If you're a movie buff, you can appreciate the perk that is living in L.A. This is where all the people who make the movies live, so the fact that they appear at a movie theater following a show is no big deal, right? It's a quick and easy drive. Well, not necessarily quick and easy. Again, it's L.A. Anywho, this perk crops up time to time in the form of these impromptu, almost last-minute announcements by the ArcLight Hollywood that so-and-so from such-and-such new film will be at the ArcLight following a particular show on a Friday or Saturday night.
And so it was a few days ago when they announced on their site that actor John C. Reilly and the writing-directing brothers Jay and Mark Duplass would be at the ArcLight Hollywood this Saturday after a screening of the new film Cyrus, which stars John as well as the always adorable Marisa Tomei and the always hilarious Jonah Hill. I'd seen previews of Cyrus a few times before tonight, and it was hard to know what to make of it. Obviously it was a chance for Jonah Hill to expand a little bit, because one thing the preview made clear was that, while he was still flexing some comedic muscle, he was also supposed to make you squirm a little with his character's deadpan weirdness.
The gist of the story is this. John C. Reilly's this guy named, yes, John. Like a lot of characters the real John's played, the fictional John's sort of a sad sack who couldn't buy a break even if he had all the money in the world. When the film starts, we find him seven years divorced from this gal Jamie, played by the always awesome and dependable Catherine Keener. The way we meet John and Jamie is hilarious. It's one of those very bold, in-your-face type scenes that you'd only see in a movie starring talent like this. And that's all I'll say about John C. Reilly's intro in this film. John and Jamie are great pals. Seven years is long enough for them to get over their marriage's collapse and reestablish some amicable relations. More than that, though (and this you don't see often, in films or in life), Jamie's become his best friend and confidant.
In addition to introducing us to John and Jamie in hilarious fashion, that first scene also gets the main narrative going. Jamie convinces a gloomy John to go to the party she's throwing with her fiancé Tim, played by comedian Matt Walsh, one of the brains behind the Upright Citizens Brigade. He's always a stitch. You've definitely seen him if you've seen anything directed by Todd Phillips, one of our great comedy directors today: Road Trip, Old School, Starsky & Hutch, School for Scoundrels, The Hangover. Matt's awesome as Jamie's new squeeze, and of course his character helps you sympathize with John. Not surprisingly, John gets wasted at the party and makes a scene of himself. Most folks keep their distance...
...except Molly (Marisa Tomei). She's not only not weirded out by John, she takes a shine to him. Much to the surprise of just about everyone, including and especially John, they hit it off. They start going out and eventually start sleeping together. But here's the thing: They always sleep at John's place. And then Molly gets up really early to head back home. At first, John's okay with it, but of course over time he's going to think it's kind of weird. Is she married or what? And so one morning he follows her home and stakes out the place and eventually meets the other man in Molly's life: Her twenty-one-year-old son Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill. An aspiring musician, Cyrus has this whole studio setup in the house. That scene where he plays a demo while staying so deadpan is something few people can pull off.
While at first John and Cyrus get along, Cyrus catches on that he's not going to see much of Mom anymore if her relationship with John continues. So what does he do? He becomes a masterpiece of passive aggression. I won't spoil the fun for you, but suffice it to say John doesn't take the shenanigans lying down. The meat of the film becomes this tête-à-tête of passive aggression between John and Cyrus. They use every devious and underhanded scheme they can concoct at the other's expense while maintaining a hunky dory facade for Molly.
After the show, John C. Reilly and the Duplass brothers came out for a very casual Q&A. The ArcLight didn't provide a moderator like they sometimes do. It was just the three of them standing up front taking turns with the mic. They're very down to earth dudes. John said one of the things that attracted him to Cyrus right off the bat was that it didn't take place in, as he called it, "fantasy Westside L.A.," a sentiment that struck a chord with me as well as many others in the audience judging by the laughter and applause. You know what he means if you live in L.A. It's similar to the fantasy New York depicted in Friends, where you've got young people with low level jobs living in a huge awesome apartment that you'd be hard pressed to find in the real Big Apple. And if you did find one, chances are you couldn't afford it.
