The Denver District Attorney’s Office have dropped all charges against Royal Trux’s Neil Hagerty over an alleged assault of a Denver police officer.
According to The Denver Post, Hagerty, 58, had his charges wiped away after completing a year of mental health treatment. Hagerty was initially arrested following an altercation with police outside a Denver apartment complex in April 2023. The officers were allegedly responding to a welfare check called for Hagerty. He was charged with three felonies for allegedly trying to rip off an officer’s badge, using the badge’s pin to try and cut an officer’s neck, and attempting to pull an officer’s gun from his holster. All three officers involved in the altercation were released from the hospital.
Hagerty’s attorney said in a statement that the musician was suffering from a mental health crisis during the incident. “After a year of intense mental health treatment,...
According to The Denver Post, Hagerty, 58, had his charges wiped away after completing a year of mental health treatment. Hagerty was initially arrested following an altercation with police outside a Denver apartment complex in April 2023. The officers were allegedly responding to a welfare check called for Hagerty. He was charged with three felonies for allegedly trying to rip off an officer’s badge, using the badge’s pin to try and cut an officer’s neck, and attempting to pull an officer’s gun from his holster. All three officers involved in the altercation were released from the hospital.
Hagerty’s attorney said in a statement that the musician was suffering from a mental health crisis during the incident. “After a year of intense mental health treatment,...
- 3/19/2024
- by Paolo Ragusa
- Consequence - Music
This article contains spoilers for "Drive-Away Dolls."
When the trailer for Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen's "Drive-Away Dolls" (read our review here) was first released, folks quickly caught a blink-and-you'll-miss-her appearance of a young hippie woman covered in psychedelic filters played by actress and Grammy award-winning musician, Miley Cyrus. "Drive-Away Dolls" takes place in 1999, so what the hell is up with this lava lamp in the summer of love-looking character? Cyrus' character pops up a few times throughout the film, leading up to the reveal that republican senator Gary Channell (Matt Damon) knew this mysterious acid-tripper in his younger years, and if the public ever learned of their encounter, it would destroy his conservative political career — alluding to a possible presidential candidacy in the near future. What could Gary Channell have done that's so shocking? The answer is not only the key to Cyrus' character but also solves the...
When the trailer for Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen's "Drive-Away Dolls" (read our review here) was first released, folks quickly caught a blink-and-you'll-miss-her appearance of a young hippie woman covered in psychedelic filters played by actress and Grammy award-winning musician, Miley Cyrus. "Drive-Away Dolls" takes place in 1999, so what the hell is up with this lava lamp in the summer of love-looking character? Cyrus' character pops up a few times throughout the film, leading up to the reveal that republican senator Gary Channell (Matt Damon) knew this mysterious acid-tripper in his younger years, and if the public ever learned of their encounter, it would destroy his conservative political career — alluding to a possible presidential candidacy in the near future. What could Gary Channell have done that's so shocking? The answer is not only the key to Cyrus' character but also solves the...
- 2/23/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Since it debuted on Netflix in early October, the Benicio Del Toro-starring "Reptile" has consistently been one of the top 10 most-watched titles on the streaming platform. The film is the feature debut of director Grant Singer, who cut his teeth directing music videos for artists like The Weeknd, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Ariel Pink, and Skrillex. "I think the movie will be exciting to people who like to watch something where you don't know where it's leading you, where a film is going to have twists and turns and deceive you," Singer said in the film's press release. "And people who like things that are intense and visceral and suspenseful, I think they'll find something exciting in this." Here's the film's official synopsis:
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover the truth in a case...
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover the truth in a case...
- 10/15/2023
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at Sam Smith's How Do You Sleep?, directed by Grant Singer. Grant Singer made his feature debut with Reptile, recently released on Netflix, but to music video connoisseurs he has been an exciting name for well over ten years. Since storming on to the scene with a few music videos for Sky Ferreira and Travi$ Scott, if you wanted to look effortlessly cool you called Grant Singer. He worked with everyone who was hip and happening, like Ariel Pink, Skrillex, Ariana Grande, Lorde, Troye Sivan and The Weeknd, and excelled at a certain style of video that was earlier perfected by David Fincher, which...
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- 10/9/2023
- Screen Anarchy
If you don't know the name Grant Singer, chances are you're familiar with his work as a music video and commercial director. Singer has been behind some of the most visually striking videos of the past few years and has worked with artists such as The Weeknd, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Ariel Pink, and Skrillex. Now, Singer is following in the footsteps of filmmakers like Michael Bay, David Fincher, Gus Van Sant, McG, Joseph Kahn, Daniels, and Spike Jonze by delivering his first narrative feature. With a star-studded cast and a compelling story, Singer's new Netflix thriller looks and sounds like a refreshing addition to the streaming juggernaut's library of original projects. Check out the film's official synopsis below:
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems,...
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems,...
- 8/21/2023
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Oscar-nominated producer Bill Pohlad has a long history of aligning himself with auteurs on award-winning fare—from Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain to Terrence Malick on the Palme d’Or winning The Tree of Life to Steve McQueen’s Oscar Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave, and getting financially behind them with his River Road Entertainment banner. We talk with Pohlad on Crew Call today about his third career feature as director, Dreamin’ Wild, based on the New York Times Steven Kurutz article about the Fruitland, Wa-based Emerson brothers whose dad literally bet the farm (mortgaging it to the tune of $100K) on the duo’s singing talents in the 1970s, and built them a studio. They didn’t make it initially — not until 2008 when the album they made some near 40 years prior, “Dreamin’ Wild,” was discovered by a record collector in Spokane, Jack Fleischer, and championed fervently. The...
- 8/9/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Success sometimes happens on its own timeline, and for brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson, it took nearly 30 years to materialize. The Emerson brothers are the subject of the movie "Dreamin' Wild," which premiered on Aug. 4 and stars Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe, and Zooey Deschanel. It recounts the true story of a pair of brothers who created a musical masterpiece, only for it to slip into obscurity until it was picked up by chance and given a second life.
The Emersons grew up in the rural town of Fruitland, Wa, which has a population of just 751. The brothers became interested in music when their father purchased a tractor that came with a radio, and soon the boys started writing songs. "I would just contemplate being in those tracks, you know? I couldn't get my head out of it," Donnie told The Guardian in 2014 of that first radio. "I grew up with...
The Emersons grew up in the rural town of Fruitland, Wa, which has a population of just 751. The brothers became interested in music when their father purchased a tractor that came with a radio, and soon the boys started writing songs. "I would just contemplate being in those tracks, you know? I couldn't get my head out of it," Donnie told The Guardian in 2014 of that first radio. "I grew up with...
- 8/5/2023
- by Eden Arielle Gordon
- Popsugar.com
“Love & Mercy” director Bill Pohlad is back with another offbeat musician biopic called “Dreamin’ Wild,” which was just acquired by Roadside Pictures (who also released “Love & Mercy”).
This time around Pohland is charting the life of Donnie and Joe Emerson, who recorded an album called “Dreamin’ Wild” in the late 1970s at a state-of-the-art studio built by their father on the family’s 1600-acre farm in rural Washington. The album didn’t do anything and Donnie embarked on an equally obscure solo career. But in 2012, the album was rediscovered as a lost classic and re-released by hip Seattle-based record label Light in the Attic Records. (Ariel Pink also covered a song from the album around that time.)
“While the album’s rediscovery brings hopes of second chances, it also brings long-buried emotions as Donnie, his wife Nancy, brother Joe, and father Don Sr. come to terms with the...
This time around Pohland is charting the life of Donnie and Joe Emerson, who recorded an album called “Dreamin’ Wild” in the late 1970s at a state-of-the-art studio built by their father on the family’s 1600-acre farm in rural Washington. The album didn’t do anything and Donnie embarked on an equally obscure solo career. But in 2012, the album was rediscovered as a lost classic and re-released by hip Seattle-based record label Light in the Attic Records. (Ariel Pink also covered a song from the album around that time.)
“While the album’s rediscovery brings hopes of second chances, it also brings long-buried emotions as Donnie, his wife Nancy, brother Joe, and father Don Sr. come to terms with the...
- 3/30/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
Theophilus London, a rapper who has worked with the likes of Kanye West, Ariel Pink and Tame Impala, has been reported missing by his friends and family who say they cannot be sure anyone has spoken to him since the summer.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to The Independent that a missing person report had been taken by detectives this week.
Social media accounts of the 35-year-old rapper, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, were last active in July.
“I can confirm that we have taken a report about him today,” said spokesperson Annie Moran. As of Wednesday, London was not yet listed on the LAPD's online missing persons database by Wednesday.
