February 6, 2020 • 19 mins
For Valentine's Day, we look at two very different types of date movies. With The Photograph, Canadian director Stella Meghie tells the tale of a daughter, played by Issa Rae, trying to understand her mother's early life. Along the way, Rae's character begins falling in love with a young journalist, portrayed by LaKeith Stanfield. In Downhill, the married couple played by Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus question what love looks like when children are involved - and after tragedy almost strikes. Podcaster Kevin McCarthy and film critic Lauren Veneziani -- married film buffs -- detail what they love most about a movie theatre date night, and host Natasha Gargiulo even has a sweet love story that centres on, you guessed it, a movie theatre.
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Episode Transcript
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Natasha G. (00:02):
Welcome to Hello Movies, a podcast by movie lovers for
movie lovers. I'm your host, Natasha Gargiulo. Valentine's Day is
just around the corner, and this week we're looking at
two films that could be perfect for an upcoming date
night. The Photograph, starring Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield, and
Downhill starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louis- Dreyfus. First, I
(00:24):
want to introduce my special guests for this episode, Kevin
McCarthy and Lauren Veneziani. Kevin and Lauren are both film
critics based in Washington, DC. Kevin cohosts ReelBlend Film podcasts and
can be seen on FOX 5 in Washington. Lauren reviews
films on her website, DC Film Girl. They also happen
to be husband and wife, and I thought, who better
(00:45):
to bring in and discuss this year's Valentine's Day slate?
Lauren and Kevin, welcome to the podcast. I'm so happy you
guys had the time to make it on Hello Movies.
How are you?
Lauren V. (00:54):
I'm good. We're so excited to be on because Valentine's
Day is one of my favorite times of year, and
I legit love talking about romance movies so much.
Kevin M. (01:03):
Yeah. Thank you so much for having us on, Natasha. It's great to talk to
you. This is awesome, so thank you.
Natasha G. (01:07):
Your relationship with Lauren, Kevin, seems so ingrained in a
shared love of movies. What role has film played in
your relationship?
Kevin M. (01:15):
Yeah. Movies are the whole reason we're together. We first
started talking online. We fell in love, a mutual love,
for this movie called Drive, which Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan
Gosling, Bryan Cranston. Just the similarities of what we both
appreciated about the movie... Those things are hard to find.
(01:36):
You don't really meet people who sometimes share the same
exact loves of certain types of movies.
Lauren V. (01:42):
Right, and it's also an underrated actual romance as well.
Kevin M. (01:45):
Yeah. At the end of the day, I want my
romance films to have a gritty reality to them. Not
that I want real life to mimic something like Drive,
but you look at a film like True Romance, which is
extremely violent, Quentin Tarantino, Tony Scott directed. At the end
of the day that, and even a film like Django,
(02:07):
another Quentin Tarantino film, at the end of the day they are love
stories. I think that those films, while they tackle extremely
violent subject matters and things like that, I just love
the adventure of a love story through an R rated storytelling.
Lauren V. (02:21):
That type of film, yeah.
Natasha G. (02:21):
I would love to know from the both of you about
the excitement of still going to a movie theater to
watch a film. Why do you think going to see
a movie in a theater is such an ideal date night?
Lauren V. (02:32):
Literally to this day... I'm 32 years old and my
favorite date of all time is dinner and a movie
in a movie theater. I usually like to see the
movie and then have dinner afterwards to talk about it.
That's always what I recommend to girlfriends who are going
out on a date with somebody. Maybe not the first
(02:55):
time, but the second or third date. Just going to
a movie and dinner is just such a fun thing
to do.
Natasha G. (03:01):
Okay. We're talking about Valentine's Day now and Valentine's Day
releases. I'm curious, when it comes to Valentine's Day films,
do you have any go- to picks?
Kevin M. (03:11):
If you want to go cliche romance type, what would be normal... Normal, I don't even know what
normal means, but Love Actually, films like Notting Hill.
Natasha G. (03:20):
Right.
Lauren V. (03:22):
Notting Hill is one of our favorite movies together.
Kevin M. (03:25):
Yeah, we love Notting Hill.
Lauren V. (03:26):
Because I don't know if you remember, but Kevin and I
obviously do... Kevin does more so than me, but we
do a lot of press junkets throughout the year. That's
the first movie where you see Hugh Grant's character pretend
to be a reporter to get into the press junket
in London to meet Julia Roberts. That's one of my
favorite... That was the first time a press junket setting
was introduced in a movie, as far as I can
(03:47):
remember, the first one I saw. Notting Hill for us
as a couple, that one's super important. That's a movie
that you could watch anytime during the year, but we
always usually watch it around Valentine's Day. Another movie for
me, that's one of my favorite romances of all time,
just your classic romance, is When Harry Met Sally with
(04:07):
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. I just love that story.