John was born and bred in Chicago. He talked about that a little bit and about eventually moving out here when his career got going in the nineties, shortly after Brian De Palma discovered him while casting Casualties of War and expanded his role to accommodate his talent. One interesting thing he said was that ever since he and his wife, a producer he met during the Casualties of War shoot in Thailand, moved out here, they've lived on the Eastside. That is, the section of L.A. east of downtown and which has historically been very Latino. Of course, the city and county of Los Angeles have significant Latino populations, but East L.A. goes further. It's almost all Latino. You ever see Cheech's Born in East L.A.? Exactly. I don't think I've ever met a Hollywood star who made it a point to live in East L.A. because they considered it the real L.A. That's awesome.
As for Cyrus, he didn't say where his character was supposed to be living. In retrospect, though, I think it was East L.A. He and the Duplass brothers did point out that Cyrus and his mom lived in Highland Park. Like East L.A., Highland Park is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, located to the immediate north-northeast of downtown. It became largely Latino in the latter half of the twentieth century but has recently experienced some gentrification. Like nearby Echo Park and Eagle Rock, Highland Park's got a lot going on these days. You've got long-time Latino families as well as the so-called hip, urban youth, dive bars and clubs that only those in the know would know about, all that stuff. It looked like Marisa Tomei's house was one of those historic homes restored in the late twentieth century at the start of the gentrification. It was a pretty nice house, actually.
So with his character living in East L.A. and his love interest in nearby Highland Park, John could relate to the fictional John. And no doubt it was nice to go to a film shoot and then go home to his family at the end of the day. That was another thing he mentioned, how he looks for opportunities to make films in L.A., not just to stay close to his family, but to support the local economy. A recurring theme in the local news is the anxiety about producers taking their projects elsewhere because it's cheaper. Speaking of which, John's about to leave L.A. for Ann Arbor to make a comedy called Cedar Rapids. He'll be in a supporting role this time, the main character played by that guy from The Hangover who had the chipped tooth. The dentist guy. Besides the fact that Cedar Rapids is set in that general vicinity, John said the main reason for the location was a 42% tax break offered by the Michigan Film Commission.
As for his fellow cast mates, John said he knew he'd like working with Jonah because they'd already worked together on Walk Hard, so it was sort of like picking up where they left off. Now Marisa Tomei, he'd never met before. Not only that, they didn't meet until two days before the shoot began. When their characters have that first dinner together, it takes some effort to feel at ease in each other's presence. According to John, that awkwardness wasn't all acting. That was the first scene they shot. John said it's one of his favorite scenes in the film. The night they shot the dinner scene was the first time they got to hang out and "look each other in the eye," he said.
When someone asked the Duplass brothers where they got the idea for the story, they said at first they weren't sure. They just sorta thought of it out of thin air. But as they continued writing and rewriting the script, they came to the uncomfortable realization that Jonah's attachment to his mother mirrored their attachment to each other. They each went through a string of girlfriends who had a hard time cracking their wall until finally finding the right gals.
All three wives were here tonight, as were the Duplass brothers' mom and John and his wife Alison's moms, sitting up at the front railing. It was actually thanks to Alison, the indie producer John fell for while filming Casualties of War, that he met the Duplass brothers. Alison Dickey is still very much in the indie scene, and she'd already gotten to know the Duplass brothers over the years due to their attending the same film festivals. The brothers made a Sundance splash in January 2005 with Puffy Chair, which went on to win the audience award at SXSW. It's got a pretty interesting premise. You've got this guy who discovers a chair for sale on eBay that looks just like an old lounge chair his dad used to have in the beforetimes. It was Dad's favorite chair. So he buys it and convinces his brother to go on a road trip with him to pick up the chair and deliver it to Dad. Mark Duplass plays one of the brothers. And the father is played by their real father. Puffy Chair has that same inspiring backstory you may have heard already if you follow indie films. Like many first-time indie features, such as Kevin Smith's Clerks, Puffy Chair was made for next to nothing, $15,000 to be exact, which barely constitutes chump change in the biz. The brothers did what a lot of first-timers do to raise the money. They used credit cards and any donations they could get from friends and family.
