I love the fact SIFF is so huge. I adore that they show so many different films from so many parts of the globe. I wouldn’t have them change a single thing about it. But all that said, it is a heavy workload, and trying to make your way through several hundred potentials and then write as quickly as you can about the ones that strike your fancy is as close to hopeless as anything I’ve ever done.
I only bring this up because I want to talk a little bit about actor Justin Kirk and as both the films he appeared in have already come and gone (and, potentially, might not hit theaters again) I’m doing this a little bit after the fact. But I liked both the emotionally moving melodrama Against the Current and the puzzle box black comedy thriller Four Boxes quite a little bit, and it seems remiss to not give them a shout-out each picture definitely deserves.
The first one is written and directed by relative newcomer Peter Callahan. It’s his second feature (I’ve never even heard of his first, Last Ball, so I can’t comment on its quality) and based on it I’m extremely excited to see what this guy can do next. The premise is risible. Paul Thompson (Joseph Fiennes) convinces his bartender best friend Jeff Kane (Justin Kirk) to be his chaperone as he attempts to swim the 150-mile length of the Hudson River. While the idea goes back to the pair’s childhood, the reasoning is altogether adult, Paul looking to commit suicide at the end of the journey on the anniversary of his wife’s death.
This movie should be horrid as you can almost hear the maudlin violins and see the melodramatic syrup run down the camera lens. And yet, by and large Callahan doesn’t go for the easy outs, refuses to pull the overly familiar heartstrings. Even better, he infuses the film with a ton of darkly acerbic humor that’s both bitingly funny and poetically moving, and even if the climactic moments do ultimately succumb to the usual three-Kleenex dynamic getting to the point is far more rhapsodic than I’d ever have imagined.
Four Boxes, while admittedly not working quite as well, is still a pretty potently nasty piece of work itself. Completely different in both subject matter and tone, this independent brain teaser follows two friends, Trevor (Kirk) and Rob (Sam Rosen), who earn extra cash going to funerals and selling off the dead guys stuff on eBay. Along with the latter’s girlfriend Amber (Terryn Westbrook), a woman who shares history with both men, the trio move in for the week in their latest target’s now-empty domicile, discovering a strange website bookmarked on his laptop apparently filming a terrorist completely unawares.
I had one of the central gags nailed right from the start, so the tension there never quite came together for me. The rest of the twists, however, are pretty darn wonderful. The best twist movies are ones where you can go back and discover all of the clues and puzzle pieces that could have given you the solution long before the climax, writer/director Wyatt McDill managing to do just that and more. Sure the movie is a con game, but it is one where the answers are all their for the deciphering, so even though most of what we’re watching is a sham the fact it all makes sense and is perfectly feasible in the end makes that fact pretty easy to take.
The film takes a rather darkly comic turn in the final moments I didn’t quite think were necessary, and there are some definite pacing problems especially during the opening act. But overall this is a fun little satire that kept me on my toes, and as I had the screener watching it a second time knowing the outcome was arguably even more fun than viewing it blind the first time around.
Kirk, best known for his work on the Showtime smash “Weeds,” is just great in both of these, turning in two completely different yet equally engaging performances. Not really familiar with him beforehand, the guy ahs a knack for getting inside the heads of the people he’s portraying making them feel honest and real. He’s someone worth keeping an eye on, and here’s hoping he gets the chance to stretch himself even more with future projects.
I spoke with the actor briefly in the lobby of the W Hotel about the two films and he was, even a little exhausted, pretty much a dream to chat with. I’m not going to bore you with all the details, but some of what he said about these two films I think deserves some coverage, not the least of which is how these two wildly different – yet in some ways eerily similar – projects came his way.
“They’re both comedies set in genres that are not usually comedic,” he admitted to me candidly. “But they are also still totally different, and they both came to me in totally different ways. Against the Current was pretty much a standard get. I loved the script a year or so before they go the money together to make the movie, and my friend Elizabeth Reaser was attached to be in it as well and so of we went! It was just one of those situations where you like the material and you want to be a part of it, it really isn’t much simpler than that.”
“With Four Boxes, that was a very special thing near and dear to my heart. The writer and director, Wyatt [McDill], was a childhood friend from the age 12. He was also a guy whose work I’ve always admired. He’s made some outstanding shorts, some great music videos, he’s a painter and is just really talented. He finally [wrote] his first feature and he sent me the script and I just loved it right away.”
“But, just because we had this history doesn’t mean there was any guarantee how things would be on day one walking on set, especially with someone who was your dear friend. More than that, there were other friends involved, and there was also going back home for the first time in a while to make it. But, boy, it couldn’t have worked out better. I really love the movie. It’s been a really cool experience and I’m so proud of what we accomplished.”
What about working with friends? Is that reason enough to make the film on its own? “I would never do a movie as a favor, so it was not that at all. I was very excited to work with Wyatt. I mean, I’ll give someone a ride to the airport as a favor, but as far as a movie, it takes too much out of you to do a movie just to be nice to someone. It’s draining and a lot of work. I did [Four Boxes] because I responded to the material and I like Wyatt’s work. I did not do it just because we were friends.”
There was a lot more we talked about in regards to both films, discussing how he worked on each character and what it took to bring them to life. We also talked about the nature of independent filmmaking as it is right now, and whether or not the marketplace is too saturated for films like these to be able to find an audience. We also, of course, talked about “Weeds,” but the information there was kept to an almost expected bare minimum, most of it hidden behind a toothy grin of utmost secrecy.
“I’ve been pretty lucky,” Kirk admitted to me somewhat coyly. “I mean, I’m on a television show most people don’t have and yet most people are aware of the show. It’s amazing to me, and I think DVD has really become a big thing that’s helped us become what we are.”
“It has become a phenomenon, yes, but I think that’s something that has been very cumulative. I was pretty sure things were going to work out, and I remember telling Mary Louise [Parker] around the first day or so of shooting that I thought we might have the chance to be around for a little while. I think it’s been a situation where the fan base has just grown over time, people discovering it through word of mouth and DVD.”
“Last year I really started to feel it. We had a great season. I’m thrilled to be a part of it, and for the most part I think it’s good, it’s really good show, and I think the powers that be have had the courage to destroy it and recreate when it was time to do that. When we burned our town down I think that was just great, because when you’re around for a little while I think that’s something you just have to do to keep the ideas flowing and fresh. It’s also something you absolutely cannot do again, so you know going into Season Five that it better be something new and different the audience will keep responding to.”
And is Season Five going to be new and different? Is it as strong as past ones? “Definitely. I thought last year was our best year ever, moving into that border town and all, and I admit I was a little worried going into this one because I didn’t think we had anything new going on. But, boy, do we ever have so many new, exciting things going on right now. I think Season Five, and I’m not just saying that because I have to or anything, really, is going to be our best one yet. [‘Weeds’] is a great gig. I feel extremely lucky.”
“I sometimes sit on set and look around, and not that I don’t believe there will be other great jobs, but this one has been just so great and I know I will look back on it fondly when it is over. But, it can’t go on forever. More importantly, I wouldn’t want it to. I wouldn’t want us to be around when I didn’t think it was good anymore. But that’s not how I feel right now. Right now I feel we’re doing great and as long as I keep feeling that way I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.”
With that said, I couldn’t help but pry Justin for a few cursory hints as to what exactly it is he’s so excited about for this upcoming season and asked him if there was anything he could reveal. His response wasn’t exactly a shock. “No,” he smiles at me. “I’m not going to say anything other than that. You have to watch it to find out.”
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