Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think it's really important that you don't get caught up in the way the filmmaking community isolates you and the way your life ends up being.
I think about a lot of my favorite directors, and I think about their first films, and I have great admiration for the earthiness of those films.
Any director who's willing to be brave not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of being emotional and moving you is what inspires me.
I think if there's anything 2016 has taught me, it's that we have a real hard time with women in our society; we have a hard time with the feminine.
I guess it the one consistent thing in my life was that sense of magic that film provide - I still remember the movies from my childhood that I loved.
Sarah Polley's 'Stories We Tell,' James Ponsoldt's 'The Spectacular Now,' Destin Daniel Cretton's 'Short Term 12' - these are really important movies.
We lived on anarchist farms, squatted in the inner city, and hopped rail cars. We wanted to see how other young people were creating meaning from their lives.
In film, it is always collaborative, and so to me, it doesn't make sense to not be collaborative in one of its most critical arenas - which is the screenplay.
People are frustrated all over the country, whether they're in Oklahoma or Oregon or San Diego or San Francisco or L.A. or D.C. or New York or Omaha or wherever.
I think if I was interested in writing on my own, I would be a novelist - then you could write about yourself, and that would be it. You wouldn't need anyone else.
To make 'Sound of My Voice,' we had to conceive the entire world and understand it holistically. If you want to show less in a movie, you've got to figure out more.
The beauty of 'The OA' or 'Stranger Things' is that they are both made by Netflix for Netflix. And so there was a freedom all of a sudden that matched our intention.
I don't understand how our story can be so bonkers, but 'Captain Marvel' isn't. A lot of the ideas in 'The OA' that seem outlandish are just normalizing as the years go by.
I think that the campaign that Fox Searchlight has thrown for 'Sound of My Voice' honors the film's roots and the film's integrity, and I don't think it overwhelms the film at all.
You just have to make sure you keep living your life, challenging yourself, putting yourself in unusual experiences, thinking about what you're interested in doing, and going there.
We're taught that food in a dumpster is waste. But when you find bags of bread that are perfectly good, all of a sudden that waste turns into bounty. That's an important shift in perception.
We entered 'Lucid Grey' into the Georgetown festival on April 27, 2001. Now 'Sound of My Voice' is opening on April 27, 11 years later. It couldn't have happened in a more perfectly cinematic way.
I always think that 'Sound of My Voice' is a movie about the crumbs in 'Hansel and Gretel.' You know, those crumbs. It's about finding your way out of the claustrophobia and alienation of modern life.
I remember in grade school having a group of friends and enjoying that sense of community, enjoying living in an imaginary world that wasn't just by yourself or your sibling but a whole group of people.
What I'm drawn to most as a filmmaker are these tribes that are seen as 'fringe' cultures. We live in a society where many young people feel alienated, and these family constructs are an antidote to that.
I think we're really hungry for family in America, especially when I feel like people are really pulled apart from their families. So, we were interested in the idea of what the extreme version of that would be.
I stay away from the writing part because I think that if it sticks, it sticks. You just know it. The stuff that doesn't stick, goes away. The stuff that propels you forward, you can see it in your partner's eyes.
We want to make a 100 million dollar movie that we have created, in the way James Cameron or Chris Nolan does. It's so inspiring when high-quality auteurs are writing and directing those movies. That's pretty cool.
Even in 'The OA,' we had to follow Guild requirements and put 'directed by' and the credits, and I'm embarrassed to put my name every time. I mean, who cares. Look it up on the Internet if you want to know who made it.
That's the key thing I learned from making 'The East': It doesn't matter what happens in your life, good or bad. What matters is that there's a group around you to catch you when you fall and push you back up a little bit.
I don't think we set out to make 'The East' in order to necessarily change people's hearts; I don't know how much movies actually change people's hearts. We wanted to make something that was thrilling and got you to thinking.
The first time I ever tried edamame, I thought it was gross. I didn't understand the hairy skin. It didn't taste good to me. Now I scarf down a bowl of edamame when I sit down at a restaurant, and I don't think twice about it.
People don't really believe that their computer or sneakers are made by small hands, a child's hands, or a person who is living such a miserable life. They somehow think that, no, that person has a tough life, but it's an OK life.
