Once a director gets classified as a provocateur, it’s a label that can be hard to shake off. Rick Alverson earned that title three years ago with The Comedy, his extremely uncomfortable (and funny) takedown of ironic detachment. In that film, Tim Heidecker played someone who thrived on being repulsive and confrontational, and it was easy to treat his character as a symbol for a specific, rotting part of today’s culture. Entertainment, Alverson’s follow-up, is another piece of provocation that will naturally get compared and contrasted with The Comedy; Heidecker returns to co-write the screenplay (and show up in a cameo), and Alverson continues showing off his knack for creating interactions that can have people crawling in agony towards the exits. But Entertainment provokes in a more insidious manner than The Comedy. If Alverson’s previous film focused on attacking character, stretching a protagonist’s “likability” to the breaking point and beyond (think of Heidecker’s character as less of an anti-hero and more of an asshole), then his latest work sets its sights on dismantling structure and narrative. That makes Entertainment feel more specific and less like a commentary or something symbolic, so it can be harder to glean what Alverson’s real intent might be with his increasingly surreal story. The results are murkier, for better and worse.

So it makes sense to cast someone like Gregg Turkington in the central role, a person whose career involves blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Turkington is known best as Neil Hamburger, a comedian who specializes in antihumour, taking familiar aspects of stand-up comedy and performance and aggressively going against expectations. But in recent years he’s also played “Gregg Turkington,” a version of himself that co-hosts the web series On Cinema, along with being involved in its spinoff Decker. In Entertainment, Turkington plays “The Comedian,” a stand-up travelling across the Mojave Desert with his act (an exact version of Turkington’s Neil Hamburger character). A young clown (Tye Sheridan) appears from time to time as an opener with his own baffling act, but The Comedian travels alone, making pit stops in between his performances to indifferent crowds. Alverson expectedly basks in every millisecond of painful silence that comes after Turkington/Hamburger barks out another one of his offensive jokes. Enjoying these scenes, and enjoying Entertainment as a whole, is largely a make or break affair; either you like Turkington’s brand of comedy or you don’t.

The majority of Entertainment plays out as a portrait of one man’s loneliness, with Turkington usually framed in a way that makes him look swallowed up by the desert landscapes (Lorenzo Hagerman’s cinematography is one of, if not the best parts of the film). His interactions with people are usually brief, except for a sequence where he visits a cousin (John C. Reilly) who’s too business-minded to comprehend what The Comedian’s purpose really is. A series of voicemails The Comedian makes to his daughter (who’s never seen or heard) throughout also provides a little bit of characterization, even if it feels like it’s there to make the character look like more of a desperate sad sack. It’s only until a meeting with a chromotherapist (Lotte Verbeek), followed by a brutal encounter with a drunk heckler (Amy Seimetz) that Alverson starts letting go of his formal grip on the film, providing one surreal encounter after another that escorts The Comedian from the purgatory of his desert tour to some sort of deranged, Lynchian hell. Levels of discomfort get ratcheted up considerably as The Comedian’s disdain of others, along with accepting his own pitiful existence, reach a fever pitch when he makes it to the final stop on his trip. Entertainment ends with the image of The Comedian laughing hysterically, which is both the character’s most expressive moment in the film and the point where Alverson lets go of the film’s connection to any form of reality. The Comedian’s eventual acceptance of his own existence as a punchline doesn’t land as strongly as it should, a result of Alverson’s tendency to create compelling scenes that stand on their own yet link together in an aimless fashion, but there’s something powerful in Entertainment’s ability to push down into the darkest depths without any hesitation. Alverson, whose singular style makes him one of US indie’s most important voices right now, confirms what The Comedy established three years ago: he’s a filmmaker brimming with potential, but for the time being someone to watch rather than behold.

Last year, we were lucky enough to profile TIFF’s Short Cuts Canada and Short Cuts International programmes, which compiled a huge amount of short films from seriously talented filmmakers for TIFF audiences. It was a fun feature for us to do, and we knew that, come next year, we’d do the same thing again. Now it’s 2015, and we’ve finished getting a glimpse at some of what TIFF has to offer us this year. Once again, the results are the same: an impressive and diverse group of shorts from around the world, with an especially strong showcase this year from Canadian filmmakers.

And for anyone who might be unsure about buying a ticket to one (or more) of these 11 collections of shorts, it’s worth noting that sometimes you might be one of the first people to catch a glimpse at the launch of a new filmmaker’s career. Last year, Andrew Cividino’s short Sleeping Giant played, and now his feature-length adaptation of that short is having its North American premiere at TIFF. In other words, it’s worth your time to take a look at what’s playing this year in Short Cuts and help support some terrific films. We’ve gone through each of the 11 programmes below and picked 26 of our must-sees. If any of these sound up your alley, don’t hesitate to snag yourself a ticket for the programme it’s in if tickets are still available. You won’t regret it.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 to 20. Find out more about the Short Cuts programme and buy tickets, visit TIFF’s official website. And if you can’t make it to TIFF, you can still watch some of their shorts for only $10 through their new Short Cuts Re/mix screening experiment.

But first…

While it’s not playing in Short Cuts, it would be a huge mistake on our part if we didn’t mention Nick DenBoer and Davy Force’s short film The Chickening, which will open this year’s Midnight Madness programme. I’ve been told to stay mum about the many, many twisted surprises in store for viewers once they lay their eyes on The Chickening, and after watching it, I wouldn’t dare speak a word. What I will say is that the above picture of a chickenified Jack Nicholson should let you know that this short is some sort of unholy fusion of poultry and Stanley Kubrick’s classic, but that’s all I will say. I can’t wait for TIFF audiences to lose their minds once they experience The Chickening. [C.J.]

Now, on to the main event…

Short Cuts Programme 1

Mobilize

At less than 3 minutes, Caroline Monnet’s Mobilize covers plenty in its exhilarating montage of Indigenous people adapting to Canada’s ever-changing landscape over the years. From building a boat to travelling the lakes to building cities and navigating the 9 to 5 work week, Monnet keeps things moving at an exciting, hypnotic clip. And the soundtrack, a track by Tanya Taqaq, gives the proceedings a visceral, “adapt and survive” quality. [C.J.]

