It’s the umbrella.

Right. It’s not at the core of the film, but it’s obvious that voice acting is fascinating to you. What do you find so alluring about it?
I’ve always been interested in voice and sound—the mechanism, the muscles…the tool that it is. As a young girl, I thought accents and languages were mysterious, and people who had an accent were more sophisticated and interesting. I wanted to learn how to do them, and I had an ear for it. It was something I could do. My dad could do it, too. I started honing in on the skill, and my parents thought it was funny, so I ended up doing them a lot. I started hounding people about their accents and later, in drama school, started recording people and their accents. I collected accents like someone collects stamps. When I studied radio plays in England, the idea for characterization via this tool was really inspiring. It’s kind of the ultimate acting, because it’s without the judgment of what you look like, so people can’t say, “You’re too fat. You’re too thin. You’re too tall. You’re too brunette. You’re too blonde.” Anything. “You’re too female.” I could be a guy, I could be a different nationality, whatever.

And you do play a guy in the movie, right?
I do!

That’s something cool to have on the resume.
Totally! (laughs) I hope I get many more voiceover gigs. I love it so much. But yeah, it’s the blind voice, without judgment. You can be anybody.

I agree that people with accents are generally more mysterious and intriguing. You went to school in England. I have a feeling that they don’t find our American accents intriguing.
I would say in some parts of the world it is…maybe not mysterious (laughs) but it’s intriguing. I used to think the same thing. We don’t have a tremendously beautiful accent, but when I went to England, I was the only American in my college. We had people from Australia, we had people from Scotland, and all those people had to get rid of their accents and find a neutral accent of Received Pronunciation, or RP, which is basically BBC English. The Scottish and Australian people had to get rid of their accents to get to neutral, but I was also one of those people. I had this American accent that I had to get to neutral. I remember when they first said that to me I was shocked. I was like, “You guys have all the accents! I don’t know what you’re talking about.” As Americans, we’re so ethnocentric. We think that everybody else has the accents and we don’t, but in fact, I was just another foreign student that had an accent to get rid of. That was a nice role-reversal. I lived in France at one point and at first, even in England, everyone’s kind of tough on you for being American. They don’t want to make you feel like you’re special at all. They’re like, “Fuck you, we don’t care!” Then, you realize as you become friends with people that they’re so intrigued and so jazzed on American culture, and that made me feel less bad. Initially, when I’d move to different countries, I’d always be like, “Oh god, this is such a bummer. They hate me.”

So they don’t think we’re all jerks over there.
I mean…

They do! (laughs)
As a country, there are a lot of jerks here. When you see Americans when you’re traveling, don’t you think, “Oh god!” and put your hands on your head?

Totally. It’s embarrassing.
It is embarrassing. Too loud! What’s interesting about the American accent, just very technically, is that it’s more resonant, and therefore travels farther. So, the actual accent is louder than other accents.

Interesting. Is it the shapes we make with our mouths?
Yeah. The shapes we make, and where we place it in our mouths. Australians are the same way. They have a louder accent as well. Australian isn’t one of my accents, but [the sounds] are further back [in the mouth] and more resonant. It’s annoyingly louder than other ones. A British accent is quieter. A French accent is also very quiet. It’s just because it’s in the front of the mouth and not supported in the same way.

You’re obviously a whiz at this stuff. Is that why you chose to set the film in the voiceover world?
Sure. I had a lot to say about it.

And “sexy baby” as well! (“Sexy baby” is an incredibly annoying and idiotic American female accent that can be heard on numerous reality shows and in Nordstroms across the nation. It sounds exactly as the name implies—like a squeaky, high-pitched baby that wants to fuck you. It’s a monstrosity.)
Yeah, “sexy baby.” I’m haunted and offended by it.

But now you have to hear it all the time because you’re traveling with the movie!
It’s OK because it’s really fun traveling with the movie and being in all these airports and really seeing it everywhere in the nation. It’s not exclusive to California. Everyone says it comes from the valley, and it does, to an extent, originate there. But it has blossomed, or festered, I should say, into something that is so rampant and its own beast. It’s so unsavory for perfectly smart women to be speaking this way. It’s really bad when you hear mothers and wives taking it on to be sort of sexually relevant.

Wow, I’ve never heard mothers speak like that.
There are some reality shows where women in their 40’s talk like that.

Shows that shall not be named (laughs.) The movie is all about the characters and their relationships and interactions with one another. You didn’t want this to be a “voice actor movie”, right? You wanted to focus on the characters.
Correct. What I can speak to and what I feel like my forte is as a writer is to investigate the relationships and also not be on my soapbox, but definitely discuss cultural trends that apply to this woman finding her voice in a very real way, but also in an emotional way, and helping other girls find their voices and combating her father. It’s definitely a coming-of-age story that I felt needed a world that supported the comedic beats, but also was relevant in her journey. That’s why the voice actor world felt like the right place.

