We’re fans of director/artist/graphic designer Mike Mills.
In 2005 his underrated indie flick “Thumbsucker” achieved two important things (one of them almost unfathomable): it introduced most of us to the excellent young talent that is Lou Taylor Pucci (“The Go-Getter,” “The Informers,” kids still young and will become more of a name as he continues to score better roles) and made Keanu Reeves not only seem tolerable, it was his best role in years (seriously, we can’t remember the last time we were impressed by Keanu). The “Thumbsucker” script he adapated by Walter Kirn (“Up In The Air”) was so good that little indie also convinced Vince Vaugh, Tilda Swinton, Benjamin Bratt and Vincen D’Onforio to appear in the film.
Plus it was just a sweet and optimistic film, much like Mills himself (he’s like the opposite of a “hater”). So we wondered, when would his next film be? And we waited and waited…
But some recent news has come to the surface thanks to recent “Angels & Demons” press interviews with Ewan McGregor. According to an interview with Hitflix, McGregor will appear (star?) in Mills next film that is set to shoot in October in Los Angeles, but so far that’s all we really know. No plot or title was revealed, but in a separate interview with Dark Horizons, McGregor gave some small, small kernels of info.
“The next films… I’m doing a story with Mike Mills in LA, which is meant to be in LA. [It’s] a really interesting story. and quite a small film.”
Ok, that’s not a lot, but Mills doing another small indie seems to make a lot of sense. It’s not like he’s about to jump into a big mainstream world after only one picture, considering the small, modest, intimate nature of “Thumbsucker.” Still, new Mike Mills film in October with Ewan McGregor (who could really stand to take on some better roles these days). Color us very intrigued.
Other reasons why you should know and care about Mike Mills? He was a great graphic designer and music video director before he made the leap to feature films. He designed album covers, T-shirts, poster design and other rock-related ephemera for bands like Sonic Youth, the Beastie Boys, Cibo Matto, Air and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in the mid-90s, and then went on to create excellent music videos for Blonde Redhead (one starring his girlfriend Miranda July, which is maybe another reason you should know who he is), Yoko Ono, Air, Everything But the Girl, The Divine Comedy, Moby, Beth Orton and Pulp among, many many others.
In fact, remember the estimable Director’s Label Music Directors DVD series that showcased videos by Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, et al? Mills was supposed to be the next director getting his own DVD, but the series went dormant in 2007 and has stayed that way ever since (dude’s, bring that shit BACK!).
Mills also had the privileged of briefly working with the late indie folk-singer Elliott Smith who was supposed to score all of “Thumbsucker,” before he passed away and the Polyphonic Spree took over. If you want a great, but sad “What If” scenario. Smith and Mills plan was to record covers of famous tracks by John Lennon, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and others as the soundtrack to the film, but Smith wasn’t able to complete them before his death. However, one of the last songs Smith ever recorded and completed in the last few weeks of his life was a cover of Cat Stevens’ “Trouble,” which did grace the final film and soundtrack (there were three Smith songs in the film in the end including his previously recorded cover of Big Star’s “Thirteen.”)
Here’s some selected Mills-helmed videos.
Blonde Redhead – “Top Ranking” (featuring Miranda July in jazzercise mode)
Air – “Kelly Watch The Stars”
Pulp – “Party Hard”
His video for Blonde Redhead’s, “23” is undoubtedly illegal art and appropriates liberally from James Camerons’ “Titanic” [see the full video here, though it was never officially released, this song ruuules].