O Negative

Steven McCarthy’s moody, nearly wordless short starts with a man (McCarthy) driving his ailing girlfriend (Alyx Melone) to a cheap motel before feeding her his own blood. Yes, this is a vampire movie (sort of), but it’s a stylish and effective one that’s not afraid to get bloody (and it gets bloody). Think of this as an unofficial sequel to Let the Right One In, and you’ll start getting an idea of what O Negative is like. [C.J.]

That Dog

Musician Nick Thorburn (from bands like The Unicorns and Islands) makes his directorial debut with That Dog, and he’s assembled quite the cast for this 15 minute short. Following three people staying in the same apartment complex (Andrea Riseborough, Tim Heidecker and Michael Cera), Thorburn’s short seems plotless at first until the complex’s close quarters and awkward situations between tenants cause an unintended chain reaction. This is the sort of story that feels ripe for an expansion to a full-length feature. [C.J.]

Short Cuts Programme 2

Dragstrip

In four short minutes, co-directors Daniel Claridge and Pacho Velez construct a unique sports film that captures everything but the sport.  This is what makes it so fascinating.  With a throaty rumble of drag-car engines ever present in the background, Dragstrip is a patchwork of the faces behind the highlight reel; amateur racers and fans anticipating the next big race, but doing so with a workmanlike calm that belies the explosive excitement they’re about to be a part of.  It’s a behind-the-scenes look in plain view. [Michael]

Wellington Jr.

I didn’t see this thing coming. In her 12-minute stop-motion animated short, director and co-writer Cécile Paysant disarms viewers first with crudely designed characters (in terms of looks and physicality), then with an absence of dialogue (there are guttural sounds throughout, but no discernible language).  The theme, though, is clear: do the old man proud. A father presents his son with a gun for his birthday, and the two participate in a rite-of-passage hunting contest against other father/son teams.  Paysant perfectly captures the different disappointments felt by father and son when the son is not up to the task.  I audibly gasped at the wicked twist at the end. [Michael]

Short Cuts Programme 3

Boxing

After surviving a tragic accident, a woman (Kyra Harper) returns to her boxing class, only to find herself bombarded by one of her classmate’s (Rachel Wilson) selfishly selfless concerns for her well-being. Grayson Moore & Aiden Shipley, who worked on last year’s stunning TIFF short Running Season, return with yet another winner that has some of the best performances in the entire programme. It’s a great character-based short that builds plenty of drama out of seemingly very little, and it all culminates in a brilliant single take finale that takes full advantage of the short’s slow-building tension. [C.J.]

Bacon and God’s Wrath

Employing various media to tell his tale, director Sol Friedman introduces 90-year-old Razie, a woman who, for almost all her life, lived as a devout follower of the Jewish faith, but always wondered what a bacon and tomato sandwich might taste like.  Then “the Google” came along, opening her eyes to more than just recipes.  This 9-minute look at faith, fear, and the pragmatism of modern thinking is as timely as it is entertaining. [Michael]

Short Cuts Programme 4

World Famous Gopher Hole Museum

Sometimes documentary filmmakers hit gold, and that’s the case with Chelsea McMullan and Douglas Naylor’s profile of a gopher museum in the small town of Torrington, Alberta (population 200). The museum is nothing more than dozens of dioramas of taxidermied gophers in various parts of town, whether it’s getting their hair done at the salon or praying in church. McMullan and Naylor take what could have easily been treated as indie quirk (some of these dioramas scream Wes Anderson) and give it a somewhat ominous and somber vibe. Comparisons to Gates of Heaven will be inevitable and for good reason. [C.J.]

Beneath the Spaceship

A unique friendship between the adolescent Julie (Selma Modeer Wiking) and her adult neighbour Paul (Per Lasson) gets tested in Caroline Ingvarsson’s intriguing film. In a short amount of time, Ingvarsson lays out a nuanced relationship between the two, and the complications that abound with Julie starting to enter her teenage years. Operating as more of a slice of life than a closed narrative, Beneath the Spaceship showcases two great performances in a surprisingly complex short. [C.J.]

Portal to Hell!!!

I feel like I have to write a bit more about this short due to the tragic, unexpected loss of its star “Rowdy” Roddy Piper several weeks ago. Director Vivendo Caldinelli and writer Matt Watts have given fans of They Live what they’ve been waiting for since Carpenter’s film came out in the 80s: a chance for Piper kick ass and save the world again. Playing an exhausted superintendent of a crappy apartment building, Piper discovers that two tenants have conjured up a portal to hell in the basement in order to summon the Lovecraftian “Old Ones” (look out for a Cthulhu cameo). Simply put, Portal to Hell!!! is consistently funny, surprisingly nasty and entertaining all the way through, and watching Piper play the role of a half-assed hero is a delight. It’s sad knowing that Piper is no longer around to star in the feature-length expansion (and I have confirmation that one is in the works), but I’m just happy to have a chance to see him take on this kind of role one more time. [C.J.]

Short Cuts Programme 5

She Stoops to Conquer

Julian Richings is one of Canada’s bottomless resources in Canadian film, and a classic definition of a great character actor. So it’s nice to see his distinct look and memorable presence used so well in She Stoops to Conquer, Zack Russell’s strange and beguiling short. A talent show performer (Kayla Lorette) who dresses up as an old man for a comedy set finds her performance isn’t working with audiences, but one night after going to a club in her costume she finds the exact lookalike of her character (Richings). It’s a fun “what if” scenario about meeting one’s own doppelganger, and it’s all helped by Henry Sansom’s striking cinematography. [C.J.]

Remaining Lives

Luiza Cocora takes a hard, intimate look at the transition from life at one him to life at another in Remaining Lives. The short takes the perspective of a young Romanian girl who’s recently moved to Montreal with her mother, and over the course of the film the realization that this change isn’t a temporary one slowly settles in. It’s a subtle short with great direction that highlights the alienation and disconnect its central character feels, and an ending that will make the film linger in viewers minds well after it’s over. [C.J.]