Kevin M. (04:12):
And You've Got Mail.
Lauren V. (04:15):
You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally... Meg Ryan
is still my rom- com queen. Anything that she's in
that's romantic comedy related is going to be a classic film that I
grew up with.
Kevin M. (04:27):
In New York, we've gone to the restaurant from You've Got Mail.
Lauren V. (04:30):
You've Got Mail.
Kevin M. (04:32):
Cafe Lalo. We've gone to the Harry Met Sally, Katz's
Deli. We purposely waited to sit at the table where
they filmed the classic Meg Ryan sequence.
Lauren V. (04:42):
Her famous scene.
Kevin M. (04:44):
Those movies are very important to us. I think True Romance-
Lauren V. (04:46):
True Romance, yeah.
Kevin M. (04:46):
Would ultimately be my number one go- to personally.
Natasha G. (04:51):
I'm going to bring you back a bit later because
I want to get your takes on two films that
are going to be released this Valentine's Day. The first
of those films is The Photograph.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
I just don't understand why she couldn't tell me about her
life while she was alive.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Maybe she thought it would help you to look at her in another way.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Hey, I'm Michael Block, from The Republic. I'm doing a
story about your mom.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
How's your article coming?
Speaker 6 (05:14):
To be honest, I was a little distracted so I
kept running back in my mind how you might respond
to me asking you for a drink.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
So that was you asking me?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
In my mind it wasn't that forward. It was more
smoother than that.
Natasha G. (05:27):
The Photograph is a new romantic drama written and directed by
Stella Meghie. When a famed photographer dies, her daughter Mae
is left full of questions. When Mae discovers a photograph
tucked away in a safe deposit box, it leads her
on a journey to discover more about her mother's early
life and ignites an unexpected romance with a young journalist
named Michael. Stella Meghie is one of Canada's brightest filmmaking
(05:50):
talents. Her previous work includes the 2016 indie darling, Jean
of the Joneses and 2017's YA hit, Everything everything. Here
she is describing where the inspiration for the photograph came from.
Stella Meghie (06:03):
There's so many great photos I have of my mom
and my grandmother and my godmother when they were young.
It's one of the few times you can look through
these photos and see them as they were, before my
mom had me, as a young woman. There's something about
looking at a photo of my mom at that age,
(06:23):
from that time, where you realize there's this whole person
you don't know. I don't know that woman. I don't
know that 25 year old woman who was pregnant with
me and I think that's what The Photograph is about,
Mae getting this photo and looking at it and figuring
out who the woman in that photograph is.
Natasha G. (06:43):
The Photograph stars, Issa Rae, who you might recognize from
The Hate You Give and her HBO series, Insecure, and
Lakeith Stanfield who's on the hit FX series, Atlanta, and
most recently had roles in Uncut Gems and Knives Out.
Here's Meghie describing why she wanted to work with Issa Rae.
Stella Meghie (07:01):
Issa and I had worked together on her show. I
had gotten to know her. She has so much room
to stretch and you can see that on the show. I
just loved working with her so much that I thought,
wow this would be such an unexpected role for her,
but something that I could totally see her bringing to
life and making you love a character that is a
(07:23):
little cold and is grieving and bring a warmth to that.
Natasha G. (07:29):
Here she is on what Lakeith Stanfield brought to the role.
Stella Meghie (07:33):
He's that actor that's so amazing cause you never know
what to expect or how he's going to play something.
This role could have come off as like the suave
player and in that stereotypical romantic film. He brings such
a complexity to the character and an honesty of men
(07:57):
you know that want to be in love but aren't
ready for it. I just think he just brought so
many layers to the character.
Natasha G. (08:07):
The Photograph opens in cineplex theaters on February 14th. Before
we get to our second release, I want to share
a story that really warmed my heart heading into Valentine's
day. This is filmmaker Lee Loechler, who used his love
of film to put together one of the all time
great proposals for his girlfriend, Dr. Sthuthi David. Here's how
(08:27):
it all went down.
