The very recent news of Spike Jonze’s “Where The Wild Things Are” adaptation being pulled from the 2009 Warner Bros. release schedule is just another example in many of how hard it is for a filmmaker, let alone an idiosyncratic nu-auteur, to get a film made these days. Even if the ‘Wild Things’ does come out sometime 2009, it’ll have been seven years since the fanciful director has made a feature-length film (2o02’s “Adaptation”). It’s been something we’ve had on the brain of late.
In 2007 Tamara Jenkins released “The Savages” and it was her first feature-film in eight years. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,” arrived in the same season and it was his first project in six. Kimberly Peirce returned to the film world in March of this year with “Stop Loss,” her first feature since the 1999 Oscar winning “Boys Don’t Cry.” May of 2008 brought us “Mister Lonely” and the return of Harmony Korine, and in November Baz Lurhmann will release his adventure romance epic “Australia.” All five directors had not put out a film in more than half a decade (7 for Lurhmann, 9 for Peirce, 10 for Korine). What took so damn long? Where did they go? It may take some of these struggling indie auteurs a few years to get their non-Hollywood projects off the ground, but nonetheless, we’re overjoyed and grateful to welcome them back. But what about the others? There’s still plenty of great indie directors that have seemingly gone MIA. The indie film market might be in the toilet, but here’s a look at 6 AWOL filmmakers that we’d love to see make some kind of comeback, if that’s at all possible these days.
Whit Stillman
Very much of the bourgey, urban haute ironic mien, Stillman burst onto the scene in 1990 with his debut feature, the satirical look at, young, erudite socialites in Manhattan, “Metropolitan.” In 1994 his first studio financed film became “Barcelona,” a hilariously biting look at educated, boorish Americans abroad and reel for reel one of our favorite films from the 1990s (Chris Eigman, Stillman’s muse, has never been so dryly amazing). Another comedy of mis-manners, his last feature was 1998’s mildly received “The Last Days of Disco,” after which he relocated to Paris and has been working on various screenplays ever since. But really? Where the hell are these various projects? 1998 was a decade ago. Stillman has apparently been slated to direct the adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s “Little Green Men,” but this news has been floating around for some time now, as have many of the projects that he’s been attached to that have seemingly evaporated into nothing. Blogger friends of ours even said they saw Stillman at a party recently trolling for funds in between hoarding hors d’oeuvres. Has he really sunk this low? His sharply-dressed, dry-witted and privileged intellectual characters clearly influenced the likes of Wes Anderson and definitely Noah Baumbach. Will no one give this man some change to make his next movie? Whit Stillman may drop his pants if you promise to produce his next movie. We too would drop trou at a moments notice if it meant his return.
Lynne Ramsay
This Scottish filmmakers debut was the critically acclaimed and captivating (but often overlooked) “Ratcatcher” in 1999. She then followed up this up in 2002 with her disturbing but serene look at a Scottish supermarket clerk whose boyfriend suddenly offs himself in the enlightenment-through personal-disintegration travelogue “Morvern Callar.” Where’s she been? She got waylaid. The filmmaker had been working on a film adaptation to Alice Sebold’s novella “The Lovely Bones” and was slated to direct until the project was engulfed (figuratively) by Peter fucking Jackson, upon which she was promptly fired [ed. fuckers]. Following the disappointing experience (and significant time waster), Ramsay was hired to adapt and direct Lionel Shriver’s disturbing novel about a school shooting, “We Need To Talk About Kevin.” Ok, but where is that, why haven’t we seen it? We’re going to hold our breathes until we pass out, so someone better announce a release date fucking soon.
Todd Solondz
Known for his darkly perverted and contemptuously scathing looks at American middle-class suburbia, this enfant terrible’s first feature film was the mostly unseen, “Fear, Anxiety and Depression” – a Woody Allen-esque relationship/sex comedy about a struggling playwright, played by Solondz himself and demarcated by its uncharacteristically unhateful mood. After a six year break from film, stemming from the frustrations over his debut, Solondz returned with 1995’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” his real breakthrough. Chronicling a hopelessly nerdy and unpopular seventh grade outcast, her struggles to fit in and her extremely inattentive parents, the film set the tone for the rest of Solondz’s pictures; each successively darker, more sociopathically fucked up and chalk full of taboo issues. 1998’s scabrous pitch-black comedy “Happiness” further scandalized audiences with its pederast sympathizing and unsurprisingly received an NC-17 rating. Somehow, 2001’s two-part miserablist harangue, “Storytelling,” outdid his penchant for misanthropic characters and condescending condemnation of humanity. “Palindromes” followed quickly in 2002, and while it too featured anal rape and good ol’ pedophilia, its lighter touch was a slight reprieve. However, it seemed to be all a little too late. Having exhausted audiences and finally squandered all the indie, goodwill accrued with ‘Dollhouse,’ it appeared those willing to fund his scornful screeds all but disappeared and he hasn’t released a film since. His next project, “
Life During Wartime” – you guessed it, a dark comedy about sexual obsession – may star Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) should it ever find legit funding, but the production has been pushed so many times, it’s a wonder if it will ever be made. How was Solondz been filling up his time? Probably stockpiling more embittered disdain and rancor for mankind.
Alexander Payne
Known for his highly satirical comedies that incorporate the absurdities of modern day politics and or marital infidelity, Payne’s 1996 debut “Citizen Ruth” chronicled a pregnant, drug-addict dead-beat mother who becomes the center of a national abortion debate. 1999 marked the release of the populist comedy”Election,” which introduced the world to Tracey Flick, and serendipitously established Reese Witherspoon’s type A personality before she was well known. the twisted tale of a Nebraska high school election race, the film starred Matthew Broderick as an aging, slightly pathetic high school government teacher and pre-“Legally Blond” Reese as the underhanded, A-student body candidate. “About Schmidt,” followed in 2002 and its unsympathetic main character and coming-to-grips with mortality mien showcased newfound maturity. Two years later Payne released his most popular film to date, “Sideways,” its wimpy, middle-of-the-road innocuousness doing the same for indie films, what Merlot would do for wine newbs. Starring Paul Giamatti as a miserable unpublished author who takes his shallow, womanizing beset friend (Thomas Haden Church), on a Napa Valley trip the week before his wedding, “Sideways” was a huge indie hit and Payne’s last real effort behind the camera. Since then, his sold-out-ish moves have included contributing to the screenplay on the terrible Adam Sandler shitfest “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” and directing the closing, feel-good vignette in”Paris Je T’aime.” Payne has yet to direct a feature since and has yet to announce a project. We only want him to make movies if he promises to stop being a milquetoasty pussy and make a real film again.
Alison Maclean
Her 1992 debut, “Crush,” about a severe car wreck victim whose writing career has been clandestinely hijacked by her conniving best friend (played by Maria Gay Harden) was a twisted and oftentimes confusing mess. It wasn’t until 2001, finally in tune with her distinctly dark tone highlighted by hope and humor, that Maclean truly became to sparkle with the vibrant adaptation of Dennis Johnson’s novel, “Jesus’ Son.” Starring Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton as fuck-up heroin addicts with hearts of gold, the quirky film centered on Crudup, whose aimless life shuffle managed to harm everyone around him. Since 1999, Maclean’s only directorial work has been a few episodes on HBO’s “The L Word”, “Carnivale” and “The Tudors,” but knowing indie cinephile thirst for more of her shimmering take on the underbelly of life.
Vincent Gallo
Repugnantly awesome jackass and talented filmmaker there is convincing, almost-scientific, evidence out there to tie the “douchebag” meme to the beginnings of Gallo’s persona in the media and public eye. This filmmaker you love to hate and controversial director has not yet released a film since 2003’s snail-paced fellatio-boasting “Brown Bunny,” and knowing Gallo, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he never directed again. In fact, after ‘Bunny’ was savaged by critics at Cannes in its original cut, Gallo declared he would never make another film, but he’s also “retired” many a time in his boy who cried wolf mien. He might be a delicious trashbag personally, and his films can often be exploitative to the point of artistic detriment, but there’s too much idiosyncratic joy in them for us not to wish for another, and admittedly, “Buffalo 66,” is a late-’90s indie classic in our minds.
Honorable Mention: Jim Jarmusch, the experimental black and white color scheme enthusiast who has brought us such gems as “Stranger than Paradise and “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” will be returning in 2009 with his new film, “The Limits of Control,” featuring Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton (it’ll have been 4 years; though it’s currently editing as we speak). Mike Mills, the mind behind the auspicious “Thumbsucker” in 2005 has yet to declare another project, we can only hope it comes sooner rather than later. Amy Heckerling, whose career started off with such promise after directing “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and progressed to the guilty pleasure “Clueless,” has yet to make a film that received a theatrical release since 2000’s “Loser” (The studio hated it and, “I Could Never Be Your Woman” went straight to DVD in 2007). Todd Haynes took fiver years after “Far From Heaven” to direct last years fever dream Dylan biopic “I’m Not There,” we hope we have a chance to see a new project from him before 2012. Sofia Coppola exposed audiences to a highly stylized version of the pre-revolutionary French court with 2006’s “Marie Antoinette,” we hope her next project (she has yet to announce one) will resemble “Lost in Translation” more than the stuffy French anachronism. Miranda July burst onto the film scene with her 2005 debut indie hit, “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” and thankfully has another presumably quirky and affected indie film in “Satisfaction” shooting later this year. Jane Campion, the highly acclaimed Kiwie director (“The Piano, “An Angel At My Table”) released her last feature in 2003. Hopefully her new film “Bright Star” set to be released in 2009 will be a return to form. Guy Ritchie, the hyper-kinetic director with the crippling addiction to fast cuts and flashy dialogue is slated to release “RocknRolla,” his first film since 2005, this October, which will no doubt please his facile, A.D.D., shoot-em-up cinema. David O’Russell hasn’t released a film since 2004’s egregiously counterfeit existentialist-101 comedy “I Heart Huckabees.” Now that his current film, “Nailed” is essentially fucked, what does the future hold for him? Assholes should have just as much a right to make films as timid and fey indie low-talkers, no?