It fit.
Yeah, it fit beautifully for me. It’s also just something I like. I had a lot to say about it, I had a lot of characters in my head around it, I had a lot of interactions that I could envision happening, and it was colorful. Even if it’s just colorful in sound, there’s a multitude of angles and ways into the story.

Was the writing process pretty smooth? Was it quick?
I’d say it took a year-and-a-half to two years for the script to gestate and, you know, that’s 20-something drafts. Writing, for me—because I have the luxury of not having a deadline, being able to write when I want to write, what I want to write, and not doing it for anyone but myself—sometimes takes longer, however, the actual writing process is smooth, because I only arrive to write when I want to. When I’m writing, it’s on my own accord.

Let’s talk a bit about Fred Melamed.
He’s a great man. He’s a teddy bear. I’m so proud of his performance and his dedication to committing to that role and being despicable and tragic at the same time, and also, just delivering a hilarious, egomaniacal character.

When he starts crying it’s just amazing.
Oh my god. He’s so committed. It’s beautiful. So yeah, I’m thankful to him.

Short Term 12

SXSW film-goers pegged this picture pretty well when they gave it the audience award a few months ago. Destin Cretin’s second feature in as many years is an honest crowd pleaser that leaves you feeling all warm inside. Brie Larson, in an exceptional dramatic turn, and a solid John Gallagher Jr., mentor a very good ensemble cast as the head staff at foster care facility named Short Term 12. Cretin skillfully reveals that the bright faculty of this care center emerged from a similar backgrounds as many of the children they oversee. He does so with a script that skirts the many clichés of a ‘troubled kids’ drama and renders his characters painfully clear. In a post-screening Q and A he admitted to working in a facility similar to the one depicted in the film and conducting hours of interviews with workers and children as research.

Short Term 12 often deals in extreme emotions and Cretin guides his actors skillfully into restrained performances, yet at times the filmmaking fails to follow suit. Too often the production sound falls to a dreamy silence as the music, an excellent score from young composer Joel West, pumps up the emotion when audiences are already right there with the film. So many recent filmmakers have adopted a “naturalist”, documentary, or handheld style that it feels like the new norm. It’s more shocking to see carefully executed dolly shots and classical editing than shaky close-ups in low lighting. In Short Term 12, Cretin with long time cinematographer Brett Pawlak, execute this style to a tee and allow their actors to shine. Cretin and his team craft a beautiful film about nontraditional families using traditional storytelling.

RATING: 8

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

David Lowery’s unclear and unconvincing script extinguishes what could have been a fiery noir burning with lust and violence. His story contains many great crime genre staples—a love struck criminal, a beautiful country girl, a menacing father figure, lusty cops, and a prison escape; not to mention it’s set in the 30s. The industrious Lowery has lured immense talent to his film but fails to deliver even an ounce of the proposed excitement.

Full Review of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

RATING: 5

In a World

Lake Bell, a lovely character actor, makes her feature debut as writer/director with the unique comedy In a World. She draws from an impressive Rolodex of friends, such as Children’s Hospital co-stars Rob Courdry, Ken Marino, and Nick Offerman. Bell delights in filling most of the cast with comedians who all excel in dramatic turns. In a World works because it is not just silly nonsense like many of this summer’s comedies, but a compelling father daughter story set in the goofy, yet interesting, niche world of Hollywood voiceover artists.

Bell plays, Carol, a shiftless layabout who specializes in voice coaching dialects because she thinks she cannot make it in the cutthroat would of voice acting, dominated by her father, Sam, played by the marvelous Fred Melamed. Sam seems comfortable to pass the torch to a younger voice stud named Gustav when studios revive the classic movie trailer phrase, “In a World…” for a new round of epic Hunger Games/Twilight-esque films, but Carol begins booking voice over gigs of her own and throws a wrench into this male dominated world. On paper the plot seems a bit trite, but the wealth of supporting characters, touching family drama, and beautiful performances all around make for a great time. Bell perfectly balances the laughs with the drama and never lets the story get too silly or too dire. She crafts a wonderful and heartfelt comedy that also addresses serious issues of family relationships and feminism in Hollywood yet remains entertaining throughout. I look forward to more films from Bell.

RATING: 7

The production of Black Rock is a husband and wife collaboration between Mark Duplass handling the screenwriting duties and Katie Aselton coming up with the story and working as the director for the second time in her career. Making its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2012, this stalker thriller earns merit through effort only as the film does not achieve what it intends to do. It is bad when the characters are even asking themselves, “Is this it?”, only ten minutes into the film. By the end the viewer has no choice but to wonder the same.