Alison's a big fan of the film and of the brothers’ work in general. But apparently it took quite a bit of coaxing to get John to sit down and watch Puffy Chair. She was determined to get him to watch it before introducing him. So he finally watched it, and sure enough, Alison got them all to meet at a festival. John and the brothers hit it off, and eventually they sent him the script for Cyrus. In fact, they said they wrote the script with John in mind and wouldn’t have made it had he said no. Jonah was the second one to be cast. At first, it was supposed to be more of a straight-up comedy, but Jonah surprised them with that dark edge he brought to the role. The brothers really dug it and just went with it. “It was a whole new Jonah,” one of them said.
When someone asked the brothers about their documentary shooting style, the handheld shots and shaky camera movements and how scenes are never perfectly blocked, they said it started with a short film they made in 2003 called, appropriately in light of tonight, This Is John. They only used handheld for that film because they had neither the time nor the budget for fancy setups with dollies and cranes and what have you. This Is John did well, not only on the festival circuit, but in terms of meeting their own personal standards, which is more important if you’re an artist. This Is John wasn’t their first film, but they said it was the first film they made that they thought was good. So they’ve used handheld ever since.
Another question posed to the brothers was about improv. This is something that always comes up with comedies, but no two comedies are alike. Some directors mandate their cast follow the script to the T. Others use the script less as a stone commandment and more as a general guide. Consistent with their casual way of shooting films, the Duplass brothers do allow for improv. They told John not to sweat it if he didn’t have all the lines memorized and that he could ad lib where he saw fit. One example is the scene early on where John’s spending the night at their place. He and Jonah have a little chat when Marisa Tomei’s not around. On the surface, the chat seems harmless, but the subtext is that John and Jonah’s characters are feeling each other out. And then at one point Jonah goes, “Don’t fuck my mom.” John’s response? “Actually, I already did.” That scene was almost entirely improvised.
They also talked about the voiceover that John provides now and again. I thought it worked fine. But according to John and the two brothers, the voiceover was an instance of making lemonade from lemons. The actors read all the lines right, but after the rough cut was put together, they discovered that some of the scenes didn’t work on their own. Hence the voiceover. The brothers gave a big shout-out to their editor Jay Deuby. He’s basically their unsung hero, not only on this film but in general. Jay’s been with them a while now. He edited a short they did called The New Brad, and he also did Puffy Chair. Indeed, the Duplass brothers echoed what I’ve heard a lot of directors say at these Q&As: The film is really made in the editing room. I forget who it was, but I remember another director saying that you make the film three times: Writing, shooting, and editing. The Duplass brothers said to make no mistake, Jay Deuby rescued a lot of their scenes in Cyrus.
One question I would've asked if someone hadn't beaten me to it was: How in the heck did the legendary director brothers Ridley and Tony Scott get involved? A flick like Cyrus is ostensibly miles away from the stuff they normally do. Especially Tony Scott. If you've never heard of him, I can all but guarantee you've seen something by him, especially if you're partial to action movies starring Denzel Washington. Unstoppable, Deja Vu, Man on Fire, Crimson Tide: All Tony. His first big film was Top Gun. He also did Days of Thunder, which was basically Top Gun with race cars. My favorite film from him is True Romance. Of his more recent stuff, I really liked Domino, although I have to admit some of that hyper-stylistic camera work gets a bit fatiguing. Now his brother Ridley Scott's a bit more diverse. If only a bit. He's still partial to action, only his action tends to be more epic. Think Gladiator, American Gangster, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven. But once in a while he'll surprise you, like with Matchstick Men or A Good Year or even Hannibal. Alien and Blade Runner are two of my faves from his oeuvre. The Duplass brothers said their involvement was thanks mainly to an indie producer named Michael Costigan. In addition to being a producer in his own right, this guy runs the Scott brothers' production company, Free Scott Productions. With the Free Scott banner, the brothers Scott produce not only films (mostly the films they direct) but also TV shows, such as The Good Wife. Michael Costigan runs their office and sometimes exec-produces indie fare of his own, like Brokeback Mountain, in addition to stuff directed by the Scotts, like Robin Hood, American Gangster, and Body of Lies. The Duplass brothers said Michael Costigan was their champion for Puffy Chair and was the reason it achieved the visibility it did. After that success, he told the brothers that no matter what they did next, he, and by extension Free Scott Productions, wanted to be involved. Hence the Scott names appearing in the Cyrus credits. The Duplass brothers said one nice thing about Michael and the Scott brothers was that they didn't pressure them to forgo shooting in L.A. in favor of a cheaper locale.