Lee Loechler (08:28):
I had an idea a few years back for a
friend of mine who mentioned that he was interested in
proposing to his then girlfriend and was trying to figure
out a creative way to do it. I must have
watched Forrest Gump in advance of it because the idea was, what if
you guys are at home and you're watching her favorite
movie. Then all of a sudden in a key scene
(08:48):
you just show up composited into the background holding a
ring. It's that moment of, how did he do this
magic with the intimacy and the personal significance of doing
it in her favorite film. His answer was something like, "
That doesn't seem like something I would ever do but
(09:08):
that sounds like a you thing more than me." It
was like, " Oh, okay." I filed it away for later. Cut
to a few years down the road. Sthuthi and I
had been dating for a couple of years at that point. I
started giving some thought to how I might propose. I
dusted off that idea because I thought it still had
maybe some legs. The problem was her favorite film is Sleeping
(09:32):
Beauty and it's animated. It's not live action. It wouldn't
make any sense if I were to composite myself. Then
one day, just on a whim, I got a copy
of Sleeping Beauty. I started scrubbing through it just in
case there was some scene that might work in a
way I wasn't imagining. I got to the end and
there's that famous scene at the climax where Prince Philip
(09:53):
comes and kisses Aurora and he wakes her up. What
I noticed about the scene was because she's asleep and
because he's kneeling down, it's largely static. There's not a
lot of movement. It started to occur to me that
maybe I didn't need to be a great animator to
pull this off. Maybe I just needed to partner with
someone who could draw in the Disney style. Then using
(10:14):
my cursory knowledge of Adobe After Effects, I could add
just enough movement so that it would feel like it
was real and animated. That's what I did.
Natasha G. (10:25):
Lee set up a screening of Sleeping Beauty at a
local theater in Massachusetts and packed it with friends and
family members. Here's Sthuthi on the moment she knew something
was going on.
Sthuthi (10:36):
The first thing was I noticed was Aurora was no
longer looking like Aurora. I was like, " Oh my God,
something's wrong with the film." Then Lee popped up on the
screen and I remember being so confused. I was like, "Why does that
guy look like my fiance?" It honestly wasn't until when
(10:56):
the ring popped up to Sleeping Beauty that I was like, "Oh my
God. Is this a proposal?" Then I blacked out. I
don't know what happened.
Natasha G. (11:05):
Does Lee see this as a side hustle moving forward?
Lee Loechler (11:08):
I have already received some DMs of friends of mine
who are like, " Oh man, I'm about to propose. Can
we grab a beer?" All of the support I've received
in person has just been super complimentary. Everyone I've talked
to in person has just... It seems like it's meant
a lot to a lot of different people. It gives
you a bit of respite. You can escape from maybe
(11:30):
a lousy news cycle there for three minutes and 23
seconds and just suspend your disbelief, suspend the rest of
your life and just believe in love and in magic
and in this fairy tale ending that only celluloid can offer.
Natasha G. (11:49):
Our second Valentine's Day release is pushing the boundaries of
the rom- com genre.
Speaker 8 (11:56):
It looked like it was going to kill us.
Speaker 9 (11:58):
For a moment.
Speaker 8 (11:59):
The kids were screaming because it felt like we were
going to die. I look over at Pete and he
had grabbed his phone. Pete left us.
Natasha G. (12:11):
Downhill is an English language adaptation of the much celebrated
2014 Swedish film, Force Majeure. After barely escaping an avalanche
during a ski trip in the Alps, a seemingly perfect
family is forced to reevaluate life and how they truly
feel about each other. The film stars two of the
funniest people to ever grace the silver screen, Julia Louis-
(12:31):
Dreyfus and Will Ferrell and is co- directed by Nat
Faxon and Jim Rash, the celebrated writing team who won
a best adapted screenplay Oscar for The Descendants in 2012.
Here's Jim Rash discussing the duos approach to adapting Force Majeure.
Jim Rash (12:46):
We were already fans of Force Majeure as was everyone
involved. Obviously the tone was something we had played with. It was very different from Force Majeure.
With Julia being part of this, we wanted to dig into the
Billie character, her character, a little bit more than maybe Force
Majeure deals with masculinity and cowardice. We kept that on
(13:07):
the Pete side of things, but really wanted to think
about an American couple in this situation and also being
a fish out of water. It was important for us
to take the spirit of Force Majeure but come from
a different place, which obviously has to happen because the characters
are different.
Natasha G. (13:24):
Here are the two directors on how audiences will view
this unconventional take on a Valentine's film.
Nat Faxon (13:29):
Hopefully they see it as an identifiable depiction of what
marriage is like. Marriage is a lot of work. It's
constantly a roller coaster where you have terrific moments and
you have trickier moments that require you to dig out
of at times. Despite how long you might've been with
(13:51):
someone you don't always confidently know who they are in
any circumstance. I think you can... There's a certain comfort
level but there are times when you may be surprised by-
Jim Rash (14:06):
I still don't know who he is.
Nat Faxon (14:07):
Their actions.
Natasha G. (14:09):
Here are the two explaining the benefits of getting to
work with a co- director.
Nat Faxon (14:13):
I think one of the benefits of working together is
twofold. One, when your brain is fried, somebody else is
there to help sort of carry the load.
Jim Rash (14:23):
That's fair.
Nat Faxon (14:24):
His was fried consistently. It was twofold. What's the other one?
Jim Rash (14:29):
The second one is it's just more fun because you
are able to do bits and laugh together.
Nat Faxon (14:38):
And I'm told I'm a blast.