A statement released by his agents, the Secretly Group, said: “Over the last few weeks, friends and family of Theophilus London have been working together to piece together his whereabouts. The last...
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to The Independent that a missing person report had been taken by detectives this week.
Social media accounts of the 35-year-old rapper, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, were last active in July.
“I can confirm that we have taken a report about him today,” said spokesperson Annie Moran. As of Wednesday, London was not yet listed on the LAPD's online missing persons database by Wednesday.
A statement released by his agents, the Secretly Group, said: “Over the last few weeks, friends and family of Theophilus London have been working together to piece together his whereabouts. The last...
- 12/29/2022
- by Andrew Buncombe
- The Independent - Music
Rapper Theophilus London has been reported missing. The family of the 35-year-old rapper filed a missing persons report with the Los Angeles Police Department, Rolling Stone has confirmed. Family and friends of Theophilus say the 35-year-old rapper hasn’t been seen or contacted since July 2022.
Independent record label company Secretly Group issued a statement on Wednesday (Dec. 28) stating the missing person’s report was filed on Dec. 27 after London’s family members traveled to Los Angeles, the last place he was known to have been seen.
“Over the last few weeks,...
Independent record label company Secretly Group issued a statement on Wednesday (Dec. 28) stating the missing person’s report was filed on Dec. 27 after London’s family members traveled to Los Angeles, the last place he was known to have been seen.
“Over the last few weeks,...
- 12/28/2022
- by Larisha Paul
- Rollingstone.com
The past year has been a real “what the fuck” era in the music industry: Grimes has a baby with Elon Musk that they named X Æ A-12; Ariel Pink is a QAnon guy; Taylor Swift released two “indie” albums. Now an unborn baby made an album, aptly titled Sounds Of The Unborn. We’ve truly seen it all.
- 2/3/2021
- by Tatiana Tenreyro on News, shared by Tatiana Tenreyro to The A.V. Club
- avclub.com
After Ariel Pink was dropped from Mexican Summer following his attendance at the Trump rally that turned into the Capitol Hill riot last week, indie pop connoisseur Tucker Carlson decided Pink’s setback was “a moment that tells you a lot about where we are and where we’re going.” To get to the bottom of this, Carlson,…...
- 1/15/2021
- by Reid McCarter on News, shared by Reid McCarter to The A.V. Club
- avclub.com
Indie-rock artist Ariel Pink, who came under fire and was dropped by his label after controversy arose over his support for Donald J. Trump, went on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday night to answer the host’s questions about being “stripped of his livelihood,” telling Carlson he is “destitute” as a result of cancel culture.
In response to Carlson’s statement that Pink is “a recording artist who can’t record,” Pink said, “I can’t tour either at this point. So it pretty much leaves me destitute and on the street. I’m sort of overwhelmed right now and I don’t know exactly what to do.”
“You’re taking a huge risk coming on this show,” Carlson said, an implicit acknowledgement that receiving the support of the conservative host may not improve his battered status in his musical community. “Why are you doing it?”
“I don’t have any other recourse,...
In response to Carlson’s statement that Pink is “a recording artist who can’t record,” Pink said, “I can’t tour either at this point. So it pretty much leaves me destitute and on the street. I’m sort of overwhelmed right now and I don’t know exactly what to do.”
“You’re taking a huge risk coming on this show,” Carlson said, an implicit acknowledgement that receiving the support of the conservative host may not improve his battered status in his musical community. “Why are you doing it?”
“I don’t have any other recourse,...
- 1/15/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
Record label Mexican Summer has cut ties with Ariel Pink after the indie musician drew criticism for attending the pro-Trump rally in Washington D.C. earlier this week.
“Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg Aka Ariel Pink moving forward,” Mexican Summer tweeted Friday.
Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg Aka Ariel Pink moving forward.
— Mexican Summer (@MexicanSummer) January 8, 2021
The label had released Pink’s most recent album,...
“Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg Aka Ariel Pink moving forward,” Mexican Summer tweeted Friday.
Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg Aka Ariel Pink moving forward.
— Mexican Summer (@MexicanSummer) January 8, 2021
The label had released Pink’s most recent album,...
- 1/9/2021
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Ariel Pink issued a surfy, previously unreleased cover of “She’s Gone,” the 1965 single from garage-rock act the Dovers.
“She treats me bad, but I still need her / She makes me sad, but I still love her,” Pink sings over rippling guitars through the lo-fi haze. “But now she’s gone and I’m alone.”
The track — previously unheard, barring a few early live recordings — will make its official debut on Sit n’ Spin, one of four archival sets capping off the songwriter’s ongoing reissue project. Cycle 3 (Odditties Sodomies Vol.
“She treats me bad, but I still need her / She makes me sad, but I still love her,” Pink sings over rippling guitars through the lo-fi haze. “But now she’s gone and I’m alone.”
The track — previously unheard, barring a few early live recordings — will make its official debut on Sit n’ Spin, one of four archival sets capping off the songwriter’s ongoing reissue project. Cycle 3 (Odditties Sodomies Vol.
- 11/17/2020
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
Billy Jones has been stuck in Los Angeles for three months. In February, the New York booker and promoter went west to break ground on a second outpost for Baby’s All Right, his beloved Brooklyn indie venue that has hosted acts like Beach House, Ariel Pink, and Girlpool. Jones was in L.A. on March 12th when he learned that New York restaurants, bars, and venues were shutting down due to the spread of Covid-19.
“I was actually in the air the night [before], when Tom Hanks’ [coronavirus diagnosis] and the European travel ban occurred,...
“I was actually in the air the night [before], when Tom Hanks’ [coronavirus diagnosis] and the European travel ban occurred,...
- 7/1/2020
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
At the start of April, SXSW and Amazon announced that films from this year’s canceled SXSW would stream for free on Prime Video, giving some filmmakers the opportunity to get their projects seen by Us audiences after the Covid-19 pandemic nixed plans for the annual festival, and now the full lineup has been confirmed.
Only a small section of filmmakers who were set to debut their titles at SXSW have taken Amazon up on its streaming offer, but 39 projects will be available to watch from April 27 to May 6.
“This is really an unprecedented time. People are waiting for the new normal. And others are waiting for the return to normal,” SXSW director of film Janet Pierson remarked to THR. “We’re just trying to make best of a complicated situation. And this was a concrete and exciting offer from Amazon to give a wider swath of filmmakers an opportunity...
Only a small section of filmmakers who were set to debut their titles at SXSW have taken Amazon up on its streaming offer, but 39 projects will be available to watch from April 27 to May 6.
“This is really an unprecedented time. People are waiting for the new normal. And others are waiting for the return to normal,” SXSW director of film Janet Pierson remarked to THR. “We’re just trying to make best of a complicated situation. And this was a concrete and exciting offer from Amazon to give a wider swath of filmmakers an opportunity...
- 4/22/2020
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
Tim Burgess is on Twitter a lot, even when there’s not a global pandemic that’s keeping him and everyone else indoors. The lead vocalist of British alt band the Charlatans spends an inordinate amount of time on the social platform, tweeting dozens of times a day on just about everything — promoting his new solo album, daily updates on his life at home, and of course, what music he’s been listening to.
Recently, though, the musician’s Twitter has been transformed into a calendar and promotional tool for Tim’s Twitter Listening Party,...
Recently, though, the musician’s Twitter has been transformed into a calendar and promotional tool for Tim’s Twitter Listening Party,...
- 4/15/2020
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
The Strokes, Robyn, Wu-Tang Clan and Disclosure lead the 2020 lineup for the III Points Festival in Miami, Florida, which will be held May 1st and 2nd at Mana Wynwood in the Wynwood Arts District.
The art, technology and music festival announced its eclectic, forward-thinking dance music and indie rock lineup on Tuesday. It includes Kaytranada, Caribou, Stereolab, Amon Tobin, Chris Lake, Tycho, Green Velvet, Homeshake, Bedouin, Omar Apollo, Moses Sumney, Ariel Pink and 100 Gecs alongside dozens of additional artists, with more acts to be announced in the coming weeks.
Online...
The art, technology and music festival announced its eclectic, forward-thinking dance music and indie rock lineup on Tuesday. It includes Kaytranada, Caribou, Stereolab, Amon Tobin, Chris Lake, Tycho, Green Velvet, Homeshake, Bedouin, Omar Apollo, Moses Sumney, Ariel Pink and 100 Gecs alongside dozens of additional artists, with more acts to be announced in the coming weeks.
Online...
- 1/22/2020
- by Althea Legaspi
- Rollingstone.com
Kim Gordon unveiled the bruising new single, “Sketch Artist,” from her debut solo album No Home Record, set to arrive October 11th via Matador.
The former Sonic Youth member also sahred a video for “Sketch Artist,” directed by the Berlin-based experimental filmmaker Loretta Fahrenholz. In the clip, Gordon plays a driver for a ride share app called “Unter,” and as she drives passengers — including Broad City star Abbi Jacobson — around nighttime Los Angeles, her cold stare shocks pedestrians on the street into dancing fits.
No Home Record — whose title alludes...
The former Sonic Youth member also sahred a video for “Sketch Artist,” directed by the Berlin-based experimental filmmaker Loretta Fahrenholz. In the clip, Gordon plays a driver for a ride share app called “Unter,” and as she drives passengers — including Broad City star Abbi Jacobson — around nighttime Los Angeles, her cold stare shocks pedestrians on the street into dancing fits.
No Home Record — whose title alludes...
- 8/20/2019
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
Everybody Works, the 2017 debut album from Jay Som (a.k.a. singer-songwriter Melina Mae Duterte) was “bedroom-pop” that made her own private world seem like a expansive biosphere, fusing influences from Ariel Pink-style L.A. chillwave to Carly Rae Jepsen-aware Eighties-loving bubblegum, confessional indie-rock to yacht-y Eighties R&B. The songs were immediately catchy, though they often unfurled their mysteries in the slow deliberate logic of a dream being realized or a vague impulse coming into bright focus. “Take time to figure it out,” she sang on the...
- 6/4/2019
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
Each week, Spotify’s Under Cover podcast features artists who record covers of songs and discuss their decision to do so. The covers artists choose are typically big hits—from Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” to Johnny Cash’s famous cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt.” So it was a surprise when indie rock band Hippo Campus decided to cover a song that had spent the last three decades virtually unknown.
Donnie and Joe Emerson—two teenage brothers living on a farm in Fruitland, Washington—recorded their album...
Donnie and Joe Emerson—two teenage brothers living on a farm in Fruitland, Washington—recorded their album...
- 5/31/2019
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Lana Del Rey has defended her decision to perform at Israel’s Meteor Festival on Friday, Sept. 7. On August 19, the singer wrote, “I believe music is universal and should be used to bring us together. … Performing in Tel Aviv is not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there just like singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment w my current governments opinions or sometimes inhuman actions.”
Western artists who perform in Israel often face protests and social media criticism from believers of the Bds movement, which calls for “boycott, divestment and sanctions” against the country. Among the most vocal proponents of the stance is Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters.
Seizing the opportunity to reflect on America’s own government, in the wake of comments made by Trump’s lead attorney in the Mueller investigation, Rudy Guiliani, that “truth isn’t truth,” Del...
Western artists who perform in Israel often face protests and social media criticism from believers of the Bds movement, which calls for “boycott, divestment and sanctions” against the country. Among the most vocal proponents of the stance is Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters.
Seizing the opportunity to reflect on America’s own government, in the wake of comments made by Trump’s lead attorney in the Mueller investigation, Rudy Guiliani, that “truth isn’t truth,” Del...
- 8/19/2018
- by Shirley Halperin
- Variety Film + TV
Lana Del Rey will perform in Israel for the first time, Variety has learned. The singer has been added as a headliner for the inaugural Meteor Festival, set to take place at Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan, outside of Tiberias in the upper Galilee region of Israel, from Sept. 6 through 8. An announcement of her addition to the bill is expected in the coming days, as the Meteor website hints.
Some 15,000 attendees are set to gather in Pecan Park for the festival. Among the 50-plus acts on the lineup are Asap Ferg, Pusha T, Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, Of Montreal, Ariel Pink and Rhye in addition to local artists like Noga Erez, Balkan Beat Box, Geva Alon and Hadag Nahash. Del Rey is slotted to perform on Friday night, Sept. 7.
The brainchild of Eran Arielli, whose Tel Aviv-based concert promotion company Naranjah is responsible for bringing scores of beloved Western indie bands to...
Some 15,000 attendees are set to gather in Pecan Park for the festival. Among the 50-plus acts on the lineup are Asap Ferg, Pusha T, Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, Of Montreal, Ariel Pink and Rhye in addition to local artists like Noga Erez, Balkan Beat Box, Geva Alon and Hadag Nahash. Del Rey is slotted to perform on Friday night, Sept. 7.
The brainchild of Eran Arielli, whose Tel Aviv-based concert promotion company Naranjah is responsible for bringing scores of beloved Western indie bands to...
- 8/17/2018
- by Shirley Halperin
- Variety Film + TV
British producer Ross From Friends took the hype machine by storm last year with his brand of “lo-fi house” – a waterlogged take on dance music that’s chill, wistful, strange, insular and fun. Unlike the harsher, grimier works on outsider labels like Opal Tapes and L.I.E.S., Rff worked more like the dance music equivalent of Ariel Pink or Mac DeMarco: never pretending pop bliss needs to be equated with high production values.
However, beyond a few hypnogogic parts – most notably a lo-fi-to-hi-fi fakeout in the first...
However, beyond a few hypnogogic parts – most notably a lo-fi-to-hi-fi fakeout in the first...
- 7/30/2018
- by Christopher R. Weingarten
- Rollingstone.com
Punk’s not dead, but it is about to get murdered. At least that’s the premise of New Wave anti-biopic “The Icarus Line Must Die,” directed by Michael Grodner in his feature debut.
The story follows Joe Cardamone, infamous frontman of post-hardcore band The Icarus Line, in a black-and-white Jim Jarmusch-esque light thriller, as he navigates Los Angeles, haunted by an anonymous texter threatening to kill him. Based on Cardamone’s real life as a musician and producer, the film illuminates the lives of the artists who’ve been slogging in the clubs, trying to do the impossible — get signed to a major label — even as they lament that they need the majors in the first place. It’s an age-old story about the corruptibility of art under capitalism.
What sets Grodner’s story apart is its intense focus on specific people in the scene who are emblematic...
The story follows Joe Cardamone, infamous frontman of post-hardcore band The Icarus Line, in a black-and-white Jim Jarmusch-esque light thriller, as he navigates Los Angeles, haunted by an anonymous texter threatening to kill him. Based on Cardamone’s real life as a musician and producer, the film illuminates the lives of the artists who’ve been slogging in the clubs, trying to do the impossible — get signed to a major label — even as they lament that they need the majors in the first place. It’s an age-old story about the corruptibility of art under capitalism.
What sets Grodner’s story apart is its intense focus on specific people in the scene who are emblematic...
- 6/21/2018
- by April Wolfe
- The Wrap
Exclusive: The Icarus Line, the infamous La-based punk rock band fronted by Joe Cardamone, are heading to the silver screen after Dark Star Pictures picked up semi-biopic The Icarus Line Must Die.
The film, a dark dramatic narrative set against the backdrop of the current La underground music scene, will be released theatrically in June 2018 with a July home entertainment release in the U.S.
It tells the story of Cardamone as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape with a new album and a major label deal in sight, while trying to keep his band, his relationship and his life from falling apart.
The Icarus Line were notorious during the early 2000s, touring and tearing up the world with their brand of Birthday Party-style chaos. Picking fights with bands like the Strokes – Cardamone, a member of the Buddyhead collective once spray-painted ‘Sellouts...
The film, a dark dramatic narrative set against the backdrop of the current La underground music scene, will be released theatrically in June 2018 with a July home entertainment release in the U.S.
It tells the story of Cardamone as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape with a new album and a major label deal in sight, while trying to keep his band, his relationship and his life from falling apart.
The Icarus Line were notorious during the early 2000s, touring and tearing up the world with their brand of Birthday Party-style chaos. Picking fights with bands like the Strokes – Cardamone, a member of the Buddyhead collective once spray-painted ‘Sellouts...
- 4/27/2018
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s not hard to see why Ariel Pink would be fascinated with forgotten pop singer—and fellow Los Angeleno—Bobby Jameson. Jameson found minor success in the 1960s, only to see his career derailed by bad business dealings, substance abuse, and mental health issues. He spent much of the ’70s in institutions or living on…
Read more...
Read more...
- 9/15/2017
- by Philip Cosores
- avclub.com
Once upon a time, back in the network’s golden years, MTV would assemble all the stars in the top-40 galaxy for an annual celebration of the very best in music videos. They called it the Video Music Awards — the VMAs, for short. They still do, believe it or not, but the VMAs have come to serve a very different purpose in an age when MTV and C-span air roughly the same number of music videos.
These days, it would be fair to say that the VMAs exist less to celebrate music videos than they do to celebrate MTV itself, to reaffirm the network’s place in the zeitgeist. As a pop spectacle, the VMAs are right up there with the Super Bowl halftime concert. As an awards show, they’re a complete farce (to this day, nobody actually knows how the nominees are selected, and few people even bother...
These days, it would be fair to say that the VMAs exist less to celebrate music videos than they do to celebrate MTV itself, to reaffirm the network’s place in the zeitgeist. As a pop spectacle, the VMAs are right up there with the Super Bowl halftime concert. As an awards show, they’re a complete farce (to this day, nobody actually knows how the nominees are selected, and few people even bother...
- 8/25/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Michael Grodner's The Icarus Line Must Die is set to have its World Premiere when it opens La’s Non Plussed Fest on July 14th. To mark the occasion Screen Anarchy was sent the trailer and a number of images which you may peruse below. You will find more info about the fest and ticket information here. The Icarus Line Must Die is a narrative feature inspired by the No Wave films of the late seventies/early eighties and explores the La underground music scene. The film tracks Joe Cardamone, front man of The Icarus Line, as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape. Ariel Pink, Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks) and Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) are...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/10/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Joe Cardamone knows a thing or two about being in a lauded band with trouble and tragedy to spare. The former frontman of The Icarus Line, once billed by The Guardian as no less than “the greatest rock group of the 21st century,” struck out on his own back in 2015, so it’s only fitting that Michael Grodner’s narrative feature — appropriately titled “The Icarus Line Must Die” — will have its world premiere later this month after first starting filming that same year.
Di”The Icarus Line Must Die” is a narrative feature inspired by the No Wave films of the late ’70s and early ’80s and explores the La underground music scene. The film tracks Cardamone as a veiled version of himself — also a guy named Joe, also the frontman of a band called The Icarus Line — as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape.
Di”The Icarus Line Must Die” is a narrative feature inspired by the No Wave films of the late ’70s and early ’80s and explores the La underground music scene. The film tracks Cardamone as a veiled version of himself — also a guy named Joe, also the frontman of a band called The Icarus Line — as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape.
- 7/6/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music — whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song — can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 35 films that best expressed this notion this year.
From seasoned composers (e.g. Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Carter Burwell, and Michael Giacchino) to accomplished musicians (e.g. Jonny Greenwood and Johnny Jewel), as well as a smattering of soundtracks (e.g. Mistress America, Magic Mike Xxl, and Tangerine), each musical example perfectly transported us to the world of the film. (It’s worth noting that we would include Paul Grimstad...
From seasoned composers (e.g. Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Carter Burwell, and Michael Giacchino) to accomplished musicians (e.g. Jonny Greenwood and Johnny Jewel), as well as a smattering of soundtracks (e.g. Mistress America, Magic Mike Xxl, and Tangerine), each musical example perfectly transported us to the world of the film. (It’s worth noting that we would include Paul Grimstad...
- 12/28/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The story of how the directorial brothers Benny and Joshua Safdie found their muse and star, Arielle Holmes, for their latest feature seems like a shadowy tale from a gritty Craigslist missed connection. After Joshua and their producer Sebastian Bear-McClard spotted her on a subway platform while working undercover for research on an abandoned genre film, they approached her. A subsequent series of no call, no shows seemed like a dead end, but then Holmes reached out, admitting that she’d been homeless, out of touch and had recently attempted to take her own life and was just recently released from the hospital. Since then, her life has been transformed since Heaven Knows What became a festival hit, winning the C.I.C.A.E. Award in Venice and the Tokyo Grand Prix and Best Director prizes at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Riding a wave of critical acclaim despite its white knuckled edge,...
- 9/15/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
After hosting the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards Miley Cyrus released a video for the song that closed the show, "Dooo It!" Oh, wait. That's not all. Cyrus actually released an entire album entitled "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz" which contains 23 new songs. It's currently not available for purchase, but can be streamed on soundcloud and her official website. At this point, it seems as though Cyrus is releasing the album for free. An introspective work inspired by the passing of her favorite dog, 10 of the album's tracks were either co-written or produced by The Flaming Lips. In an interview with the New York Times, Cyrus credits Flames frontman Wayne Coyne as being her artistic mentor on the album. The release is an exercise in Cyrus' artistic freedom and isn't part of her contract with RCA Records. As she told the Times, "This music was not meant to be a rebellion,...
- 8/31/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
That song Miley closed out the VMAs with? It's part of a surprise new album with the Flaming Lips, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, which she just dropped for free, and you can stream it both on her website and below. It features Big Sean, Ariel Pink, her faithful producer Mike Will Made-It, her dad Billy Ray Cyrus, and more. And she's already got a vibrant video for its trap-heavy first single, "Dooo It!": Here's her VMAs performance, featuring several former RuPaul's Drag Race contestants (like most recent winner Violet Chachki), as well as Flaming Lips leader Wayne Coyne: And her accidental (?) boob-slip (obviously Nsfw): Until next year!
- 8/31/2015
- by Dee Lockett
- Vulture
Hopefully, you've had a few minutes to play around with our Fall Entertainment Generator. But if you’re looking for straight and simple lists of things to look out for by medium, we’ll be breaking them out separately. Here's a look at fall music.September 9/4Dam-Funk, Invite the LightThe 21st-century champion of G-funk convenes a wide spectrum of Los Angeles pop royalty on this record, with guest turns from Snoop Dogg, Flea, and Ariel Pink. Lou Barlow, Brace the WaveThe Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh co-founder announced this solo album only in July, after recording its nine tracks in six days. Per a YouTube trailer, it was made “without drums, without regrets.” Public Image Ltd, What the World Needs NowThese days, John Lydon (né Rotten) happily trades on a cartoon version of his image to make some scratch in TV commercials; that doesn’t mean he’s lost his taste for cartoonishly abrasive punk,...
- 8/25/2015
- by Alex Yablon
- Vulture
From the streets to the screen, the unbelievable story of Arielle Holmes is a fascinating example of the rare occurrence when cinema and reality blend almost unnoticeably. New York-based filmmaker duo Josh and Benny Safdie followed Holmes story from her days as a heroin addict living destructively to her film debut starring as a version of herself in a film based on a book she wrote about those very experiences. To call it a miraculous story would be to minimize it, because it's even more improbable than it sounds. Once again, reality overpowers fiction.
Enthralled by Holmes, the Safdie brothers decided to make a film about her life and have her star in it, a choice that might seem risky for some but that felt absolutely correct for the filmmaking team. The result is “Heaven Knows What” an exquisitely raw and ferociously truthful film about people lost in a corrosive lifestyle. Drug addiction and emotional dependency go hand in hand as Harley (Arielle Holmes) tries to regain her boyfriend’s love while finding ways to support her habit and stay alive. Humanizing their characters while never condoning or passing judgment, the directors explore the realities of their lives with a documentary-like visual style that is as vivid as it is heart-wrenching.
An accomplishment both in technique and emotional power, “Heaven Knows What” is an eye-opening experience brimming with unflinching truth. We had the chance to talk to the Safdie team about their latest film and how they manage to put so much of the real world into each frame.
Aguilar: Arielle Holmes is evidently the driving force of this incredibly truthful and bold project. At what point in her journey did you meet her? How did you find her and her story and decided to make a film about it?
Josh Safdie: I found Arielle, that’s what happened really. I was doing research in the Diamond District. I was there for like a year and a half and I thought I knew every person who was a part of the fabric of that street, which is 47th between 5th and 6th, in Manhattan, New York.
One day at the end of the workday I went to the subway with my producer Sebastian Bear-McClard and saw Arielle. When I saw her she was dressed in a really nice dress, which I later found out she spent all of her money on, and she appeared clean because she’d washed herself in a public bathroom that morning. She woke up that morning on the steps of a Buddhist church.
At the time she paid for her habit and for her dress moonlighting as a dominatrix at a place called Pandora’s box. I knew none of this when I met her, all I knew was this was a beautiful girl who had real composure to her and who had a real star quality to her. I wanted to try to find a way to put her in this other movie we were trying to do, but when I met up with her to get to know her better, I soon realized that she had a very different life.
It was the one you see in the film, and we didn’t agree to make this movie until months later. I knew her when she attempted to kill herself, it happened in the time span of me getting to know her. I was just trying to hook her up with other jobs and just be her friend, and I eventfully asked her to start writing about her life. I directed the writing and I paid for it. The book is pretty special, she wrote most of it in Apple stores.
Aguilar: Once you were so invested in her story, was it a logical step to have her star in the film?
Benny Safdie: It was logical
Josh Safdie: Yes, we wanted to make the movie because of her.
Aguilar: Did you have any concerns about the fact that she probably had never acted before?
Josh Safdie: No. Never. That’s not unusual for us. She was a star, we just needed to figure out a way to work with her star quality and find her greatest strengths during the rehearsal period. We put her on camera a lot before we started filming to see how she acted with the camera. We actually found that the more regimen we gave her the better she was. If we just turned on the camera and have her improvise it was Ok, but she needed the structure of a script to be even better.
Benny Safdie: She wanted to take her own emotions to another level.
Aguilar: She is incredible in the film. Is this perhaps her first film of many to come?
Josh Safdie: She did another film in the wintertime, a Sci-Fi, and right now she is acting in another one, a big one.
Aguilar: The rest of the cast is also outstanding. Was there a mix of professionals actors and non-actors? They are all so great is impossible to differentiate.
Josh Safdie: Caleb Landry Jones, who plays Ilya, is an actor. He’s been in “X-Men,” “Byzantium,” “Antiviral,” and others, he is a young Hollywood actor who was introduced to me through one of our casting directors Jennifer Venditti. He was by far the most professional. Then there was Eleonore Hendricks who played a very small role as Erica. Buddy Duress, who played Mike, the dealer, was a real revelation to us. He blew us away with his rawness and his energy. He got arrested the day we finished filming the movie and he was in jail for a year, now he is out and he is in an acting class and he is doing pretty great. He was like a street legend, everyone knew him in the streets, and he’d been in and out of jail his whole life. Oddly enough we had a similar upbringing, so I could have easily made the left when he made the left, instead a made a right, and did what I ended doing. Now I think that he will hopefully make the right. Necro, who plays Skully, is a pretty big underground rapper, who I was a big fan of.
Aguilar: The entire cast disappears completely into their roles. It’s hard to even think these are actors playing a part.
Benny Safdie: The goal is to make it seem like nothing has been done.
Josh Safdie: Testament to the success of the film is when people see the film and think Buddy, playing Mike, is the big professional in the movie. Everyone hears “Oh, there is a big actor in the movie,” because Caleb has a real following, but when people see the movie they think Caleb is the non-professional actor and Buddy is the professional. That’s a real testament to Caleb’s performance as well.
Benny Safdie: It’s a matter of complete immersion into the fabric of that world, and accepting it. At the same it’s also about mixing the professionals and the firs-time actors. We use improvisation as a form of getting the people’s language right. We use it as a tool to get the dialogue perfect. It always sound better when it’s coming from someone’s own voice as opposed to from above, from us. If somebody doesn’t feel comfortable saying it a certain way we change it, and then that makes that person more comfortable.
Aguilar: Surely Arielle’s own experiences informed a lot of your choices. Did she ever come to you and say, “This didn’t happen that way” or “This doesn’t sound right”?
Josh Safdie: That’s funny because when she said that, most of the time it was in accordance to whether or not something happened the way it should have in real life, and we had changed it because it needed to be changed so that somebody watching the movie could feel how she felt. But then that actually helped her because when she started understanding the reasoning behind it and it made her acting even better. She realized, “Ok, I can make myself emotional more extreme to get the point across.”
Aguilar: Shooting a film like this in NYC was probably a great challenge. Did you guys shoot inconspicuously or on the fly to get such a realist and raw visual style?
Josh Safdie: No, it was all very structured because we were shooting a lot of our close-ups from a block away. There was not much freedom to the movements of the actors. Some scenes we did like 13 or 14 takes, sometimes we shot scenes twice. We would shoot them and then we would go back to the same location on another day when we had some free time. We would reshoot the scene if after watching the dailies we felt like it wasn’t quite right.
Benny Safdie: In New York you are not allowed to shoot without a permit if you have a tripod. We pretty much shot the whole movie with tripods or Steadicam, and if you have something like that on the street you need to legally have a permit or you’ll get stopped. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without it, so we had to be very regimented with how we shot just based on the equipment we were using. We had that restriction upon us and for the actors, like Josh said, they had to be on their marks perfectly or else we’d miss it.
Aguilar: The constraints are definitley not noticeable, the city feels and the characters feel completely free.
Josh Safdie: We did not block the sidewalks. we allowed the city to exist as the city, we were just using it to our advantage.
Benny Safdie: At some point you let the city live within the frame and let the actors live on their own within that circle, and it all kind of folds into itself.
Aguilar: Tell me about the film’s structure. The way it starts and the way it ends, it feels like an endless cycle in a sense.
Josh Safdie: That’s the cycle of the lifestyle. You kind of can’t get out of it, it’s almost impossible to get out of it. The reality of that lifestyle is that the two ways out are usually prison or death, or you get cast in a movie and you make that movie [Laughs]. Ariel Pink, a great musician who did a song for the movie and who was also in the film at one point, came to the L.A. premier at AFI Fest, and someone asked him about heroin and his reply was, “ You do heroin and get a movie made out of you.” He said it as a joke because he is a cynical guy, but it’s very rare to get out. Breaks don’t usually come, they are few and far between, and there are a lot of people who are stuck in that lifestyle. It takes a lot of courage to get out of it, and a lot of will power. It’s a trap.
Benny Safdie: It’s a physical addiction to the drug, and then there is the mental addiction to this lifestyle that you think you are living.
Aguilar: It is a lifestyle. Even as chaotic as their lives seem, they do have a certain structure and specific patterns and things they have to do to continue living this way.
Benny Safdie: Exactly, it’s just a different structure. It’s not the one that we follow, but it is a structure. We were just talking about the rent that they have to pay, it's only $15, for the tow of them that’s $30 a night, that’s cheap, that’s nothing. But $30 a night, that’s $900 a month, with that money you can find yourself a pretty descent room.
Josh Safdie: That’s without mentioning their habit, which adds to thousands of dollars a year.
Benny Safdie: And also, who would rent a room to somebody like that? At the same time that’s a lot of money that they are raising, that they are earning by having to get up 8:00 to make sure that they make the morning rush.
Aguilar: The music in the film is something that I really enjoyed and that feels cohesive with the story being told, in particular the ominous track that includes the lyrics, “explore the power of the mind.”
Josh Safdie: That’s funny because there are two pieces of music in the movie that are from Arielle’s life, which her boyfriend, the real Ilya, and Arielle turned me on to. It’s hardstyle music, it’s from a very hardcore electronic scene, and it’s by a very famous DJ called Headhunterz. There is also a big movement in Australia called Melbourne shuffle, which is basically like punk and stomp out music, except that it’s hardcore electronic, but it’s also very beautiful and classical. I consider it to be “Invincible music,” it makes you feel like you are invincible when you listen to it, it’s superhero music. The piece of music you mention, we always say that is diagetic because it’s inside of her head, the movie is just hearing what’s inside of her head.
Benny Safdie: When that track comes in it’s very different than when the music is playing in the beginning of the movie. It comes in and it’s so motivated by what’s happening on screen. It might as well be the sound effects from the park, they are interchangeable.
Aguilar: Did you guys look at any other films that depict addiction to see how it has been represented before?
Josh Safdie: No, we looked to that world itself. If we were looking for any inspiration or any way to be guided, we looked to the world and the characters themselves.
Benny Safdie: We knew there were some pitfalls that other films fall into not just by accident but by the nature of making a movie about somebody who loves a drug. We had conversations about how to film the shooting of the drug, and how to shoot the drug in certain ways to avoid glorifying it, or fetishizing it.
Aguilar: On a more specific note, the film premiered in 2014, but for the theatrical release you include a note in the credits dedicating the film to the real life Ilya, who sadly passed away this year. Is what we see in the film Arielle's premonition?
Josh Safdie: In her writings, Arielle mentions she had a vision in which he had died. She thought he was dead, but in reality he wasn’t. He was in a fire, and he survived the fire. The irony is that Ilya died on April 12th this year under different circumstances.
Benny Safdie: It’s very strange.
Aguilar: The way you approach the subject is so truthful and uncompromising, were you ever concern about audiences having an uncomfortable reaction or that it could be perceived as provocative?
Josh Safdie: I never feel uncomfortable, or dark or heavy. I’m actually very excited by everything in the movie because I kind of previewed a little bit of the mindset that the characters have. I never saw the movie as dark. It is what it is.
"Heaven Knows What" is now playing in Los Angeles at the Acrlight Hollywood and in NYC at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema...
Enthralled by Holmes, the Safdie brothers decided to make a film about her life and have her star in it, a choice that might seem risky for some but that felt absolutely correct for the filmmaking team. The result is “Heaven Knows What” an exquisitely raw and ferociously truthful film about people lost in a corrosive lifestyle. Drug addiction and emotional dependency go hand in hand as Harley (Arielle Holmes) tries to regain her boyfriend’s love while finding ways to support her habit and stay alive. Humanizing their characters while never condoning or passing judgment, the directors explore the realities of their lives with a documentary-like visual style that is as vivid as it is heart-wrenching.
An accomplishment both in technique and emotional power, “Heaven Knows What” is an eye-opening experience brimming with unflinching truth. We had the chance to talk to the Safdie team about their latest film and how they manage to put so much of the real world into each frame.
Aguilar: Arielle Holmes is evidently the driving force of this incredibly truthful and bold project. At what point in her journey did you meet her? How did you find her and her story and decided to make a film about it?
Josh Safdie: I found Arielle, that’s what happened really. I was doing research in the Diamond District. I was there for like a year and a half and I thought I knew every person who was a part of the fabric of that street, which is 47th between 5th and 6th, in Manhattan, New York.
One day at the end of the workday I went to the subway with my producer Sebastian Bear-McClard and saw Arielle. When I saw her she was dressed in a really nice dress, which I later found out she spent all of her money on, and she appeared clean because she’d washed herself in a public bathroom that morning. She woke up that morning on the steps of a Buddhist church.
At the time she paid for her habit and for her dress moonlighting as a dominatrix at a place called Pandora’s box. I knew none of this when I met her, all I knew was this was a beautiful girl who had real composure to her and who had a real star quality to her. I wanted to try to find a way to put her in this other movie we were trying to do, but when I met up with her to get to know her better, I soon realized that she had a very different life.
It was the one you see in the film, and we didn’t agree to make this movie until months later. I knew her when she attempted to kill herself, it happened in the time span of me getting to know her. I was just trying to hook her up with other jobs and just be her friend, and I eventfully asked her to start writing about her life. I directed the writing and I paid for it. The book is pretty special, she wrote most of it in Apple stores.
Aguilar: Once you were so invested in her story, was it a logical step to have her star in the film?
Benny Safdie: It was logical
Josh Safdie: Yes, we wanted to make the movie because of her.
Aguilar: Did you have any concerns about the fact that she probably had never acted before?
Josh Safdie: No. Never. That’s not unusual for us. She was a star, we just needed to figure out a way to work with her star quality and find her greatest strengths during the rehearsal period. We put her on camera a lot before we started filming to see how she acted with the camera. We actually found that the more regimen we gave her the better she was. If we just turned on the camera and have her improvise it was Ok, but she needed the structure of a script to be even better.
Benny Safdie: She wanted to take her own emotions to another level.
Aguilar: She is incredible in the film. Is this perhaps her first film of many to come?
Josh Safdie: She did another film in the wintertime, a Sci-Fi, and right now she is acting in another one, a big one.
Aguilar: The rest of the cast is also outstanding. Was there a mix of professionals actors and non-actors? They are all so great is impossible to differentiate.
Josh Safdie: Caleb Landry Jones, who plays Ilya, is an actor. He’s been in “X-Men,” “Byzantium,” “Antiviral,” and others, he is a young Hollywood actor who was introduced to me through one of our casting directors Jennifer Venditti. He was by far the most professional. Then there was Eleonore Hendricks who played a very small role as Erica. Buddy Duress, who played Mike, the dealer, was a real revelation to us. He blew us away with his rawness and his energy. He got arrested the day we finished filming the movie and he was in jail for a year, now he is out and he is in an acting class and he is doing pretty great. He was like a street legend, everyone knew him in the streets, and he’d been in and out of jail his whole life. Oddly enough we had a similar upbringing, so I could have easily made the left when he made the left, instead a made a right, and did what I ended doing. Now I think that he will hopefully make the right. Necro, who plays Skully, is a pretty big underground rapper, who I was a big fan of.
Aguilar: The entire cast disappears completely into their roles. It’s hard to even think these are actors playing a part.
Benny Safdie: The goal is to make it seem like nothing has been done.
Josh Safdie: Testament to the success of the film is when people see the film and think Buddy, playing Mike, is the big professional in the movie. Everyone hears “Oh, there is a big actor in the movie,” because Caleb has a real following, but when people see the movie they think Caleb is the non-professional actor and Buddy is the professional. That’s a real testament to Caleb’s performance as well.
Benny Safdie: It’s a matter of complete immersion into the fabric of that world, and accepting it. At the same it’s also about mixing the professionals and the firs-time actors. We use improvisation as a form of getting the people’s language right. We use it as a tool to get the dialogue perfect. It always sound better when it’s coming from someone’s own voice as opposed to from above, from us. If somebody doesn’t feel comfortable saying it a certain way we change it, and then that makes that person more comfortable.
Aguilar: Surely Arielle’s own experiences informed a lot of your choices. Did she ever come to you and say, “This didn’t happen that way” or “This doesn’t sound right”?
Josh Safdie: That’s funny because when she said that, most of the time it was in accordance to whether or not something happened the way it should have in real life, and we had changed it because it needed to be changed so that somebody watching the movie could feel how she felt. But then that actually helped her because when she started understanding the reasoning behind it and it made her acting even better. She realized, “Ok, I can make myself emotional more extreme to get the point across.”
Aguilar: Shooting a film like this in NYC was probably a great challenge. Did you guys shoot inconspicuously or on the fly to get such a realist and raw visual style?
Josh Safdie: No, it was all very structured because we were shooting a lot of our close-ups from a block away. There was not much freedom to the movements of the actors. Some scenes we did like 13 or 14 takes, sometimes we shot scenes twice. We would shoot them and then we would go back to the same location on another day when we had some free time. We would reshoot the scene if after watching the dailies we felt like it wasn’t quite right.
Benny Safdie: In New York you are not allowed to shoot without a permit if you have a tripod. We pretty much shot the whole movie with tripods or Steadicam, and if you have something like that on the street you need to legally have a permit or you’ll get stopped. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without it, so we had to be very regimented with how we shot just based on the equipment we were using. We had that restriction upon us and for the actors, like Josh said, they had to be on their marks perfectly or else we’d miss it.
Aguilar: The constraints are definitley not noticeable, the city feels and the characters feel completely free.
Josh Safdie: We did not block the sidewalks. we allowed the city to exist as the city, we were just using it to our advantage.
Benny Safdie: At some point you let the city live within the frame and let the actors live on their own within that circle, and it all kind of folds into itself.
Aguilar: Tell me about the film’s structure. The way it starts and the way it ends, it feels like an endless cycle in a sense.
Josh Safdie: That’s the cycle of the lifestyle. You kind of can’t get out of it, it’s almost impossible to get out of it. The reality of that lifestyle is that the two ways out are usually prison or death, or you get cast in a movie and you make that movie [Laughs]. Ariel Pink, a great musician who did a song for the movie and who was also in the film at one point, came to the L.A. premier at AFI Fest, and someone asked him about heroin and his reply was, “ You do heroin and get a movie made out of you.” He said it as a joke because he is a cynical guy, but it’s very rare to get out. Breaks don’t usually come, they are few and far between, and there are a lot of people who are stuck in that lifestyle. It takes a lot of courage to get out of it, and a lot of will power. It’s a trap.
Benny Safdie: It’s a physical addiction to the drug, and then there is the mental addiction to this lifestyle that you think you are living.
Aguilar: It is a lifestyle. Even as chaotic as their lives seem, they do have a certain structure and specific patterns and things they have to do to continue living this way.
Benny Safdie: Exactly, it’s just a different structure. It’s not the one that we follow, but it is a structure. We were just talking about the rent that they have to pay, it's only $15, for the tow of them that’s $30 a night, that’s cheap, that’s nothing. But $30 a night, that’s $900 a month, with that money you can find yourself a pretty descent room.
Josh Safdie: That’s without mentioning their habit, which adds to thousands of dollars a year.
Benny Safdie: And also, who would rent a room to somebody like that? At the same time that’s a lot of money that they are raising, that they are earning by having to get up 8:00 to make sure that they make the morning rush.
Aguilar: The music in the film is something that I really enjoyed and that feels cohesive with the story being told, in particular the ominous track that includes the lyrics, “explore the power of the mind.”
Josh Safdie: That’s funny because there are two pieces of music in the movie that are from Arielle’s life, which her boyfriend, the real Ilya, and Arielle turned me on to. It’s hardstyle music, it’s from a very hardcore electronic scene, and it’s by a very famous DJ called Headhunterz. There is also a big movement in Australia called Melbourne shuffle, which is basically like punk and stomp out music, except that it’s hardcore electronic, but it’s also very beautiful and classical. I consider it to be “Invincible music,” it makes you feel like you are invincible when you listen to it, it’s superhero music. The piece of music you mention, we always say that is diagetic because it’s inside of her head, the movie is just hearing what’s inside of her head.
Benny Safdie: When that track comes in it’s very different than when the music is playing in the beginning of the movie. It comes in and it’s so motivated by what’s happening on screen. It might as well be the sound effects from the park, they are interchangeable.
Aguilar: Did you guys look at any other films that depict addiction to see how it has been represented before?
Josh Safdie: No, we looked to that world itself. If we were looking for any inspiration or any way to be guided, we looked to the world and the characters themselves.
Benny Safdie: We knew there were some pitfalls that other films fall into not just by accident but by the nature of making a movie about somebody who loves a drug. We had conversations about how to film the shooting of the drug, and how to shoot the drug in certain ways to avoid glorifying it, or fetishizing it.
Aguilar: On a more specific note, the film premiered in 2014, but for the theatrical release you include a note in the credits dedicating the film to the real life Ilya, who sadly passed away this year. Is what we see in the film Arielle's premonition?
Josh Safdie: In her writings, Arielle mentions she had a vision in which he had died. She thought he was dead, but in reality he wasn’t. He was in a fire, and he survived the fire. The irony is that Ilya died on April 12th this year under different circumstances.
Benny Safdie: It’s very strange.
Aguilar: The way you approach the subject is so truthful and uncompromising, were you ever concern about audiences having an uncomfortable reaction or that it could be perceived as provocative?
Josh Safdie: I never feel uncomfortable, or dark or heavy. I’m actually very excited by everything in the movie because I kind of previewed a little bit of the mindset that the characters have. I never saw the movie as dark. It is what it is.
"Heaven Knows What" is now playing in Los Angeles at the Acrlight Hollywood and in NYC at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema...
- 5/29/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Excuse my absence, I will be devising a super post soon of all the great music videos I have missed lately. But for now, I present you with another instalment of this week’s top 5. The majority I have picked this week are not particularly cheery and can be a little uncomfortable to watch. Ariel Pink’s latest efforts are fuelled by a creepy attempt to pick up women, Elliphant and Mø share a tense night out, Wannabe Jalva’s video explores three different characters who continue to unknowingly cross paths and Lower’s “Daft Persuasion” consists of merely intense imagery throughout. The reason I have picked these slightly unpleasant videos is simple. They are all different. They’re all a complete breath of fresh air as there is no emphasis on creating a pretty video. The main focus is to make a gritty and engaging video that matches the...
- 9/26/2014
- by Catstello
- SoundOnSight
To mark the release of Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton on 26th May, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.
Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton is a feature-length documentary about avant-garde Los Angeles-based record label Stones Throw Records. The film weaves together rare concert footage, never-before-seen archival material, inner-circle home video and photographs and in depth interviews with the artists who put Stones Throw Records on the map. Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton gives an exclusive look into the label’s left-of-centre artists, history, culture, and global following. Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton features original music by Madlib and exclusive interviews with Peanut Butter Wolf, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Mike D, ?uestlove, Talib Kweli, Tyler, The Creator, Ariel Pink, Flying Lotus, Geoff Barrow of Portishead, Mayer Hawthorne, and other members of the Stones Throw family.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only
a Rafflecopter...
Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton is a feature-length documentary about avant-garde Los Angeles-based record label Stones Throw Records. The film weaves together rare concert footage, never-before-seen archival material, inner-circle home video and photographs and in depth interviews with the artists who put Stones Throw Records on the map. Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton gives an exclusive look into the label’s left-of-centre artists, history, culture, and global following. Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton features original music by Madlib and exclusive interviews with Peanut Butter Wolf, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Mike D, ?uestlove, Talib Kweli, Tyler, The Creator, Ariel Pink, Flying Lotus, Geoff Barrow of Portishead, Mayer Hawthorne, and other members of the Stones Throw family.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only
a Rafflecopter...
- 5/19/2014
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The film will explore the relationship between Thomas and fellow poet John Malcolm Brinnin, played by Wood
• Elijah Wood: 'Frodo's never going away'
Elijah Wood has signed on for a lead role in Set Fire to the Stars, a film exploring the relationship between the poets Dylan Thomas and John Malcolm Brinnin.
Wood will play Brinnin, an American poet and literary scenester who was friends with Thomas as well as Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. He wrote Dylan Thomas in America, an account of how he brought the poet to the United States and accompanied him on book tours, which were often marred by Thomas's drunkenness and erratic behaviour. Thomas will be played by Celyn Jones, a veteran of TV shows like Above Suspicion, Leaving and Shameless.
The film will be directed by Andy Goddard, who has helmed Downton Abbey episodes, including its recent Christmas special, and it co-stars Shirley Henderson,...
• Elijah Wood: 'Frodo's never going away'
Elijah Wood has signed on for a lead role in Set Fire to the Stars, a film exploring the relationship between the poets Dylan Thomas and John Malcolm Brinnin.
Wood will play Brinnin, an American poet and literary scenester who was friends with Thomas as well as Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. He wrote Dylan Thomas in America, an account of how he brought the poet to the United States and accompanied him on book tours, which were often marred by Thomas's drunkenness and erratic behaviour. Thomas will be played by Celyn Jones, a veteran of TV shows like Above Suspicion, Leaving and Shameless.
The film will be directed by Andy Goddard, who has helmed Downton Abbey episodes, including its recent Christmas special, and it co-stars Shirley Henderson,...
- 1/10/2014
- by Ben Beaumont-Thomas
- The Guardian - Film News
The official schedule of events for SpectreFest has just been announced. The first annual horror event is taking place in Hollywood this October from SpectreVision, the company founded by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller.
“SpectreVision, the company founded and partnered by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller has announced their first annual SpectreFest in partnership with Cinefamily to be held in Hollywood from October 19-31.
“Our aim with SpectreFest is to provide an immersive, visceral experience beyond mere entertainment,” says co-founder Daniel Noah. “Genre films, as well as cinema’s close cousin, music, can tweak our minds to show us new ways of interpreting the world we live in. SpectreFest is an offering of some of the best of both from around the world.”
SpectreFest’s opening night event, in association with Cinespia and Cinefamily, will be a screening of the classic horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London,...
“SpectreVision, the company founded and partnered by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller has announced their first annual SpectreFest in partnership with Cinefamily to be held in Hollywood from October 19-31.
“Our aim with SpectreFest is to provide an immersive, visceral experience beyond mere entertainment,” says co-founder Daniel Noah. “Genre films, as well as cinema’s close cousin, music, can tweak our minds to show us new ways of interpreting the world we live in. SpectreFest is an offering of some of the best of both from around the world.”
SpectreFest’s opening night event, in association with Cinespia and Cinefamily, will be a screening of the classic horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London,...
- 10/14/2013
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Where are you going to find screenings of An American Werewolf In London, Cheap Thrills, and Grand Piano- among others - along with indie rocker Ariel Pink providing live score to a curated selection of short films? Get yourself to the CineFamily, La dwellers, for the inaugural SpectreFest running October 19 - 31!SpectreVision, the company founded and partnered by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller has announced their first annual SpectreFest in partnership with Cinefamily to be held in Hollywood from October 19-31. "Our aim with SpectreFest is to provide an immersive, visceral experience beyond mere entertainment," says co-founder Daniel Noah. "Genre films, as well as cinema's close cousin, music, can tweak our minds to show us new ways of interpreting the world...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/10/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Elijah Wood’s company SpectreVision Wednesday announced the first annual SpectreFest, a 13-night celebration of horror and music to be held in Los Angeles from October 19-31 in partnership with the Cinefamily cinema. SpectreVision is an independent horror film company founded by Wood, Daniel Noah, and Josh C. Waller.
SpectreFest’s opening night event will be a screening of John Landis’ horror-comedy classic An American Werewolf in London held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in conjunction with Cinespia. SpectreFest will also host screenings of E.L. Kat’s jet-black comedy Cheap Thrills (see pic above), the Elijah Wood- and John Cusack-starrer Grand Piano,...
SpectreFest’s opening night event will be a screening of John Landis’ horror-comedy classic An American Werewolf in London held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in conjunction with Cinespia. SpectreFest will also host screenings of E.L. Kat’s jet-black comedy Cheap Thrills (see pic above), the Elijah Wood- and John Cusack-starrer Grand Piano,...