El Adiós

Clara Roquet, the co-writer of our Must See Indie pick 10.000 KM, makes her directorial debut with this excellent look at the societal and class distinctions between a maid and the wealthy family she works for. Jenny Rios plays Rosana, a Bolivian maid preparing the house for the funeral of the family’s matriarch. But as the day goes on, and the relatives of the deceased increasingly show disrespect to Rosana, it becomes apparent that her patience has run thin. The assured direction here is great, but it’s really the fantastic and nuanced performance from Rios that makes El Adiós a highlight in the Short Cuts programme this year. [C.J.]

Short Cuts Programme 6

Nina

Making her directorial debut, Halima Elkhatabi presents a stark and honest snapshot of a teenage mother living on her own, making the choices of someone with far more maturity than she has, while still succumbing to natural teenage urges.  Nina is a girl who cannot shake the habit of making bad decisions, and while the film offers the most obvious of those as narrative bookends, it’s the choices Nina makes in between that are wonderfully subtle.  Elizabeth Tremblay Gagnon gives a strong performance in the title role. [Michael]

Short Cuts Programme 7

Never Happened

Mia Kirshner and Aaron Abrams, two great actors usually seen in supporting roles, get the chance to shine as the leads of Mark Slutsky’s wryly funny comedy. Kirshner and Abrams play co-workers on a business trip who, after a few drinks, wind up cheating on their spouses with each other. Abrams and Kirshner establish a great chemistry in (literal) seconds, and Slutsky’s narrative structure is used to great effect. But it’s in the final minutes of Never Happened where the film takes an interesting turn, one that makes it more in line with Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. [C.J.]

(Otto)

The filmmakers behind last year’s TIFF short A Single Life return with a bittersweet and funny story about a little girl, her imaginary friend, and a woman desperate for a child of her own. After seeing the little girl playing hide and seek with her non-existence playmate the woman, who recently found out she can’t have children of her own, steals the friend so she can raise him as her own. It’s an absurd, funny and ultimately melancholy film about finding a connection with someone, and its sincerity should win viewers over. [C.J.]

Rock the Box

This short documentary profiles Rhiannon Rozier, aka DJ Rhiannon, a woman trying to break into the male-dominated world of DJing and dance music. Katherine Monk’s smart, fascinating docu explores Rozier’s decision to ultimately use her looks and sexuality to her advantage, posing in Playboy to help further her career. Rozier, who says she was always seen as a “golden child” with straight As through university, describes her choice as liberating, but is it only helping perpetuate the same standards that hold women back from the boys club that is EDM? Rock the Box lets viewers make up their mind on that issue, but everyone can agree that Rozier is an extremely charismatic subject, a careerist who’s in complete control of what she wants. [C.J.]

Short Cuts Programme 8

The Call

In this 10-minute South African short from writer/director Zamo Mkhwanazi, Sibongiseni (Fana Mokoena) is a stoic, unemotional cab driver who one day finds himself at a multi-layered crossroads in his life.  On the surface, a fare leaves an iPhone in his cab, something he can sell for quick cash, yet he doesn’t.  Below that, there is a funeral for a colleague he isn’t sure he will attend. Deeper still, he has impregnated a prostitute (Kgomotso Matsunyane) and is no longer sure an abortion is the answer.  He is crippled by indecision. [Michael]

Short Cuts Programme 9

The Swimming Lesson

Several childhood fears—from abandonment to peer pressure to drowning—converge in Olivia Boudreau’s wonderful 10-minute directorial debut. Jasmine Lemée plays a young girl whose harried mother unceremoniously drops her off for her first swimming lesson. The child is in a new place with new faces and hoping to learn to survive in a new element, and she is doing it entirely alone. Her imagination gets the best of her in the film’s WOW moment. [Michael]

Latchkey Kids

The incredibly tight bond between two teen siblings is threatened in Elad Goldman’s mesmerizing short about love and fear of abandonment. Gur (Yoav Rotman) and his sister Daniel (Gaia Shalita Katz) move with the unison of two people who have relied on each other for years.  But when Daniel’s boyfriend becomes a regular fixture in their lives (and thus a threat to Gur), the brother feels motivated to take action to protect his sister, his environment, and his happiness.  This 22-minute Israeli short is my favorite of the programme. [Michael]

Short Cuts Programme 10

Quiet Zone

In a perfect mixture of form and content, David Bryant and Karl Lemieux’s transfixing short uses degraded film as a visual supplement for interviews with people suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, a condition where people fall ill when exposed to strong telecommunications signals. These people, unable to live in society due to cell phones, TVs, radios and WiFi, seek refuge in “quiet zones,” rural areas with little to no technology. Watching the film warp, scratch, burn and dissolve adds a tactile element to what’s on-screen, representing the way the short’s subjects can physically feel the effects of something invisible to the naked eye. It’s one of the most remarkable shorts I’ve seen in the line-up this year. [C.J.]

Oslo’s Rose

Sometimes it’s better not to reveal anything about a short before you watch it. This is the case with Oslo’s Rose, a funny and brutally awkward short from Norway. Nader and his friend are sitting down in a bar trying to get out of their writer’s block when Janne, an old friend of theirs, shows up and starts chatting with them while she waits for a friend. What happens over the course of this conversation becomes a great example of cringe humour, to say the least. [C.J.]