Natasha G. (14:40):
Downhill is in cineplex theaters on February 14th. I'm back
with Kevin and Lauren and I want to wrap things
up by talking a little about the films we've heard
about today. Will you be spending your Valentine's date night
at The Photograph or will you be going to Downhill?
Lauren V. (14:58):
100% The Photograph. I want that to be our Thursday
night, the night before Valentine's Day, that's going to be
our date night and dinner movie. I am obsessed with
movies like this. My favorite type of genre is pure
romance and that's what this movie looks like to me.
It's a female director, which we don't have a enough
(15:22):
of. I love seeing a female director's perspective for this
particular story.
Kevin M. (15:28):
Also Lakeith plays things in an interesting way. For example,
I was watching the trailer. There's dialogue in that trailer
that could have easily been cliche. Like, " Can I kiss
you?" Or things like that. It's the way he delivers
it. It's his honesty. I don't know. There's something about
him as an actor that I just really... I loved him in Knives
Out obviously. He would be the draw for me and the
(15:50):
reason I would go.
Lauren V. (15:52):
I like the premise of Downhill in the sense of,
we don't see a lot of older, forties, fifties plus
relationships. I feel like we don't see a lot of
marriage stories like this. I'm definitely interested to see it.
I haven't seen the movie like you have, so I
can't say if it's an ideal Valentine's Day pick. I
(16:15):
like that the studio is giving us another type of
romance and marriage story option than what we've typically seen
in the past.
Kevin M. (16:22):
The theme you can see in the movies I pick,
it's just movies that I think that deal with a
romantic element but also deal with other subjects that are
grounded in a certain reality.
Natasha G. (16:34):
Kevin and Lauren, it was so much fun having you on
the show. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Kevin M. (16:39):
We appreciate it.
Lauren V. (16:39):
Thank you.
Kevin M. (16:39):
Also, we want to mention our dog is named Oscar after the Academy Awards.
Lauren V. (16:44):
I'm surprised he wasn't barking in the background here.
Kevin M. (16:47):
He was barking before we came on.
Natasha G. (16:51):
Before we go, I wanted to make sure we cap
things off with a little Oscar talk. The 92nd Academy
awards take place this Sunday. To gain a little insight
on who will win, who should win, and who might
shock the prognosticators, we're joined by our resident film expert,
Ingrid Randoja, the deputy editor of Cineplex magazine.
Ingrid Randoja (17:10):
Hi Natasha, how are you doing?
Natasha G. (17:11):
I'm great. Thanks for being back and talking about the
Oscars. Let's start with the front runners. Ingrid, name one
person or film that you think is an absolute lock
to take home a statue on Sunday night.
Ingrid Randoja (17:22):
Well, I think Best Picture is going to go to
1917. I'm feeling really confident about that. I know people
are talking about Parasite, but I really believe that 1917
is the knockout standout film, one of the best films
I've seen, I don't know, in 20 years. It's a
big screen event. You have to go see this movie on the
big screen. I think Sam Mendez, this director, is going
(17:44):
to win for Best Director. I just think it's an incredible
piece of filmmaking. I think it needs to be seen
on big screen and I think it's going to win.
Natasha G. (17:51):
Yeah. Lots of talk about 1917. I want to know
though now... I mean obviously there's always the good picks,
but then there's always the dark horse pick. Who is
someone maybe a bit off the radar, that you think
could walk away as a surprise winner?
Ingrid Randoja (18:04):
Well, this is an interesting category. There's lots of dark horses, but I'm
going to go with Scarlett Johansson in Jojo Rabbit. She
is up for two awards, Best Supporting Actress in Jojo Rabbit
and Best Actress in Marriage Story. History tells us when
actors are up for two awards, usually they win in
the supporting category. That's happened three times for women. I'm
(18:25):
thinking that Scarlett Johansson could surprise people and win for
Jojo Rabbit.
Natasha G. (18:30):
Yeah. I'm rooting for Scarlett Johansson, nominated twice. Just give
her one. She deserves it. Finally, we know that the
Academy doesn't always get things exactly right. There's always a
bit of controversy. Who is the one person that won't
win an Oscar this year, but you think deserves some recognition?
Ingrid Randoja (18:46):
Well, I think this one is quite obvious to anybody that saw
Little Women. Director Greta Gerwig should have been nominated for
Best Director. She takes a great novel and brings it
up with a 21st century feminist eye, but yet stays
true to the story. Watching that film, you get the
sense that the actors and her were in unison telling
(19:10):
this story that still resonates today. It's just a wonderful
experience. I really urge people to get together and go and see it.
Natasha G. (19:17):
1917, Little Women and Jojo Rabbit are still playing at
your local cineplex theater, so you can still have a
chance to watch them on the big screen before Oscar night.
Ingrid Randoja (19:26):
It's really true because the Oscars are so much more
fun when you've seen the movies and you're rooting for
people. So check them out.
Natasha G. (19:34):
Thank you for joining us on this special Valentine's Day
edition of Cineplex's Hello Movies. The Photograph and Downhill are
both in theaters on February 14th. I'm Natasha Gargiulo. See
you back here in two weeks.
Welcome to Hello Movies, a podcast by movie lovers for
movie lovers. I'm your host, Natasha Gargiulo. Valentine's Day is
just around the corner, and this week we're looking at
two films that could be perfect for an upcoming date
night. The Photograph, starring Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield, and
Downhill starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louis- Dreyfus. First, I
(00:24):
want to introduce my special guests for this episode, Kevin
McCarthy and Lauren Veneziani. Kevin and Lauren are both film
critics based in Washington, DC. Kevin cohosts ReelBlend Film podcasts and
can be seen on FOX 5 in Washington. Lauren reviews
films on her website, DC Film Girl. They also happen
to be husband and wife, and I thought, who better
(00:45):
to bring in and discuss this year's Valentine's Day slate?
Lauren and Kevin, welcome to the podcast. I'm so happy you
guys had the time to make it on Hello Movies.
How are you?
Lauren V. (00:54):
I'm good. We're so excited to be on because Valentine's
Day is one of my favorite times of year, and
I legit love talking about romance movies so much.
Kevin M. (01:03):
Yeah. Thank you so much for having us on, Natasha. It's great to talk to
you. This is awesome, so thank you.
Natasha G. (01:07):
Your relationship with Lauren, Kevin, seems so ingrained in a
shared love of movies. What role has film played in
your relationship?
Kevin M. (01:15):
Yeah. Movies are the whole reason we're together. We first
started talking online. We fell in love, a mutual love,
for this movie called Drive, which Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan
Gosling, Bryan Cranston. Just the similarities of what we both
appreciated about the movie... Those things are hard to find.
(01:36):
You don't really meet people who sometimes share the same
exact loves of certain types of movies.
Lauren V. (01:42):
Right, and it's also an underrated actual romance as well.
Kevin M. (01:45):
Yeah. At the end of the day, I want my
romance films to have a gritty reality to them. Not
that I want real life to mimic something like Drive,
but you look at a film like True Romance, which is
extremely violent, Quentin Tarantino, Tony Scott directed. At the end
of the day that, and even a film like Django,
(02:07):
another Quentin Tarantino film, at the end of the day they are love
stories. I think that those films, while they tackle extremely
violent subject matters and things like that, I just love
the adventure of a love story through an R rated storytelling.
Lauren V. (02:21):
That type of film, yeah.
Natasha G. (02:21):
I would love to know from the both of you about
the excitement of still going to a movie theater to
watch a film. Why do you think going to see
a movie in a theater is such an ideal date night?
Lauren V. (02:32):
Literally to this day... I'm 32 years old and my
favorite date of all time is dinner and a movie
in a movie theater. I usually like to see the
movie and then have dinner afterwards to talk about it.
That's always what I recommend to girlfriends who are going
out on a date with somebody. Maybe not the first
(02:55):
time, but the second or third date. Just going to
a movie and dinner is just such a fun thing
to do.
Natasha G. (03:01):
Okay. We're talking about Valentine's Day now and Valentine's Day
releases. I'm curious, when it comes to Valentine's Day films,
do you have any go- to picks?
Kevin M. (03:11):
If you want to go cliche romance type, what would be normal... Normal, I don't even know what
normal means, but Love Actually, films like Notting Hill.
Natasha G. (03:20):
Right.
Lauren V. (03:22):
Notting Hill is one of our favorite movies together.
Kevin M. (03:25):
Yeah, we love Notting Hill.
Lauren V. (03:26):
Because I don't know if you remember, but Kevin and I
obviously do... Kevin does more so than me, but we
do a lot of press junkets throughout the year. That's
the first movie where you see Hugh Grant's character pretend
to be a reporter to get into the press junket
in London to meet Julia Roberts. That's one of my
favorite... That was the first time a press junket setting
was introduced in a movie, as far as I can
(03:47):
remember, the first one I saw. Notting Hill for us
as a couple, that one's super important. That's a movie
that you could watch anytime during the year, but we
always usually watch it around Valentine's Day. Another movie for
me, that's one of my favorite romances of all time,
just your classic romance, is When Harry Met Sally with
(04:07):
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. I just love that story.
Kevin M. (04:12):
And You've Got Mail.
Lauren V. (04:15):
You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally... Meg Ryan
is still my rom- com queen. Anything that she's in
that's romantic comedy related is going to be a classic film that I
grew up with.
Kevin M. (04:27):
In New York, we've gone to the restaurant from You've Got Mail.