And that does it for a pleasant night at the ArcLight Hollywood to see a great, quirky little movie. After tonight, I feel motivated to add Puffy Chair to my queue to see what all the fuss is about.
And so it was a few days ago when they announced on their site that actor John C. Reilly and the writing-directing brothers Jay and Mark Duplass would be at the ArcLight Hollywood this Saturday after a screening of the new film Cyrus, which stars John as well as the always adorable Marisa Tomei and the always hilarious Jonah Hill. I'd seen previews of Cyrus a few times before tonight, and it was hard to know what to make of it. Obviously it was a chance for Jonah Hill to expand a little bit, because one thing the preview made clear was that, while he was still flexing some comedic muscle, he was also supposed to make you squirm a little with his character's deadpan weirdness.
The gist of the story is this. John C. Reilly's this guy named, yes, John. Like a lot of characters the real John's played, the fictional John's sort of a sad sack who couldn't buy a break even if he had all the money in the world. When the film starts, we find him seven years divorced from this gal Jamie, played by the always awesome and dependable Catherine Keener. The way we meet John and Jamie is hilarious. It's one of those very bold, in-your-face type scenes that you'd only see in a movie starring talent like this. And that's all I'll say about John C. Reilly's intro in this film. John and Jamie are great pals. Seven years is long enough for them to get over their marriage's collapse and reestablish some amicable relations. More than that, though (and this you don't see often, in films or in life), Jamie's become his best friend and confidant.
In addition to introducing us to John and Jamie in hilarious fashion, that first scene also gets the main narrative going. Jamie convinces a gloomy John to go to the party she's throwing with her fiancé Tim, played by comedian Matt Walsh, one of the brains behind the Upright Citizens Brigade. He's always a stitch. You've definitely seen him if you've seen anything directed by Todd Phillips, one of our great comedy directors today: Road Trip, Old School, Starsky & Hutch, School for Scoundrels, The Hangover. Matt's awesome as Jamie's new squeeze, and of course his character helps you sympathize with John. Not surprisingly, John gets wasted at the party and makes a scene of himself. Most folks keep their distance...
...except Molly (Marisa Tomei). She's not only not weirded out by John, she takes a shine to him. Much to the surprise of just about everyone, including and especially John, they hit it off. They start going out and eventually start sleeping together. But here's the thing: They always sleep at John's place. And then Molly gets up really early to head back home. At first, John's okay with it, but of course over time he's going to think it's kind of weird. Is she married or what? And so one morning he follows her home and stakes out the place and eventually meets the other man in Molly's life: Her twenty-one-year-old son Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill. An aspiring musician, Cyrus has this whole studio setup in the house. That scene where he plays a demo while staying so deadpan is something few people can pull off.
While at first John and Cyrus get along, Cyrus catches on that he's not going to see much of Mom anymore if her relationship with John continues. So what does he do? He becomes a masterpiece of passive aggression. I won't spoil the fun for you, but suffice it to say John doesn't take the shenanigans lying down. The meat of the film becomes this tête-à-tête of passive aggression between John and Cyrus. They use every devious and underhanded scheme they can concoct at the other's expense while maintaining a hunky dory facade for Molly.
After the show, John C. Reilly and the Duplass brothers came out for a very casual Q&A. The ArcLight didn't provide a moderator like they sometimes do. It was just the three of them standing up front taking turns with the mic. They're very down to earth dudes. John said one of the things that attracted him to Cyrus right off the bat was that it didn't take place in, as he called it, "fantasy Westside L.A.," a sentiment that struck a chord with me as well as many others in the audience judging by the laughter and applause. You know what he means if you live in L.A. It's similar to the fantasy New York depicted in Friends, where you've got young people with low level jobs living in a huge awesome apartment that you'd be hard pressed to find in the real Big Apple. And if you did find one, chances are you couldn't afford it.
John was born and bred in Chicago. He talked about that a little bit and about eventually moving out here when his career got going in the nineties, shortly after Brian De Palma discovered him while casting Casualties of War and expanded his role to accommodate his talent. One interesting thing he said was that ever since he and his wife, a producer he met during the Casualties of War shoot in Thailand, moved out here, they've lived on the Eastside. That is, the section of L.A. east of downtown and which has historically been very Latino. Of course, the city and county of Los Angeles have significant Latino populations, but East L.A. goes further. It's almost all Latino. You ever see Cheech's Born in East L.A.? Exactly. I don't think I've ever met a Hollywood star who made it a point to live in East L.A. because they considered it the real L.A. That's awesome.