Short Cuts Programme 11

Bird Hearts

Written and directed by Halfdan Olav Ullmann Tøndel, this 25-minute Norwegian short stars André Sørum and Stine Sørensen as Benjamin and Maya, a 20-something couple living together in relative happiness.  However, when a small dinner party turns to the subject of past sexual experiences, Maya’s story gets inside Benjamin’s head and his insecurities take a toll on their relationship.  While a little slow out of the gate, once the film reaches Maya’s story, the tension created by the frailty of Benjamin’s ego is unsettlingly palpable. [Michael]

Bam

This Canadian animated short packs as heavy a punch as its protagonist.  Written, directed, and animated by Howie Shia, Bam follows the life of a young man who struggles to control his anger issues.  He eventually turns to the sweet science of boxing to make something positive out of something negative.  Life, however, still exists outside the ring, and he learns its the most delicate of relationships that suffer most from his rage.  In five minutes, Shia captures the essence of anger at a time when too many in the world seem to suffer from too much of it. [Michael]

The Man Who Shot Hollywood

This 12-minute doc from writer/director/narrator Barry Avrich is a jam-packed love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood, presented as a personal and touching biography of a man who lived it. Jack Pashkovsky was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who eventually headed west to Hollywood with the hopes of being a cameraman. The industry’s nepotism prevented that from happening, and thankfully so. Pashkovsky turned to still photography and captured countless Hollywood legends in hundreds of pictures he took only for himself.  Some of those never-before-seen pictures can finally be seen here and they are glorious. [Michael]

“My biggest fear is for my mind to control me and not the other way around,”Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva told us at FilmHouse in San Francisco, when asked about the inspiration behind his 2013 psychological creeper Magic Magic, starring Juno Temple and Michael Cera. We spoke with him at the beginning of his tenure as the San Francisco Film Society’s 2014 artist in residence, which runs through the end of the week. Including student lectures, a screening of Magic Magic, an intimate artist talk, and filmmaker networking events, the residency program is an opportunity for emerging filmmakers to spread their knowledge across the Bay Area filmmaking community.

In Magic Magic, Temple plays Alicia, an American who travels to Chile to visit her cousin Sarah (Emily Browning). During her stay, Alicia’s mind begins to crack when her interactions with Sarah’s friends turn adversarial. The film also stars Silva’s brother, Agustin, Cera, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Magic Magic is one of two collaborations Silva had with Cera last year, the other being kooky road trip movie Crystal Fairy, based on a real-life experience Silva had in with a girl named Crystal Fairy (played by Gaby Hoffmann).

During our chat we talked about Silva reconnecting with the real Crystal Fairy, the gift of spontaneity, his residence in San Francisco, questioning his craft, Juno Temple’s tortured acting style, and more.

For More info about Silva’s residence, visit sffs.org.

When I spoke to you last year at the San Francisco International Film Festival, you were hoping that the real Crystal Fairy was going to show up to the film’s screening that night, as you were led to believe she lived in the area.

Sebastian: She didn’t show up at that screening, but we eventually heard from her. Gaby emailed me that she had contacted the real Crystal Fairy and that she was living in Vermont. She sent me her number, and I was petrified. I wasn’t ready to talk to her, you know? I had no idea whether she liked the movie or not. I told Michael [Cera] that I had her number, and he said, “Let’s call her!” We called her on speakerphone, and she said she loved the movie. She freaked the fuck out.

She had no idea you made this movie about her, right?

Sebastian: No! I lost contact with her 13 years ago, but now she’s in my phone.

What I enjoy about this pair of movies you’ve made is that they depict Chile so differently.

Sebastian: One is “feel-good”, and one is “feel-bad”. Crystal Fairy is handheld, improvised, and Magic Magic is the most expensive movie I’ve made, with a rockstar DP, precious photography, artificial lighting…they were very different processes. They do share a lot of similarities; a girl comes to Chile in search of herself, and Michael plays an antagonist to them. There are a lot of similarities, but the movies make you feel very different.

You made Crystal Fairy fairly quickly, and filmed Magic Magic shortly thereafter. Do you think that, because the two processes were so disparate, you felt refreshed going into Magic Magic and that it helped that film?

Sebastian: Definitely. Crystal Fairy was the first movie where I explored improvisation so deeply. We had an outline, but we didn’t have a screenplay. I had to be so much more aware of my surroundings. I was making it on the go. You just feel so much more alive, and it was very challenging. That formula helped me to be more loose and open to change things in Magic Magic, which had a very rigid screenplay and shooting plan. Having shot Crystal Fairy so recently, it made me work more loosely. I’d delete entire scenes, shoot scenes on the front porch instead of the dining room. That spontaneity was a gift from Crystal Fairy, and I’m treasuring it.

I love the chemistry Michael has with Gaby and Juno, but I actually particularly enjoy the dynamic between he and your brother, Agustin.

Sebastian: It’s a great dynamic. He’s a good kid. Such a natural. He and Michael are great friends.

Gaby and Juno both give very intense performances, with Gaby’s character being an extremely positive person and Juno’s being a deeply tortured soul. 

Sebastian: Gaby’s a bit older than Juno, and Juno seems to be a more sensitive, fragile creature. For her, I think this character was a little bit of a spiritual burden, and she was sometimes overwhelmed by it. I’d give her directions to cry, act scared, act insecure, and it would bring her spirit down. Gaby’s character was ridiculous. She was preaching shit that she wasn’t doing herself, a forgivable hypocrite. They are very different women doing very different roles. It’s hard to compare them, in that sense. Gaby is one of those actresses who does a character. She doesn’t become Crystal Fairy. She’s doing a job. On the other hand, Juno started suffering like her character Alicia. When I asked her to cry, she couldn’t stop crying afterwards. She’d go to places that weren’t very healthy to get the emotions I was asking for.

You’re going to be here in San Francisco for a while as the SFFS artist in residence. You have a lot of activities lined up, including lectures for students. Have you ever spoken to students in this kind of forum before?

Sebastian: No, never. But I’ve done a lot of Q&A’s and press. It’s kind of the same. I didn’t prepare or anything. I wouldn’t know how to start a lecture. I’d rather go “Crystal Fairy” on them and improvise the lectures.

Would a younger you have enjoyed having access to a filmmaker like this?

Sebastian: It would have been nice to hear about stuff that isn’t easy, for instance. Tips I know are very useful for if you’re making your first feature, or writing your first script.

Do you think that watching a lot of movies keeps your filmmaking skills sharp?