Lauren V. (04:30):
You've Got Mail.
Kevin M. (04:32):
Cafe Lalo. We've gone to the Harry Met Sally, Katz's
Deli. We purposely waited to sit at the table where
they filmed the classic Meg Ryan sequence.
Lauren V. (04:42):
Her famous scene.
Kevin M. (04:44):
Those movies are very important to us. I think True Romance-
Lauren V. (04:46):
True Romance, yeah.
Kevin M. (04:46):
Would ultimately be my number one go- to personally.
Natasha G. (04:51):
I'm going to bring you back a bit later because
I want to get your takes on two films that
are going to be released this Valentine's Day. The first
of those films is The Photograph.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
I just don't understand why she couldn't tell me about her
life while she was alive.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Maybe she thought it would help you to look at her in another way.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Hey, I'm Michael Block, from The Republic. I'm doing a
story about your mom.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
How's your article coming?
Speaker 6 (05:14):
To be honest, I was a little distracted so I
kept running back in my mind how you might respond
to me asking you for a drink.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
So that was you asking me?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
In my mind it wasn't that forward. It was more
smoother than that.
Natasha G. (05:27):
The Photograph is a new romantic drama written and directed by
Stella Meghie. When a famed photographer dies, her daughter Mae
is left full of questions. When Mae discovers a photograph
tucked away in a safe deposit box, it leads her
on a journey to discover more about her mother's early
life and ignites an unexpected romance with a young journalist
named Michael. Stella Meghie is one of Canada's brightest filmmaking
(05:50):
talents. Her previous work includes the 2016 indie darling, Jean
of the Joneses and 2017's YA hit, Everything everything. Here
she is describing where the inspiration for the photograph came from.
Stella Meghie (06:03):
There's so many great photos I have of my mom
and my grandmother and my godmother when they were young.
It's one of the few times you can look through
these photos and see them as they were, before my
mom had me, as a young woman. There's something about
looking at a photo of my mom at that age,
(06:23):
from that time, where you realize there's this whole person
you don't know. I don't know that woman. I don't
know that 25 year old woman who was pregnant with
me and I think that's what The Photograph is about,
Mae getting this photo and looking at it and figuring
out who the woman in that photograph is.
Natasha G. (06:43):
The Photograph stars, Issa Rae, who you might recognize from
The Hate You Give and her HBO series, Insecure, and
Lakeith Stanfield who's on the hit FX series, Atlanta, and
most recently had roles in Uncut Gems and Knives Out.
Here's Meghie describing why she wanted to work with Issa Rae.
Stella Meghie (07:01):
Issa and I had worked together on her show. I
had gotten to know her. She has so much room
to stretch and you can see that on the show. I
just loved working with her so much that I thought,
wow this would be such an unexpected role for her,
but something that I could totally see her bringing to
life and making you love a character that is a
(07:23):
little cold and is grieving and bring a warmth to that.
Natasha G. (07:29):
Here she is on what Lakeith Stanfield brought to the role.
Stella Meghie (07:33):
He's that actor that's so amazing cause you never know
what to expect or how he's going to play something.
This role could have come off as like the suave
player and in that stereotypical romantic film. He brings such
a complexity to the character and an honesty of men
(07:57):
you know that want to be in love but aren't
ready for it. I just think he just brought so
many layers to the character.
Natasha G. (08:07):
The Photograph opens in cineplex theaters on February 14th. Before
we get to our second release, I want to share
a story that really warmed my heart heading into Valentine's
day. This is filmmaker Lee Loechler, who used his love
of film to put together one of the all time
great proposals for his girlfriend, Dr. Sthuthi David. Here's how
(08:27):
it all went down.
Lee Loechler (08:28):
I had an idea a few years back for a
friend of mine who mentioned that he was interested in
proposing to his then girlfriend and was trying to figure
out a creative way to do it. I must have
watched Forrest Gump in advance of it because the idea was, what if
you guys are at home and you're watching her favorite
movie. Then all of a sudden in a key scene
(08:48):
you just show up composited into the background holding a
ring. It's that moment of, how did he do this
magic with the intimacy and the personal significance of doing
it in her favorite film. His answer was something like, "
That doesn't seem like something I would ever do but
(09:08):
that sounds like a you thing more than me." It
was like, " Oh, okay." I filed it away for later. Cut
to a few years down the road. Sthuthi and I
had been dating for a couple of years at that point. I
started giving some thought to how I might propose. I
dusted off that idea because I thought it still had
maybe some legs. The problem was her favorite film is Sleeping
(09:32):
Beauty and it's animated. It's not live action. It wouldn't
make any sense if I were to composite myself. Then
one day, just on a whim, I got a copy
of Sleeping Beauty. I started scrubbing through it just in
case there was some scene that might work in a
way I wasn't imagining. I got to the end and
there's that famous scene at the climax where Prince Philip
(09:53):
comes and kisses Aurora and he wakes her up. What
I noticed about the scene was because she's asleep and
because he's kneeling down, it's largely static. There's not a
lot of movement. It started to occur to me that
maybe I didn't need to be a great animator to
pull this off. Maybe I just needed to partner with
someone who could draw in the Disney style. Then using
(10:14):
my cursory knowledge of Adobe After Effects, I could add
just enough movement so that it would feel like it
was real and animated. That's what I did.
Natasha G. (10:25):
Lee set up a screening of Sleeping Beauty at a
local theater in Massachusetts and packed it with friends and
family members. Here's Sthuthi on the moment she knew something
was going on.
Sthuthi (10:36):
The first thing was I noticed was Aurora was no
longer looking like Aurora. I was like, " Oh my God,
something's wrong with the film." Then Lee popped up on the
screen and I remember being so confused. I was like, "Why does that
guy look like my fiance?" It honestly wasn't until when
(10:56):
the ring popped up to Sleeping Beauty that I was like, "Oh my
God. Is this a proposal?" Then I blacked out. I
don't know what happened.
Natasha G. (11:05):
Does Lee see this as a side hustle moving forward?
Lee Loechler (11:08):
I have already received some DMs of friends of mine
who are like, " Oh man, I'm about to propose. Can
we grab a beer?" All of the support I've received
in person has just been super complimentary. Everyone I've talked
to in person has just... It seems like it's meant
a lot to a lot of different people. It gives
you a bit of respite. You can escape from maybe
(11:30):
a lousy news cycle there for three minutes and 23
seconds and just suspend your disbelief, suspend the rest of
your life and just believe in love and in magic
and in this fairy tale ending that only celluloid can offer.
Natasha G. (11:49):
Our second Valentine's Day release is pushing the boundaries of
the rom- com genre.
Speaker 8 (11:56):
It looked like it was going to kill us.
Speaker 9 (11:58):
For a moment.
Speaker 8 (11:59):
The kids were screaming because it felt like we were
going to die. I look over at Pete and he
had grabbed his phone. Pete left us.
Natasha G. (12:11):
Downhill is an English language adaptation of the much celebrated
2014 Swedish film, Force Majeure. After barely escaping an avalanche
during a ski trip in the Alps, a seemingly perfect
family is forced to reevaluate life and how they truly
feel about each other. The film stars two of the
funniest people to ever grace the silver screen, Julia Louis-
(12:31):
Dreyfus and Will Ferrell and is co- directed by Nat
Faxon and Jim Rash, the celebrated writing team who won
a best adapted screenplay Oscar for The Descendants in 2012.
Here's Jim Rash discussing the duos approach to adapting Force Majeure.
Jim Rash (12:46):
We were already fans of Force Majeure as was everyone
involved. Obviously the tone was something we had played with. It was very different from Force Majeure.
With Julia being part of this, we wanted to dig into the
Billie character, her character, a little bit more than maybe Force
Majeure deals with masculinity and cowardice. We kept that on
(13:07):
the Pete side of things, but really wanted to think
about an American couple in this situation and also being
a fish out of water. It was important for us
to take the spirit of Force Majeure but come from
a different place, which obviously has to happen because the characters
are different.
Natasha G. (13:24):
Here are the two directors on how audiences will view
this unconventional take on a Valentine's film.
Nat Faxon (13:29):
Hopefully they see it as an identifiable depiction of what
marriage is like. Marriage is a lot of work. It's
constantly a roller coaster where you have terrific moments and
you have trickier moments that require you to dig out
of at times. Despite how long you might've been with
(13:51):
someone you don't always confidently know who they are in
any circumstance. I think you can... There's a certain comfort
level but there are times when you may be surprised by-
Jim Rash (14:06):
I still don't know who he is.
Nat Faxon (14:07):
Their actions.
Natasha G. (14:09):
Here are the two explaining the benefits of getting to
work with a co- director.
Nat Faxon (14:13):
I think one of the benefits of working together is
twofold. One, when your brain is fried, somebody else is
there to help sort of carry the load.
Jim Rash (14:23):
That's fair.
Nat Faxon (14:24):
His was fried consistently. It was twofold. What's the other one?
Jim Rash (14:29):
The second one is it's just more fun because you
are able to do bits and laugh together.
Nat Faxon (14:38):
And I'm told I'm a blast.
Natasha G. (14:40):
Downhill is in cineplex theaters on February 14th. I'm back
with Kevin and Lauren and I want to wrap things
up by talking a little about the films we've heard
about today. Will you be spending your Valentine's date night
at The Photograph or will you be going to Downhill?
