Landmark Theatres Film Club Q&A Podcast

Oscar Isaac (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of talented but feckless folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he struggles to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles—some of them of his own making. Living at the mercy of both friends and strangers, scaring up what work he can find, Llewyn's misadventures take him from the coffeehouses of the Village to an empty Chicago club—on an odyssey to audition for a music mogul—and back again. Brimming with music performed by Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan (as Llewyn's married Village friends), as well as Marcus Mumford and Punch Brothers, Inside Llewyn Davis transports you to another time and place. An epic on an intimate scale, it is Joel and Ethan Coen's (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) fourth collaboration with multiple Grammy- and Academy Award-winning music producer T Bone Burnett. With John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Adam Driver and F. Murray Abraham.

Casey Affleck (actor) and Scott Cooper (co-writer/director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: The crime thriller Out of the Furnace is a gripping and gritty drama about family, fate, circumstance and justice. Russell Baze (Christian Bale) has a rough life: he works a dead-end blue collar job at the local steel mill by day, and cares for his terminally ill father by night. When Russell's brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) returns home from serving time in Iraq, he gets lured into one of the most ruthless crime rings in the Northeast and mysteriously disappears. The police fail to crack the case, so—with nothing left to lose—Russell takes matters into his own hands, putting his life on the line to seek justice for his brother. The impressive cast also includes Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoë Saldana and Sam Shepard. Directed and co-written by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart)

Adèle Exarchopoulos, Léa Seydoux and Jérémie Laheurte (actors) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Blue Is the Warmest Color was the sensation of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival even before it was awarded the coveted Palme d'Or. Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) is a young woman whose longings and ecstasies and losses are charted across a span of several years. At 15, she is approaching adulthood and dreams of experiencing her first love. A handsome male classmate falls hard for her, but an unsettling erotic reverie upsets the romance before it begins. Adèle imagines that the mysterious, blue-haired girl she encountered in the street slips into her bed and possesses her with overwhelming pleasure. That blue-haired girl is a confident older art student named Emma (Léa Seydoux), who will soon enter Adèle's life for real, making way for an intense and complicated love story that spans a decade and is touchingly universal in its depiction. An epic of emotional transformation, Blue pulses with gestures, embraces, furtive exchanges, and arias of joy and devastation, both verbal and physical.

Stuart Blumberg (co-writer/director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: From Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and first-time director Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are All Right) comes a sharply comic and deeply moving look at a new kind of modern family, as a group of friends in recovery learns to face life together with heart, humor and humility. On the surface, Adam (Mark Ruffalo), Mike (Tim Robbins) and Neil (Josh Gad) have little in common. But all are in different stages of dealing with addiction. Confident and successful in his career, Adam is afraid to allow love back into his life, even if that means losing a chance to start over with smart, beautiful and accomplished Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow). Mike's efforts to control his wife, Katie (Joely Richardson), and son, Danny (Patrick Fugit), as tightly as he does are tearing the family apart. Neil is still deeply in denial when befriended by Dede (Alecia Moore, aka Pink), who has just begun to take her own small steps back to health. As they navigate the rocky shores of recovery, Adam, Mike and Neil become a family that encourages, infuriates and applauds each other on the journey toward a new life.

Nicole Holofcener (writer/director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Enough Said is a sharp, insightful comedy that humorously explores the mess that often comes with getting involved again. Eva (Julia Louis Dreyfus), a divorced and single parent, spends her days enjoying work as a masseuse but dreading her daughter's impending departure for college. She meets Albert (James Gandolfini)—a sweet, funny and like-minded man also facing an empty nest. As their romance quickly blossoms, Eva befriends Marianne (Catherine Keener), her new massage client. Marianne is a beautiful poet who seems "almost perfect" except for one prominent quality: she rags on her ex-husband way too much. Suddenly, Eva finds herself doubting her own relationship with Albert as she learns the truth about Marianne's ex. Also starring Toni Collette and Ben Falcone. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener (Please Give, Friends with Money, Lovely and Amazing).

Shane Salerno (writer/director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Salinger is the first comprehensive documentary to look beyond The Catcher in the Rye author J. D. Salinger's meticulously built up wall: his childhood, painstaking work methods, marriages, private world and the secrets he left behind after his death in 2010. The documentary's research includes the contributions of over 150 interviewees, including Salinger's friends and colleagues, who have never spoken on the record before, as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never before been seen. Additionally, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal and Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank talk about Salinger's influence on their lives, their work and the broader culture.

Jill Soloway (writer/director) and Josh Radnor and Jane Lynch (actors) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) is a quick-witted and lovable, yet tightly coiled, thirty-something steeped in the creative class of Los Angeles' bohemian, affluent Silver Lake neighborhood. Everything looks just right—chic modernist home, successful husband (Josh Radnor), adorable child, hipster wardrobe. So why is she going out of her gourd with ennui? Deadened by the stultifying realities of preschool auctions, a lackluster sex life, and career that's gone kaput, Rachel visits a strip club to spice up her marriage and meets McKenna (Juno Temple), a stripper whom she becomes obsessed with saving. She decides to adopt McKenna as her live-in nanny, and this bold move unleashes unimagined and colorful waves of change into her life and community. Also starring Jane Lynch, Afternoon Delight is written and directed by Jill Soloway, winner of the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Destin Daniel Cretton (writer/director) and Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield and Alex Calloway (actors) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Short Term 12 is a powerful and emotional story told through the eyes of Grace (Brie Larson, The Spectacular Now), a twenty-something supervisor at a facility for at-risk teenagers. Passionate and tough, Grace is a formidable caretaker of the kids in her charge, and in love with her long-term boyfriend and co-worker, Mason (John Gallagher Jr.). But Grace's own difficult past—and the surprising future that suddenly presents itself—throw her into unforeseen confusion, made all the sharper with the arrival of a new intake at the facility: a gifted but troubled teenage girl named Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) with whom Grace has a charged connection. While the subject matter is complex, this lovingly realized film finds truth—and humor—in unexpected places. Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Winner of the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival.

Lake Bell (writer/director/star) and Fred Melamed (co-star) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: The hilarious and heart-felt comedy In a World... stars writer/director Lake Bell (No Strings Attached, “Children’s Hospital”) as Carol, a struggling vocal coach who strikes it big in the cutthroat world of movie-trailer voiceovers, only to find herself in direct competition with the industry’s reigning king—her father (Fred Melamed, A Serious Man). Amid pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation—and let her voice be heard. Bell's directorial debut features a stellar supporting cast, including Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Nick Offerman, Alexandra Holden and Tig Notaro. Winner of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite (director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Many of us have experienced the excitement and awe of watching 8,000-pound orcas, or "killer whales," soar out of the water and fly through the air at sea parks, as if in perfect harmony with their trainers. Yet, in our contemporary lore this mighty black-and-white mammal is like a two-faced Janus—beloved as a majestic, friendly giant yet infamous for its capacity to kill viciously. The documentary Blackfish unravels the complexities of this dichotomy, employing the story of notorious performing whale Tilikum, who—unlike any orca in the wild—has taken the lives of several people while in captivity. So what exactly went wrong? Shocking, never-before-seen footage and riveting interviews with trainers and experts manifest the orca's extraordinary nature, the species' cruel treatment in captivity over the last four decades, and the growing disillusionment of workers who were misled and endangered by the highly profitable sea-park industry. This emotionally wrenching, tautly structured story challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.

Geneviève Bujold and James Cromwell (actors) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: In his first lead role after decades of playing supporting characters, James Cromwell (The Artist, L.A. Confidential) gives a tour de force performance in Still Mine, an exquisitely crafted and deeply affecting love story about a couple in their twilight years. Based on true events and laced with wry humor, Still Mine tells the heartfelt tale of independent farmer Craig Morrison (Cromwell), who sets out to build a more suitable house for his ailing wife Irene (Geneviève Bujold). Although Craig is using the same methods his shipbuilder father had taught him, times have changed. He quickly gets on the wrong side of an overzealous building inspector who finds just about everything unacceptable, including the unstamped wood Craig has milled from his own trees. As Irene becomes increasingly ill—and amidst a series of stop-work orders—Craig races to finish the house. Hauled into court and facing jail, Craig defies the system to take a final stand for individual freedom and independence.

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (co-writers/co-directors) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: In the bittersweet coming-of-age comedy The Way Way Back, a lonely and awkward yet intelligent teenage boy, Duncan (Liam James), begins to make his transition into adulthood over the course of one transformative summer. Feeling alienated from his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her domineering and disingenuous boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell), and Trent's daughter Steph (Zoe Levin) during a summer vacation in a Northeast beach town, 14-year-old Duncan gets a job at a nearby water park and gains some much-needed self-confidence under the guidance of happy-go-lucky water park employee Owen (Sam Rockwell), who approaches life from a fresh new perspective. Also starring Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet.

Michael B. Jordan (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station follows the true story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother (Octavia Spencer, The Help), whose birthday falls on New Year's Eve; being a better partner to his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz), who he hasn't been completely honest with as of late; and being a better father to Tatiana (Ariana Neal), their beautiful four year-old daughter. Crossing paths with friends, family, and strangers, Oscar starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easily. His resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year's Day. Oscar's life and tragic death would shake the Bay Area—and the entire nation—to its very core.

Terence Stamp (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Unfinished Song is a funny and inspiring comedic drama about curmudgeonly pensioner Arthur (Terence Stamp), who is reluctantly inspired by his beloved wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) to join a highly unconventional local seniors choir. At odds with his son James (Christopher Eccleston), it is left to the youthful and charming choir director Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton) to try and persuade Arthur that he can learn to embrace life. Arthur must confront the undercurrents of his own grumbling persona as he embarks on a hilarious, life-affirming journey of musical self-discovery.

Morgan Neville (director) with Judith Hill and Merry Clayton (performers) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Millions know their voices, but no one knows their names. In his compelling new film 20 Feet From Stardom, director Morgan Neville shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. Triumphant and heartbreaking in equal measure, the film is both a tribute to the unsung voices who brought shape and style to popular music and a reflection on the conflicts, sacrifices and rewards of a career spent harmonizing with others. These gifted artists span a range of styles, genres and eras of popular music, but each has a uniquely fascinating and personal story to share of life spent in the shadows of superstardom. Along with rare archival footage and a peerless soundtrack, 20 Feet From Stardom boasts intimate interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger and Sting to name just a few. However, these world-famous figures take a backseat to the diverse array of backup singers whose lives and stories take center stage in the film.