Sebastian: I don’t really watch a lot of movies. I’m not a cinephile. I even question my craft every day. “What am I doing? Should I just paint?” It’s become my life and my craft, but I don’t completely love it. I find it very superficial at times. I have a love-hate relationship with making movies. I guess some filmmakers are sharper that way. I remember a Chilean filmmaker telling me, “If you want to shoot a car scene, just watch how Quentin Tarantino does it and copy it!” I’d never copy something. If I have to shoot a car scene, I’d figure it out on my own.

I love Michael’s character in Magic Magic, Brink.

Sebastian: He’s the best. I love Brink, too. Michael and I got so addicted to him. He’s such a closeted gay. Very creepy. I love him.

Was it your idea from the beginning to dye his hair dark?

Sebastian: Yeah. I wanted to transform him. I asked him to gain a lot of weight, but he said, “No fucking way.”

Tell me about your next project, Nasty Baby.

Sebastian: We’re locking picture at the end of March. We shot it in my neighborhood in New York, and I’m starring as the main character with Kristen Wiig and Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of TV On The Radio. I think we did a really good job. It’s very naturalistic and funny, but it gets a little dark. It’s not a comedy, it’s not a drama. It’s just a piece of life that goes wrong. By the end it becomes a sort of thriller.

This is your first time starring and directing, so that’s another unique filmmaking experience under your belt.

Sebastian: You want to keep it fresh, so that’s why I decided to act. It’s a very small movie so there was no risk. Co-starring with Kristen was very comfortable. She’s a great improvisor and made me feel very safe. The DP I work with on most of my films came from Chile, so I felt at home. Very comfortable. But it was very overwhelming to be directing and acting. I had no monitor to see what I was doing, see the takes. I had to just trust my co-actors. I told them, “If I’m embarrassing myself, just let me know I’m doing a shitty job.”

Mark Webber’s sophomore effort as a director, The End of Love, follows a jobless single-father who is struggling to make ends meet while caring for his son. The film feels incredibly personal to Webber as nearly everyone in the cast goes by their real name and his son in the film is played be his actual child. It is the type of film that we come to expect out of Sundance Film Festival, a realistic portrait of an aspiring artist with an attempt to tug at your heartstrings. Although it does not venture far from that “Sundance formula”, The End of Love stands out above the rest because of the spectacular acting performances between the father and son.

Mark (Mark Webber), clearly exhausted, pleads with his two-year-old son Isaac (Isaac Love) to go back to sleep for just five more minutes. Because Mark is a single-father and can barely make his rent payments, paying for daycare every day is out of the question. Therefore, Mark is forced to bring Isaac along everywhere he goes, including his acting auditions that turn disastrous because of it. With his roommates on his back about paying rent, life delivers a knockout punch when his car is towed, setting him back half a grand.

Just as things could not get any worse for the struggling father and adorable son, a bone is thrown in their direction. Mark ends up meeting a lovely woman (Shannyn Sossamon) who is not only a single parent herself, but runs an indoor playground for children. You can tell his dating skills are rusty when she must make all the first moves, but the real kicker is when he tries to advance the relationship on the first date. This is painful to witness because you cannot help but feel remorse for him. And it is not the last time he makes the mistake.

Without question what makes The End of Love so moving is the empathy we feel for Mark and Isaac. The dynamic between the two is incredibly intimate because they are actually father and son in real life. This means the youngster did not need to recite lines and had the freedom to be his natural youthful self. Results of this improvised approach pays dividends in the long run by making the whole production seem exceptionally realistic.

Serving as a great contrast to the broke wannabe actor are the onslaught of cameos made by Amanda Seyfried, Jason Ritter, Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Michael Cera, all basically playing themselves as highly successful people in Hollywood. The unfortunate part is their success in the field gives Mark false illusions that he is close to achieving the same. But this is not a pity party for Webber’s character. The ratio between the audience feeling bad for him and despising him for doing something irresponsible is close to a one to one match.

Perhaps even worse than an ending that is wholly upbeat or devastatingly depressing is one that takes the middle of the road, and unfortunately that is where The End of Love lands. There is a sense that the lead character is finally coming to terms with his wife’s passing, but leaves enough unanswered to make the audience neither cheer nor weep. Unlike the rest of the film where emotions are heightened, the ending is much more complacent. In the grand scheme of it all, this is a fairly minor quibble in an otherwise notable character study about coming to terms with difficult situations.

Our Bay Area readers will finally get a chance to see Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffman in Crystal Fairy when it hits theaters tonight. We learned in our interview with director Sebastian Silva and Cera that the story about a wild group of friends who are on a quest to find magical psychedelic cactus San Pedro, was actually based on real life events. We noted that Crystal Fairy is a not drug movie per se, but rather a warm drama about the dynamics between an odd group of people embarking on a new experience in our review. If that is not enough to convince you to see the film, check out the trailer below.

Watch the official trailer for Crystal Fairy:

While stoned at a party in Chile, Jamie (Michael Cera), a boorish American asshole, invites a cosmo-tripping hippy named Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffman) on a quest with his friends to obtain San Pedro—a  “magical” cactus—and imbibe the mescaline-rich plant. Much to his surprise, Crystal Fairy actually shows up for the journey the next day. Feeling threatened by her weirdness (or something), Jamie slings nasty barbs and general douchiness in an attempt to drive her away, but their fellow road-trippers have taken quite a liking to her.

Cera and director Sebastian Silva chatted with us before the film’s screening at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May. We spoke about the film’s inception, the risk of improvisation, the real Crystal Fairy, whether Jamie is an asshole or not, their favorite road trip movies, and more.

Review of Crystal Fairy

How did the project get started? You were trying to get Magic Magic made, right?
Michael Cera: Right. We were basically sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting for somebody to step in and finance Magic Magic. It seemed like that ship had sailed. We had given up. Then Sebastian said, “Why don’t we do this instead?” Just to make something, we’ll go make this movie and no one will stop us.

Sebastian Silva: I had Michael and Gaby there, so that was enough incentive for a Chilean producer to make a tiny movie that could finance itself just by international sales. It was a simple financial, economical figure and a good business idea.

Michael Cera: It was financially sound.

Sebastian Silva: Yeah, from every perspective. My friend’s producers were into it immediately and it was a very easy project to get going. Super easy. It took us, like, two weeks.

Because the film came together so quickly, how structured was the script?
Michael Cera: It was very structured. It was completely conceptualized and figured out.

Sebastian Silva: It’s based on a true story. I went through the same experience fourteen years ago with my best friend. We were going to go take San Pedro in the Chilean desert and I invited this hippy girl that I met at a concert. She was from San Francisco actually, and she went by the name of Crystal Fairy. We’re looking for her.

Michael Cera: We’re really hoping to find her. It just occurred to us today that maybe she’ll show up tonight*.

That would be amazing!
Michael Cera: It would be amazing!

Sebastian Silva: It would be fucking crazy. But anyways, that’s the structure—it actually happened. I would say about 80 percent of the things you see [in the film] are based on true facts. The fact that Jamie and Crystal are fighting so much—Jamie’s embarrassed of her and she’s so annoying—that’s kind of fictionalized. We actually got along with Crystal Fairy. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be looking for her and I probably wouldn’t name the movie after her! We had a very thorough outline, about 12 pages. It’s basically a screenplay without dialog. We knew some of the jokes. Gaby had some of her stuff written. I thought [some of her lines] were improvised, but I found out later that she memorized a lot of her speeches.

Let’s talk a bit about your character, Michael. Do you know anybody like that? You look…
Michael Cera: Awful! (laughs) I don’t know anyone that outwardly toxic off the top of my head, but I do know people who are that way with drugs. They like spouting their knowledge of the onset of LSD…people who have collected experiences in order to be an authority on something. That element was sort of inspired by real people. His terrible energy was inspired by the way the story was constructed. The whole thrust of the conflict in the movie is that he invites this woman [on a trip] and then unfairly turns on her when she takes him up on the invitation and makes her feel very unwanted and unwelcome. He actually tries to campaign against her, campaign to get her excommunicated from the group (laughs). It’s so unfair and so ugly. That’s the root of the character, that he’s so out of touch with himself that he can’t even take responsibility for his actions.

Sebastian Silva: I need to defend Jamie because I personally feel like it’s crazy…(trails off). If you’re all coked up at a party, all high and drunk, and you invite someone on a trip, you don’t expect them to call you! If you don’t pick up your phone, they don’t go! She’s kind of crazy [for going out there.]

Michael Cera: They’re both crazy.

Sebastian Silva: Jamie had a point. She’s embarrassing. The first thing they [see from her] is that she’s fighting a whole group of gypsies, she’s crying, she has no money. It’s a drag. It’s such a drag. The kid’s aren’t excited that you invited her. Champa (one of the guys on the trip) is like, “Are you serious? She’s going to come?” Jamie’s got a point. She’s pretty annoying.

Michael Cera: It’s really objective in that way. They’re both annoying (laughs).

Not having written dialog requires a measure of trust between the actor and director, right?
Michael Cera: I don’t think anyone had any feelings of doubt about whether we could do it or not. Gaby was expressing that she was a little nervous.

Sebastian Silva: She said she was really bad at improv, but she was an improve genius! I personally was more scared of my brothers (who act in the film) who had never acted. One of them had acted before…

Agustín
Sebastian Silva: Yeah, Agustín had acted before. Juan plays the second most important character after Jamie and Gaby. I was really scared for him. The first night he was nervous. You could see his veins really bulging. Luckily, the characters had done cocaine, so his tension was justified by the overuse of cocaine. The next morning he already felt more comfortable with the cameras and the crew and started pulling off an amazing performance. He was really good at improvising as well.

Michael Cera: They’re such present people. They could just sit there and have a conversation and not overdo it. They had really good instincts about what human beings are like. They’re all really intuitive. They played off of each other incredibly, too. It was really good for them to be doing those things with each other.

Sebastian Silva: In terms of the improv and the risk of it, for me, it was the inexperience of my brothers. But, that was solved the very first day of shooting. I was in one of the first talking scenes…

Michael Cera: You really set the tone with that. There’s a scene at the beginning of the movie where we go into a bedroom and we’re doing cocaine and getting stoned. Sebastian is in there. He’s the guy who’s done San Pedro before. It was a good way to kick-start the entire experience.

I like that, when we arrive at the inevitable “trippin’ on San Pedro” scene, you don’t overdo it. The screen doesn’t get hazy, there aren’t crazy colors everywhere. You do some interesting things with the sound.
Sebastian Silva: It’s actually more of a panic attack than the effect of the drug. Any drug can give you a panic attack, right? Even marijuana can give you a panic attack. In that scene, we’re not really portraying the effects of mescaline. We’re portraying the effects of the sudden paranoia attack that Jamie gets from being so crazy. I never even thought that we would get all psychedelic and visual about it. It’s not that kind of movie.

Why isn’t it the right movie for that?
Sebastian Silva: The movie isn’t about the effects of mescaline. If you know about mescaline, [you know] it affects people differently. To make something visually would frame the experience in a weird way and not allow the audience to project their own experiences with recreational drugs onto the story. It felt like the wrong thing to do.

Michael Cera: It’s done often, too. I don’t think Sebastian ever falls into the trap of doing movie tropes. (To Sebastian) If you smell that, you try to do something different.

Sebastian Silva: Yeah, absolutely.

The film is kind of this odyssey, a journey across Chile for San Pedro. What’s your favorite road trip movie?
Sebastian Silva: Thelma and Louise! That’s a road trip film, right? I like that movie a lot. It made me want to be a woman and shoot men.

Michael Cera: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It makes you want to drive.

Sebastian Silva: That’s a fun one.

Michael Cera: Oh! Wild at Heart! It’s great.

Crystal Fairy opens in San Francisco Friday, July 19^th and is available now on demand.

* As far as we know, Crystal Fairy did not show up to the screening.

According to a recent New York Times article, Michael Cera’s latest film, Crystal Fairy, began to shoot when financing for a different film with Chilean director Sebastián Silva fell through. The result, based on an outline by Silva about an obnoxious foreigner studying abroad in Chile, who will stop at nothing to try the psychedelic cactus San Pedro, presents a seemingly effortless character study with subtle, yet joyous revelations. Crystal Fairy is especially welcome this summer as it emerges on Friday amongst the din of soulless blockbusters to gently penetrate our hearts with a surprisingly universal story. While the film embraces the device of drug use it is not a drug movie, but a warm drama about the dynamics between an odd group of people embarking on a new experience.

Silva takes his time setting up the different members of his “team,” first revealing the obnoxious, self-conscious Jamie, played with startling honesty by Cera, and his Chilean roommate, Champa. We meet these two at a house party where Jamie laments the availability of good Chilean cocaine, like an absence of fine wines in Napa, while Champa reassures everyone that Jesse isn’t really such an asshole. Jamie’s drug connoisseurship at once makes him unfortunately familiar and immediately unlikable, yet Cera’s easy humor sustains him. Jamie and Champa’s plan to try mescaline slips out when Jamie meets Crystal Fairy, an eccentric hippy played brilliantly by Gaby Hoffman, who he disingenuously invites along without considering she would actually accept. The next day, Champa, his two younger brothers, and Jamie cruise toward the Northern coast until Crystal intersects them by bus at a village along the way. Jamie, beside himself, cannot fathom that she would crash their plans, to which Champa calmly replies, “you invited her, man.” The dynamic of their drug bound bro-trip shifts wildly as this wayward pixie inserts herself into the clan, which hilariously jives well with everyone except Jamie.

Once the team is assembled Crystal Fairy becomes startlingly familiar on a primal level as every oddly matched group trip you’ve ever taken slowly oozes into the back of your mind. Silva’s scenario presents a more colorful and exotic version of our collective adventure-memory as the gang road-trips their way through expansive deserts, strange villages, and finally the serene ocean. Cinematographer, Cristián Petit-Laurent, captures both the beauty of the surroundings and the subtle interactions between characters with an easy going style of loose framing and natural light that firmly places viewers within the story.

As (almost) everyone begins taking the hard won psychedelics, the film’s style remains firmly planted in reality, avoiding any Fear and Loathing hallucinations, in order to further examine the raw fears, joys, and insecurities previously hinted at within each character. Silva graciously grants all his characters their moment, although it’s Jamie who has the most growing to do. Each small revelation thankfully manages to skirt cliché and Silva’s masterful control of his cast allows for a natural, yet subtle epiphany for Jamie, while the drug use diffuses his vulnerability with a welcome degree of humor without diminishing its impact. Whether you like it or not you’ll see familiar glimmers of yourself within all the characters of Crystal Fairy and hopefully Silva’s touching film will provide a much needed respite from the current slew of inhuman Hollywood mediocrity.

Crystal Fairy

Sebastián Silva just directed two Michael Cera features and at least one, Crystal Fairy, is bizarre and excellent. The story is rather simple, an American dick studies abroad in Chile in order to party and try the uber-psychedelic San Pedro, a cactus native to the Northern regions. Cera, his Chilian roommate, and brothers have a trip all planned out, but Cera sabotages their own intentions by trying to impress the groovy hippie chick, Crystal Fairy, at a party and drunkenly invites her along on their journey.

The beauty of Crystal Fairy evolves from the shifting group dynamic between Cera and the Chilian brothers, portrayed with honest naïveté by Silva’s three younger brothers and how it falters when Fairy joins them. Cera’s abrasive, insensitive American plays well against his established innocent persona, while feeling like a totally honest character. Gaby Hoffman’s fearless portrayal of the hypocritical hippie, Fairy, is something to behold. She literally bears all in a moving and disturbing performance.

The film weaves between a hipster comedy of manors, road trip, drug film, and honest drama but never settles long enough to get stale. Not much happens in Crystal Fairy, but its small character driven rewards feel like grand revelations. The excellent, yet sloppy cinematography and great music selection only elevate its already assured scenes. I’m eager to see this film again and to see Silva’s other Cera picture, Magic Magic, but I hear lightning doesn’t strike twice.

Monsters University

Pixar is dead. If the back-to-back of Cars 2 and Brave didn’t seal the deal, then Monsters University will. While the past two pictures were so obviously missteps, this one trips and plunges into the indiscernible Hollywood slurry. Monsters University gets under my fingernails like bamboo spikes because of its mediocrity.

Monsters University brings nothing new to the Monsters universe that was not already created in the excellent first film, yet seems fine with it as it skips along at a brisk pace. I found myself chuckling at a few of the lame jokes and was happy with the inclusion of Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Charlie Day as a wacky new monster. People of my generation (late 20s) grew up on Pixar in a way that we were young enough to be enchanted, but old enough to appreciate the new films and analytically follow their progression. It pains me to see a studio, who used to produce only amazing films, fall so far with only varying degrees of recent success. It seems that Pixar is now fine with producing the same old recycled crap, just with newer and better animation. Pour out a little Old E on the sidewalk. A giant has fallen.

Time behaves very strangely here in Cannes. Days feel like they are short changed the 24 hours that they are supposed to contain. Thus, there does not seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything that you want to do. Most often time ceases to exist all together. Other times it is irrelevant like when all-night parties bleed into the next day. But then there are times when you are standing in line for a film for an hour and it feels like an eternity. Physics explains time is relative, Cannes is able to prove it.

Director Sebastián Silva and stars Juno Temple and Michael Cera on stage for Magic Magic

Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives is methodically paced, save for sudden outbursts of ruthless violence from time to time. The film resembles a jack-in-the-box as most of the time you know what is going to happen, just not when it is going to happen. The ending feels abrupt and rushed, which is actually a bit bizarre as Gosling moves so turtle like that you mistake many of his scenes to be in slow motion. The weak ending might be because it used its great showdown between characters in the middle of the film, which feels out of place and leaves for a rather anticlimactic ending. Though some broad elements from Drive are present in Only God Forgives, fans of one will by no means guarantees that you will be a fan of the other.