As for Cyrus, he didn't say where his character was supposed to be living. In retrospect, though, I think it was East L.A. He and the Duplass brothers did point out that Cyrus and his mom lived in Highland Park. Like East L.A., Highland Park is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, located to the immediate north-northeast of downtown. It became largely Latino in the latter half of the twentieth century but has recently experienced some gentrification. Like nearby Echo Park and Eagle Rock, Highland Park's got a lot going on these days. You've got long-time Latino families as well as the so-called hip, urban youth, dive bars and clubs that only those in the know would know about, all that stuff. It looked like Marisa Tomei's house was one of those historic homes restored in the late twentieth century at the start of the gentrification. It was a pretty nice house, actually.
So with his character living in East L.A. and his love interest in nearby Highland Park, John could relate to the fictional John. And no doubt it was nice to go to a film shoot and then go home to his family at the end of the day. That was another thing he mentioned, how he looks for opportunities to make films in L.A., not just to stay close to his family, but to support the local economy. A recurring theme in the local news is the anxiety about producers taking their projects elsewhere because it's cheaper. Speaking of which, John's about to leave L.A. for Ann Arbor to make a comedy called Cedar Rapids. He'll be in a supporting role this time, the main character played by that guy from The Hangover who had the chipped tooth. The dentist guy. Besides the fact that Cedar Rapids is set in that general vicinity, John said the main reason for the location was a 42% tax break offered by the Michigan Film Commission.
As for his fellow cast mates, John said he knew he'd like working with Jonah because they'd already worked together on Walk Hard, so it was sort of like picking up where they left off. Now Marisa Tomei, he'd never met before. Not only that, they didn't meet until two days before the shoot began. When their characters have that first dinner together, it takes some effort to feel at ease in each other's presence. According to John, that awkwardness wasn't all acting. That was the first scene they shot. John said it's one of his favorite scenes in the film. The night they shot the dinner scene was the first time they got to hang out and "look each other in the eye," he said.
When someone asked the Duplass brothers where they got the idea for the story, they said at first they weren't sure. They just sorta thought of it out of thin air. But as they continued writing and rewriting the script, they came to the uncomfortable realization that Jonah's attachment to his mother mirrored their attachment to each other. They each went through a string of girlfriends who had a hard time cracking their wall until finally finding the right gals.
All three wives were here tonight, as were the Duplass brothers' mom and John and his wife Alison's moms, sitting up at the front railing. It was actually thanks to Alison, the indie producer John fell for while filming Casualties of War, that he met the Duplass brothers. Alison Dickey is still very much in the indie scene, and she'd already gotten to know the Duplass brothers over the years due to their attending the same film festivals. The brothers made a Sundance splash in January 2005 with Puffy Chair, which went on to win the audience award at SXSW. It's got a pretty interesting premise. You've got this guy who discovers a chair for sale on eBay that looks just like an old lounge chair his dad used to have in the beforetimes. It was Dad's favorite chair. So he buys it and convinces his brother to go on a road trip with him to pick up the chair and deliver it to Dad. Mark Duplass plays one of the brothers. And the father is played by their real father. Puffy Chair has that same inspiring backstory you may have heard already if you follow indie films. Like many first-time indie features, such as Kevin Smith's Clerks, Puffy Chair was made for next to nothing, $15,000 to be exact, which barely constitutes chump change in the biz. The brothers did what a lot of first-timers do to raise the money. They used credit cards and any donations they could get from friends and family.
Alison's a big fan of the film and of the brothers’ work in general. But apparently it took quite a bit of coaxing to get John to sit down and watch Puffy Chair. She was determined to get him to watch it before introducing him. So he finally watched it, and sure enough, Alison got them all to meet at a festival. John and the brothers hit it off, and eventually they sent him the script for Cyrus. In fact, they said they wrote the script with John in mind and wouldn’t have made it had he said no. Jonah was the second one to be cast. At first, it was supposed to be more of a straight-up comedy, but Jonah surprised them with that dark edge he brought to the role. The brothers really dug it and just went with it. “It was a whole new Jonah,” one of them said.