I don't know if any specific religion is the one to subscribe to. I'm not saying, one way or the other. I don't want to get involved in that. But, I think having faith in this experience we are having as a group of people on Earth helps a lot.
'The Terminator' is grounded in so much realism. It's again a story that centers around a woman that isn't a 'woman's picture' necessarily. I found it really thrilling, both 'Terminator 1' and '2.' When you watch it it's such fine storytelling.
And if you were a very sophisticated con artist, what would you do to convince people that you were from the future? What benefits would that give you? For us, it's also a question of, "Is she or isn't she?" That's really a major part of the movie.
We would meet truck drivers, and they were like, ''Orange Is the New Black' is my favorite show.' And we're like, 'What? This looks like a Red State, Trump-voting guy, and he loves 'Orange Is the New Black?'' I think that's the power of storytelling.
Group think and groups in general allow you to more fully give yourself to something other than yourself and your betterment - to feel a sense of belonging. Now is this a good thing? I don't know, but it's something that is longed for, at least by me.
It really ups your production value when you have one person that you can use as your avatar through a story, but I think everyone gets their moment in time. That other couple definitely has their moment too, and they have to make some tough decisions.
I think that all the powerful religions are pretty much the same. People like to pretend they are very different, but they are not. They are really about believing in something bigger than yourself, something that's unseen, and about having some faith.
It doesn't really matter what someone's hair looks like or if the sound is perfect. Every director who's made a couple of movies knows that, because you can replace the sound. Or, like, any one shot is not that important, because they all add up together.
I loved 'Terminator 2' as a teenager and 'Sound of Music' when I was a kid. I also loved 'Requiem For A Dream' as a college student and 'Mulholland Drive.' And I have loved 'Lincoln' as an adult. They are all the same, as they are all good stories and extraordinary actors.
I wanted to be a filmmaker, so my parents helped me by encouraging me to save my allowance. So I bought my first video camera, and I would make movies, but I never made a movie that I finished until I was in college. There was no expectation, but I would make movies every day.
At AFI, you make three cycle films your first year, and then you make a thesis film your second year, and I watched Darren Aronofsky's cycle films and was blown away - there was a young Lucy Liu, who was just part of that generation. And I just wanted to be part of that tradition.
When I was 17, I grew from being something like 5'2'' to 6 foot - I grew a lot - and I don't remember growing... I feel like the same thing is true of writing. You're waiting for Santa Claus to come down the chimney, but you just fall asleep at some point, and then the magic happens.
A film set is all about hierarchy, but I always like to think about the circus. In the circus, there's this real sense of tribalism, and they're all on the road together. I don't think the ring leader is more important than the clown. They all work together, and I think that I felt that on 'The East.'
I remember being a kid, I was a little kid when my dad took me to 'Munchausen.' I guess he took my whole family, but I kind of didn't want to go for some reason. Then we got there, and I was so mesmerized by the movie, and I was really taken by the young Sarah Polley. I didn't realize until many, many years later that it was Sarah Polley.
We're not trying to form a new religion. I think that all the powerful religions are pretty much the same. People like to pretend they are very different, but they are not. They are really about believing in something bigger than yourself, something that's unseen, and about having some faith. That's not such a bad thing to have in the world.
The California tract houses are like the mundane meeting the mystical. Sometimes if you're driving at twilight, and you see those houses, and they're starting to light up, there's something so beautiful, so ethereal about the fact that they're all pretty similar, set against this desert landscape and the light just hitting them a certain way.
It's very important for us because we are viewers, first and foremost. We view more than we make. For us, it's important that the viewing experience is fun and thrilling and exciting and fresh and different. Those are our goals when we are writing something. When you watch it in the theatre, which I hope you will, how will you have the best experience possible? That's really important to us, and is the most thrilling.
For us, time travel is synonymous for the belief in all the things that are not seen, and also for the most outlandish claim that you could possibly make. To say that you're a time traveler is weirder than saying you're an alien. It's really strange to sit down in a basement and be face-to-face with someone who claims to be a real time traveler. So, for us, it was about the nuts and bolts of what it would be like, if you were face-to-face with someone who claimed to be from the future.