- 10/9/2013
- by Clark Collis
- EW - Inside Movies
SpectreVision, founded by actor Elijah Wood ("Wilfred"), writer-director Daniel Noah ("Max Rose") and director Josh C. Waller ("McCanick"), has announced their first annual SpectreFest in partnership with Cinefamily. It will be held in Hollywood, running October 19-31.The opening night event is classic horror-comedy "An American Werewolf in London," to be held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with special guest DJs Wooden Wisdom.The new fest will also host the La premiere of E.L. Katz’s award-winning "Cheap Thrills" (Israeli thriller "Big Bad Wolves" has been pulled). Other premieres scheduled include "Grand Piano," starring Elijah Wood and John Cusack, and Waller's own "Raze" IFC's horror/action film starring Zoe Bell and Rachel Nichols, due in 2014.Avant-garde rocker Ariel Pink will provide musical accompaniment to experimental shorts curated by the Cinefamily, while Chrome Canyon will add their electronic/synth music to Fritz Lang’s "Metropolis."Wood,...
- 10/9/2013
- by Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Thor: The Dark World
A massive new piece of banner art for the upcoming Marvel Studios sequel "Thor: The Dark World" has gone online and can be seen by clicking here.
Star Wars: Episode VII
While his reps denied the casting rumors of him possibly playing a Sith Lord in "Star Wars: Episode VII" earlier this week, actor Benedict Cumberbatch himself has now done so at the Toronto Film Festival. Speaking at a press conference for "The Fifth Estate," Cumberbatch says:
"Of course I’d love to do Star Wars and work with Jj Abrams again because we had such a good time on Star Trek. But nobody has been cast and there are no offers out to anyone apart from the regulars who are returning. So that’s that rumour quashed… We’ll have to wait and see." [Source: The Telegraph]
Salvation
"Hawaii Five-0" producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Peter Lenkov...
A massive new piece of banner art for the upcoming Marvel Studios sequel "Thor: The Dark World" has gone online and can be seen by clicking here.
Star Wars: Episode VII
While his reps denied the casting rumors of him possibly playing a Sith Lord in "Star Wars: Episode VII" earlier this week, actor Benedict Cumberbatch himself has now done so at the Toronto Film Festival. Speaking at a press conference for "The Fifth Estate," Cumberbatch says:
"Of course I’d love to do Star Wars and work with Jj Abrams again because we had such a good time on Star Trek. But nobody has been cast and there are no offers out to anyone apart from the regulars who are returning. So that’s that rumour quashed… We’ll have to wait and see." [Source: The Telegraph]
Salvation
"Hawaii Five-0" producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Peter Lenkov...
- 9/7/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Multimedia artist Doug Aitken will bring together dozens of musicians, visual artists, dancers, actors, and more for nine "happenings" across the country next month. Station To Station is a train tour that starts in New York and ends in San Francisco, with performances along the way at various train stations. Acts include Beck, Boredoms, Cat Power, Cold Cave, Giorgio Moroder, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Dan Deacon, No Age, and more. To add to the eccentric fun of it all, Ariel Pink, Beck, and Moroder will be creating new songs exclusively for their respective happenings. Beck has already crafted his ...
- 8/23/2013
- avclub.com
It looks like the star is reviving her modeling career in a very interesting campaign for the fashion brand — and she wasn’t the only surprising face to sign on! See who else was chosen for the Saint Laurent ‘Music Project’ right here.
48-year-old Courtney Love was announced as the face of the most recent St. Laurent campaign along with some other household names that may be considered somewhat untraditional for the fashion house. Love will be joined by Kim Gordon, 59, Ariel Pink, 34, and Marilyn Manson, 44, to debut the punk-themed attire in the Saint Laurent Music Project.
Saint Laurent Music Project:
Designer Hedi Slimane, 44, previously featured Beck and Sky Ferreira as campaign faces, making it evident that he is inspired by the rocker theme. While he’s been consistent with his choice of musicians to uphold that look, he definitely took it a step further by letting his models style...
48-year-old Courtney Love was announced as the face of the most recent St. Laurent campaign along with some other household names that may be considered somewhat untraditional for the fashion house. Love will be joined by Kim Gordon, 59, Ariel Pink, 34, and Marilyn Manson, 44, to debut the punk-themed attire in the Saint Laurent Music Project.
Saint Laurent Music Project:
Designer Hedi Slimane, 44, previously featured Beck and Sky Ferreira as campaign faces, making it evident that he is inspired by the rocker theme. While he’s been consistent with his choice of musicians to uphold that look, he definitely took it a step further by letting his models style...
- 4/2/2013
- by HL Intern
- HollywoodLife
Saint Laurent made a splash last week when a photo leaked of goth god Marilyn Manson posing for the designer's new ad campaign. Hedi Slimane, whose creative directorship at Saint Laurent is still relatively new, continues to make waves with his choice of spokesmodels. Today we saw the latest campaign images, which feature punk-rock princess Courtney Love prominently.
Slimane has been steering the storied brand in a clear new direction, and as a result, his '90s-inspired fall collection was met with more criticism than praise. Though it's worth noting that Love is an open fan of the line's new look, and has professed her enthusiasm for the collection on Twitter: "[H]aving gasms at the idea of rich ladies buying what we used to wear, finally someone got the actual look exact." And the rocker is no stranger to high-end design herself, as she has her own fashion line.
Instead...
Slimane has been steering the storied brand in a clear new direction, and as a result, his '90s-inspired fall collection was met with more criticism than praise. Though it's worth noting that Love is an open fan of the line's new look, and has professed her enthusiasm for the collection on Twitter: "[H]aving gasms at the idea of rich ladies buying what we used to wear, finally someone got the actual look exact." And the rocker is no stranger to high-end design herself, as she has her own fashion line.
Instead...
- 4/2/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
If there's one thing Philip Glass knows how to do besides compose an avant-garde masterpiece, it's curate an impressive musical showcase. His Tibet House Benefit has become well-known for its ability to bring icons of the far reaching branches of contemporary music together under one über-famous roof. The 23rd edition of the event is no different, boasting a 2013 headliners by Ariel Pink, Patti Smith, Rahzel, Jim James, Ira Glass and tUnE-yArDs.
Like past concerts, this year's benefit on February 21 will showcase a grab bag of musical stylings, from the beatboxing genius of former Roots member, Rahzel, to the quiet, homemade noise rock of Ariel Pink. It's unique not only for it's wide breadth of participants, but also for its location in New York's legendary music haven -- Carnegie Hall.
"It is an awesome experience playing at Carnegie," said Rahzel, a repeat performer at the Tibet House Benefit, in a phone interview with The Huffington Post.
Like past concerts, this year's benefit on February 21 will showcase a grab bag of musical stylings, from the beatboxing genius of former Roots member, Rahzel, to the quiet, homemade noise rock of Ariel Pink. It's unique not only for it's wide breadth of participants, but also for its location in New York's legendary music haven -- Carnegie Hall.
"It is an awesome experience playing at Carnegie," said Rahzel, a repeat performer at the Tibet House Benefit, in a phone interview with The Huffington Post.
- 2/8/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
15) Out Of The Game – Rufus Wainwright
Director: Phillip Andelman
The mere presence of the fantastic Helena Bonham Carter is the reason this video made the list. In this brilliant fantasy of a video the equally fantastic Rufus Wainwright gives a funny performance by embodying different personalities. The two of them together is a visual treat full of wistful moments.
14) The Only Place – Best Coast
Director: Ace Norton
This fun video for the upbeat comeback single from Best Coast accompanies the love letter to California vibe the track has going on perfectly. The California-obsessed duo cruise around the state as we see them indulge in fun activities such as leave their mark, smash TVs and make blended beverages.
13) Blue Velvet – Lana Del Rey
Director: Johan Renck
As the face of H&M’s fashion collection for Autumn 2012, Renck and Lana teamed up for this beautifully eerie, Lynch-esque music video/advert.
12) Lord...
Director: Phillip Andelman
The mere presence of the fantastic Helena Bonham Carter is the reason this video made the list. In this brilliant fantasy of a video the equally fantastic Rufus Wainwright gives a funny performance by embodying different personalities. The two of them together is a visual treat full of wistful moments.
14) The Only Place – Best Coast
Director: Ace Norton
This fun video for the upbeat comeback single from Best Coast accompanies the love letter to California vibe the track has going on perfectly. The California-obsessed duo cruise around the state as we see them indulge in fun activities such as leave their mark, smash TVs and make blended beverages.
13) Blue Velvet – Lana Del Rey
Director: Johan Renck
As the face of H&M’s fashion collection for Autumn 2012, Renck and Lana teamed up for this beautifully eerie, Lynch-esque music video/advert.
12) Lord...
- 1/2/2013
- by Tara Costello
- SoundOnSight
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