The film starts off with two childhood friends, Sarah (Kate Bosworth) and Lou (Lake Bell), looking to reconnect by retreating to a remote island in Maine for a weekend. But Lou’s excitement hits a speed bump when she realizes that a third friend named Abby (Katie Aselton) was also invited. These two have an unresolved issue with each other that goes way back. Just as the two make up their minds about bailing on the expedition, Sarah convinces them to forget about their disagreements and continue on with exploring the remote island just as they did back when they were kids.

Lou and Abby get into a heated argument not long after they reached the island, but as they are about to finally make amends they are frighteningly interrupted by the sight of three men with guns walking through the woods. It turns out that these men were recently discharged from the Army and came to the island to hunt deer. After the initial shock of not being the only ones on the island wears down, they invite the three men to their campfire. The night quickly grows out of hand after the excessive amount of alcohol is consumed, and the girls soon become the hunted target.

At about the halfway mark, Black Rock is still thrilling and entertaining, but unfortunately the film peaks just as it starts to become interesting. The film ends up playing out just as one would expect it to, offering no real surprises along the way. The real irony here is that a character flat out states, “Sometimes you can’t go by the book. You can’t follow every single rule.” Yet the film does not follow its own advice.

Much of the dialog in the film feels improvised and with Duplass in the credits that should not come as a surprise. The part that is surprising is how poor the dialog works. There are multiple instances where the characters seem to be at a loss of words while trying to extend the scene. Furthermore, the film verbally spells out what is happening rather than letting the scene speak for itself; most noticeable when the man with a gun shouts, “I am going to find you and kill you.” as if his intentions were not made obvious enough.

Black Rock is a bit peculiar as some of the best moments of the film occur while it is still setting up the exposition. When the story actually develops it quickly becomes less interesting and more far-fetched. In its final act things completely fall apart with a downright laughable ending that is completely unimaginative. To put it nicely, Black Rock is a rare misstep for Mark Duplass and a largely disappointing film as a whole.

In A World

What a fantastic, honestly hilarious comedy. Perfect in every sense of the word, In a World defines my idea of funny. This is the directorial debut for Lake Bell, and yet you really would not know it – she brought to the table a vision and with that a solid script; which deservedly won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance, Utah in January.

Carol Solomon (Lake Bell) is a struggling vocal coach, teaching actors how to speak with different accents. This is how we are introduced to Bell’s character, she receives a phone call asking if she could work with Eva Longoria to develop her cockney accent – the auditorium is in fits of laughter as we hear Longoria trying to pronounce “slapper”, just a few seconds into the film. From then on, almost every scene has you involuntarily bursting out laughing as Bell knows exactly what the audience finds funny.

Though lacking in confidence, Carol seems to get lucky in scoring her first big ‘gig’ and attempts to pursue a career in voice acting, something she has always dreamed. Her father, Sam Sotto, the reigning king of movie-trailer-voice-over artists, has never wanted her daughter to follow in his footsteps and becomes insanely jealous of her success.

Dealing with issues of sexism, Bell highlights the hardship women can face in a male dominated industry, however this is not the focal point of In a World and during a Q&A at the end, she described it as being something she wanted to include but never to force onto the audience.

In a World is a wonderfully charming and extremely witty comedic gem directed, written and starred in by Lake Bell – I look forward for its international release.

RATING: 9.5

Touchy Feely

Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely has, so far, gathered mixed reviews and unfortunately I got to see why. I went into the film very open minded and came away feeling confused and largely disappointed. Nevertheless, there can be a lot said for the powerful depiction of energy and balance within life and relationships, something that Shelton has always done a great job with in her films.

We presume that from the Touchy Feely poster of Abby and that the entire sequences of events that occur are related to this character’s lifestyle – that Touchy Feely is about her. Yet once the credits role, I felt that it highlighted her brothers personal progression and even his daughter Jenny’s development so much more than any other – that Abby’s final ‘realisation’ was a mere after thought. If this was what the film intended, that the whole storyline and focus would shift along with the balance of energy then it would seem to make a lot more sense.

Stick around Way Too Indie for a full review of Touchy Feely coming soon.

I was initially intrigued by Black Rock when I heard it was written by Mark Duplass and directed by his wife Katie Aselton, who also stars in the film. A trailer for Black Rock has landed and it looks to be a gripping thriller about three young women who travel to an island but soon discover they are not alone. Though the trailer may reveal a little too much of the plot, as most tend to do these days, it certainly looks like it will be one hell of a ride.

Watch the official trailer for Black Rock: