Iratefilms was fortunate enough to meet with director Adam Del Deo, co-director and producer of the recently released, Every Little Step.  This film explores the dramatic impact A Chorus Line has had on generations of artists and follows the auditions and lives of several aspiring cast members of the 2006 revival.

We met Adam at the Shore Club in South Beach to find out more about his process and how he enjoyed making this film.

Aceman: Why did you make this documentary?

ADD:  We were granted exclusive access to the original interviews by Michael Bennett’s estate, the iconic nature of A Chorus Line was compelling material, to be able to examine the hopes and dreams of dancers struggling to make it to Broadway.  We tried to mirror the original concept, following the lives of the dancers in a more direct fashion.

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Read Iratefilms.com’s interview with Writer/Director Greg Mottola here.

It’s the summer of 1987, and James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) is looking forward to spending it touring Europe. His dreams are quickly dashed when he finds out his parents (Wendie Malick and Jack Gilpin) can no longer help him afford his trip or assist him in his future plans for grad school at Columbia. Sadly, this translates into James getting the only job he’s qualified for…at Adventureland.

I really expected more from this film. The credit for that goes to the guy editing the trailer. From the trailer, the film looks like it’s full of the funny, however, Adventureland does not deliver. All the hilarity is already represented in the two minute clip.

This is director Greg Mottola’s next effort after Superbad, except he decided to write it as well. Maybe he hoped Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg left some humor in the tank for him. Unfortunately, the tank was empty. All that was left inside was a contrived love triangle and boring characters – and he ran with it. The acting in Adventureland wasn’t bad, but the chemistry between all the actors were horrible except for Bill Hader (Manager Bobby) and Kristen Wiig (Paulette). They worked very well on screen together.

Do yourself a favor, if you’ve watched the trailer, leave it at that. Spend your money on better flicks, like Fast and Furious or Monsters vs. Aliens.

 

Jump.

Yes, you read correctly – Phoebe in Wonderland. Not to be confused with another girl named Alice. From the beginning, I was expecting it to be some twisted bastardization or re-imagining of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but was delighted it was not. Instead, we are introduced to a young girl named Phoebe Lichten (Elle Fanning – yes, Dakota’s sister) who has no compunction about questioning school rules about proper question asking etiquette every year she attends. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Soon enough you find that Phoebe is very different from most of the other children in her school – a trait her mother Hillary Lichten (Felicity Huffman) finds endearing enough to nurture and fight tooth and nail for. Phoebe’s behavioral differences, however, soon become problems for teachers and students alike and when there doesn’t seem to be any answer for it, enter the new, if not a bit eccentric, drama teacher, Ms. Dodger (Patricia Clarkson), who is recruiting for the school’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Phoebe’s behavior problems all but disappear while rehearsing for the play as the lead, Alice.

I found myself rather enjoying this film. Elle Fanning was stellar as Phoebe and made me think that there’s something in the Fanning gene pool that produces solid acting talent. Felicity Huffman made me believe that Mrs. Lichten’s love for her daughter was pure and unconditional. The way Mrs. Lichten deals with the shrink’s assessment is probably not much different from many parents today, and I felt in total agreement throughout. When you find out what’s at the root of  Phoebe’s behavioral problems, it’s easier to understand why she’s the way she is, and why she’s able to control herself in the confines of Miss Dodger’s tutelage. I want to mention Bill Pullman, who played Peter Lichten, but his role in the story was unremarkable, though his acting was solid enough as the slightly detached and busy father. Don’t be fooled, Phoebe in Wonderland was about the dynamic between the mother, teacher and child and the trio of Huffman, Clarkson, and Fanning pulled it off beautifully.

Catch this one if you can. It’s limited in its showing and only Cocowalk in Miami is hosting it down in the tip of Florida. Also, catch Rick Swift interviewing Miss Dodger herself, Patricia Clarkson!
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Click the image below for the .wav file of the interview, it may take awhile to load, but hopefully it will be worth it.

iRateFilms had the chance to sit down with two supporting actors from Twilight this weekend. Edi Gathegi, starring as Laurent, the nomadic vampire with panache and lethal class and Taylor Lautner, who steps into the pawprints of lycanthrope Jacob Black joined us at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami. 

Edi Gathegi was a fountain of behind the scenes knowledge as he explained how he prepared for his vampire role.  “Stephenie Meyer did a great job of really setting this world up and justifying all the ways that vampires could truly exist in our world and one of the things that I considered was that a vampire doesn’t have blood flowing through their body, they don’t sleep or eat, and live forever, so when you think about it a vampire doesn’t even have to blink, like every human effort is a thought out thing. ”

He went on to describe how his counterpart vampire rivals, the Cullens, had to study humans in order to know what to do, but for Laurent, a traditional vampire, “everything was effortless, and the more still I could be, the more vampire I became, every move was intentional and deliberate.”

When asked what one thing he would choose to feast on solely to survive, Edi replied without hesitation, with a youthful exuberance, “Ice Cream.”  Taylor Lautner chimed in on his right, “Jessica Alba”, which earned a round of laughs. 

Taylor said he had to give up one of his passions, football, last year because he was missing too many practices, and you could see he really was upset about losing that side of his life, by his enthusiastic description of the positions he played, “running back, slot receiver and strong safety on D,” you could feel the 16 year old in him wanting to strap on some pads and just be the high school football stud again.

But now he is Jacob Black, best friend to Bella Swan, as he describes his werewolf role as challenging and enjoys the duality of the character.  Still, you can tell by his attitude and acceptance of the industry that he is going to be around for a long time.  He hopes to work with Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg in the future, as he “looks up to their careers” and enjoys action movies.  Of course Taylor lists Jessica Alba as choice numero uno for female leads.  Gathegi could think of many actors, but Daniel Day Lewis was the first one to come to mind when asked who he would prefer to work with in the future.

Both young actors wanted to give strong thanks to the support they have received from the Twilight fans, and specifically the Twilight moms, as they feel the Twilight moms are as big a fan base as the tweens so oft pictured in my mind before hearing about Twilight.  It was news to me that four of the books have been on the NYTs best seller list for a combined 91 weeks; I have been following HBO’s True Blood and felt that Twilight was more an adolescent affair, even Lautner said he hadn’t heard of the books prior to auditioning, but after his audition, his manager told him, this is gonna be a big thing.

I think I would have to agree, Gathegi said the same thing when asked if he had read the novels, and he is now a self-proclaimed Twi-guy and was really excited about working with Director Catherine Hardwicke and author Stephenie Meyer.  What really intrigues me about the whole Twilight phenomenon is that Stephenie Meyer was just an ordinary mom, with an extraordinary imagination.  She took an idea that was taken from an unfinished dream where she woke up wanting to “know how it ended”  and has created what will probably be the biggest movie legend for this new generation.

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