RATING: 5.9

Read my full review of Only God Forgives

Magic Magic

Magic Magic is a peculiar film about a girl named Alicia (Juno Temple) who travels outside of the United States for the first time to meet up with her friend Sarah (Emily Browning). As soon as she arrives into South America Alicia is greeted by Sarah and her three friends who all plan to road trip to a remote getaway together. Not long into their trip Sarah receives a phone call about an exam she must take at school that forces her to leave for a couple of days. This leaves Alicia alone with three strangers that all seem a little quirky.

But quirky might not be the right adjective to describe their character. Alicia spends only two days with them before she is calling them Satanists. One character in particular, Brink (Michael Cera), seems as if he might either be mildly mentally handicapped or on some kind of drugs. One thing is for certain, these people are not stable. But when Alicia does not sleep for four days due to her insomnia, her perception on reality is morphed.

As a whole, Magic Magic was a big letdown for me. This was one of two films Sebastián Silva had premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year, with his other one (Crystal Fairy) earning great remarks from us from our SFIFF coverage. In this film Cera’s bizarre antics make for an interesting character, but that is about all. It is welcoming to see him play a character that is outside his typical one, but his performance was not at the top of his game. Magic Magic is a unique film featuring a mysteriously eerie vibe, though it ultimately goes to waste due to unconvincing situations and characters found within the film.

RATING: 5

Way Too Indie was on the red carpet of the San Francisco International Film Festival to capture photos of Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof from Much Ado About Nothing as well as legendary award winners such as Harrison Ford, George Lucus, and Philip Kaufman. We also have some more exclusive photos from private interviews with Michael Cera, Sebastian Silva, Richard Linklater, and Julie Delpy.

Crystal Fairy

The ever-awkward Michael Cera plays Jamie, a self-absorbed asshole who goes on a road trip through Chile with some friends to find some San Pedro—a cactus which, when ingested, sends you on a different kind of ‘trip’ altogether. The problem is, on the eve of their quest for the cactus, Jamie—in a drunken stupor—invites a hippie-ish wild child named Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann) to join them on their journey. Much to Jamie’s surprise, Crystal Fairy takes him up on his drunken offer, and the two develop a harsh, contentious relationship. Tensions rise, and when the group finally acquire the precious plant, things escalate even further.

Cera, typically cast as the good-hearted, smiling, neurotic type, gets a change of pace in this role, playing one of the most dislikable, insensitive people you could imagine. You know, he’s that guy. A group of friends are having a good time, joking around. Then, his ornery ass starts walking their way. “Oh god, here he comes. This asshole.” He’s that guy. Hoffmann is just as convincing as the cloyingly spiritual Crystal Fairy. She’s obsessed with everything astral and cosmic, and relentlessly pushes her strange lifestyle on the group—”Smell this! It’s chamomile. Chaaaaamomile.”

Director Sebastian Silva shows a lot of creativity in how he crafts a story, turning left when you think he’ll turn right, zigging when you expect him to zag. His visual style is tasteful (you’ll find no clichéd psychedelic trip-out scenes here), and he captures Jamie and Crystal Fairy’s opposite energy perfectly.

Look for our full review around the film’s release in July, along with an interview with Michael Cera and Director Sebastian Silva.

Before You Know It

Some of my favorite documentaries are ones that give a voice to the voiceless. Following three very different subjects, all gay men in their twilight years, Before You Know It sheds light on a community that deals with a difficult paradox—they are desexualized by society because they are old, and yet, their sexuality is one of the driving forces in their lives.

Dennis is a lonely widower who discovered his sexuality after his wife’s death. Robert is the matron of a bustling community of drag queens who gather at his bar, ‘Robert’s LaFitte’. Ty, Harlem born and raised, is the head of SAGE, a group that serves aging, gay members of the community. All three have unique lifestyles, but the common thread is that they all belong to a group of people who are doubly neglected. As we observe them struggle with their issues, as we go through their daily routines with them, as we learn their histories, we suddenly find ourselves familiar with a group of people most of us likely never paid any mind. This film helps to make sure these people are neglected no longer.

Director PJ Raval applies very little spin to the film, simply placing us in the subjects’ world to sit, watch, and absorb their lives. Ty’s story is filmed during an historic time in gay rights history, but Raval admirably keeps the film focused on Ty. The closer Raval zooms in his camera on the characters, the more we relate to them. The film is about a very specific community, but there’s a universal message being delivered here—they’re old, and we will be too someday.

RATING: 7.8

Stay tuned to Way Too Indie for an interview with director PJ Raval and subject Dennis.

Nights With Theodore

Centered on a couple’s obsession with spending long nights in a park in Paris, Sebastien Betbeder’s kooky, messy romance feels like an overly-fluffed and elongated short film. A couple meets at a party, hook up in a spooky park, and the nocturnal trysts slowly but surely begin to poison their lives in vaguely supernatural ways. The idea is intriguing, but Betbeder mucks it up by adding in pretentious asides and flourishes that feel like extra weight.

Betbeder inserts footage of a real-life interview with a psychiatrist who specializes in environmental psychology. The segment does add a strange gravity to the film, though what it adds is heavily outweighed by what it detracts, as it is as jarring a scene as I’ve seen in years, killing what little momentum the film had. The film’s opening, detailing the park’s long and storied history, is actually quite nice, creating an air of mystery that unfortunately dissipates quickly.

Aesthetically, Nights With Theodore is shoddy. A lot of the nighttime shots look downright murky, and though a foggy Parisian park at night should be a cinematographer’s dream, most of the shots are as uninteresting as the flat characters.

Pio Marmai and Agathe Bonitzer as Theodore and Anna, respectively, are talented, but are never given the opportunity to let their characters breathe. Odd distractions like the psychiatrist scene break up any connection we begin to make with the two, and there’s a pervading sense of distance between them and us that feels a little off. The pair do have some legitimate chemistry, but the thin story gives them little to chew on. Is it a movie about a park or a summer romance? Who knows? Betbeder certainly doesn’t.

RATING: 5