Lauren V. (14:58):
100% The Photograph. I want that to be our Thursday
night, the night before Valentine's Day, that's going to be
our date night and dinner movie. I am obsessed with
movies like this. My favorite type of genre is pure
romance and that's what this movie looks like to me.
It's a female director, which we don't have a enough
(15:22):
of. I love seeing a female director's perspective for this
particular story.
Kevin M. (15:28):
Also Lakeith plays things in an interesting way. For example,
I was watching the trailer. There's dialogue in that trailer
that could have easily been cliche. Like, " Can I kiss
you?" Or things like that. It's the way he delivers
it. It's his honesty. I don't know. There's something about
him as an actor that I just really... I loved him in Knives
Out obviously. He would be the draw for me and the
(15:50):
reason I would go.
Lauren V. (15:52):
I like the premise of Downhill in the sense of,
we don't see a lot of older, forties, fifties plus
relationships. I feel like we don't see a lot of
marriage stories like this. I'm definitely interested to see it.
I haven't seen the movie like you have, so I
can't say if it's an ideal Valentine's Day pick. I
(16:15):
like that the studio is giving us another type of
romance and marriage story option than what we've typically seen
in the past.
Kevin M. (16:22):
The theme you can see in the movies I pick,
it's just movies that I think that deal with a
romantic element but also deal with other subjects that are
grounded in a certain reality.
Natasha G. (16:34):
Kevin and Lauren, it was so much fun having you on
the show. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Kevin M. (16:39):
We appreciate it.
Lauren V. (16:39):
Thank you.
Kevin M. (16:39):
Also, we want to mention our dog is named Oscar after the Academy Awards.
Lauren V. (16:44):
I'm surprised he wasn't barking in the background here.
Kevin M. (16:47):
He was barking before we came on.
Natasha G. (16:51):
Before we go, I wanted to make sure we cap
things off with a little Oscar talk. The 92nd Academy
awards take place this Sunday. To gain a little insight
on who will win, who should win, and who might
shock the prognosticators, we're joined by our resident film expert,
Ingrid Randoja, the deputy editor of Cineplex magazine.
Ingrid Randoja (17:10):
Hi Natasha, how are you doing?
Natasha G. (17:11):
I'm great. Thanks for being back and talking about the
Oscars. Let's start with the front runners. Ingrid, name one
person or film that you think is an absolute lock
to take home a statue on Sunday night.
Ingrid Randoja (17:22):
Well, I think Best Picture is going to go to
1917. I'm feeling really confident about that. I know people
are talking about Parasite, but I really believe that 1917
is the knockout standout film, one of the best films
I've seen, I don't know, in 20 years. It's a
big screen event. You have to go see this movie on the
big screen. I think Sam Mendez, this director, is going
(17:44):
to win for Best Director. I just think it's an incredible
piece of filmmaking. I think it needs to be seen
on big screen and I think it's going to win.
Natasha G. (17:51):
Yeah. Lots of talk about 1917. I want to know
though now... I mean obviously there's always the good picks,
but then there's always the dark horse pick. Who is
someone maybe a bit off the radar, that you think
could walk away as a surprise winner?
Ingrid Randoja (18:04):
Well, this is an interesting category. There's lots of dark horses, but I'm
going to go with Scarlett Johansson in Jojo Rabbit. She
is up for two awards, Best Supporting Actress in Jojo Rabbit
and Best Actress in Marriage Story. History tells us when
actors are up for two awards, usually they win in
the supporting category. That's happened three times for women. I'm
(18:25):
thinking that Scarlett Johansson could surprise people and win for
Jojo Rabbit.
Natasha G. (18:30):
Yeah. I'm rooting for Scarlett Johansson, nominated twice. Just give
her one. She deserves it. Finally, we know that the
Academy doesn't always get things exactly right. There's always a
bit of controversy. Who is the one person that won't
win an Oscar this year, but you think deserves some recognition?
Ingrid Randoja (18:46):
Well, I think this one is quite obvious to anybody that saw
Little Women. Director Greta Gerwig should have been nominated for
Best Director. She takes a great novel and brings it
up with a 21st century feminist eye, but yet stays
true to the story. Watching that film, you get the
sense that the actors and her were in unison telling
(19:10):
this story that still resonates today. It's just a wonderful
experience. I really urge people to get together and go and see it.
Natasha G. (19:17):
1917, Little Women and Jojo Rabbit are still playing at
your local cineplex theater, so you can still have a
chance to watch them on the big screen before Oscar night.
Ingrid Randoja (19:26):
It's really true because the Oscars are so much more
fun when you've seen the movies and you're rooting for
people. So check them out.
Natasha G. (19:34):
Thank you for joining us on this special Valentine's Day
edition of Cineplex's Hello Movies. The Photograph and Downhill are
both in theaters on February 14th. I'm Natasha Gargiulo. See
you back here in two weeks.
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