When someone asked the brothers about their documentary shooting style, the handheld shots and shaky camera movements and how scenes are never perfectly blocked, they said it started with a short film they made in 2003 called, appropriately in light of tonight, This Is John. They only used handheld for that film because they had neither the time nor the budget for fancy setups with dollies and cranes and what have you. This Is John did well, not only on the festival circuit, but in terms of meeting their own personal standards, which is more important if you’re an artist. This Is John wasn’t their first film, but they said it was the first film they made that they thought was good. So they’ve used handheld ever since.
Another question posed to the brothers was about improv. This is something that always comes up with comedies, but no two comedies are alike. Some directors mandate their cast follow the script to the T. Others use the script less as a stone commandment and more as a general guide. Consistent with their casual way of shooting films, the Duplass brothers do allow for improv. They told John not to sweat it if he didn’t have all the lines memorized and that he could ad lib where he saw fit. One example is the scene early on where John’s spending the night at their place. He and Jonah have a little chat when Marisa Tomei’s not around. On the surface, the chat seems harmless, but the subtext is that John and Jonah’s characters are feeling each other out. And then at one point Jonah goes, “Don’t fuck my mom.” John’s response? “Actually, I already did.” That scene was almost entirely improvised.
They also talked about the voiceover that John provides now and again. I thought it worked fine. But according to John and the two brothers, the voiceover was an instance of making lemonade from lemons. The actors read all the lines right, but after the rough cut was put together, they discovered that some of the scenes didn’t work on their own. Hence the voiceover. The brothers gave a big shout-out to their editor Jay Deuby. He’s basically their unsung hero, not only on this film but in general. Jay’s been with them a while now. He edited a short they did called The New Brad, and he also did Puffy Chair. Indeed, the Duplass brothers echoed what I’ve heard a lot of directors say at these Q&As: The film is really made in the editing room. I forget who it was, but I remember another director saying that you make the film three times: Writing, shooting, and editing. The Duplass brothers said to make no mistake, Jay Deuby rescued a lot of their scenes in Cyrus.
One question I would've asked if someone hadn't beaten me to it was: How in the heck did the legendary director brothers Ridley and Tony Scott get involved? A flick like Cyrus is ostensibly miles away from the stuff they normally do. Especially Tony Scott. If you've never heard of him, I can all but guarantee you've seen something by him, especially if you're partial to action movies starring Denzel Washington. Unstoppable, Deja Vu, Man on Fire, Crimson Tide: All Tony. His first big film was Top Gun. He also did Days of Thunder, which was basically Top Gun with race cars. My favorite film from him is True Romance. Of his more recent stuff, I really liked Domino, although I have to admit some of that hyper-stylistic camera work gets a bit fatiguing. Now his brother Ridley Scott's a bit more diverse. If only a bit. He's still partial to action, only his action tends to be more epic. Think Gladiator, American Gangster, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven. But once in a while he'll surprise you, like with Matchstick Men or A Good Year or even Hannibal. Alien and Blade Runner are two of my faves from his oeuvre. The Duplass brothers said their involvement was thanks mainly to an indie producer named Michael Costigan. In addition to being a producer in his own right, this guy runs the Scott brothers' production company, Free Scott Productions. With the Free Scott banner, the brothers Scott produce not only films (mostly the films they direct) but also TV shows, such as The Good Wife. Michael Costigan runs their office and sometimes exec-produces indie fare of his own, like Brokeback Mountain, in addition to stuff directed by the Scotts, like Robin Hood, American Gangster, and Body of Lies. The Duplass brothers said Michael Costigan was their champion for Puffy Chair and was the reason it achieved the visibility it did. After that success, he told the brothers that no matter what they did next, he, and by extension Free Scott Productions, wanted to be involved. Hence the Scott names appearing in the Cyrus credits. The Duplass brothers said one nice thing about Michael and the Scott brothers was that they didn't pressure them to forgo shooting in L.A. in favor of a cheaper locale.
And that does it for a pleasant night at the ArcLight Hollywood to see a great, quirky little movie. After tonight, I feel motivated to add Puffy Chair to my queue to see what all the fuss is about.
