Landmark Theatres Film Club Q&A Podcast

Lynn Shelton (director) and Jeff Garlin (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Indiewire's Katie Walsh. Film synopsis: Laggies is a sweet, romantic coming-of-age comedy about three people who find their lives intertwined in the most unconventional way as they make through the imperfect realities of modern day life. Overeducated and underemployed, 28-year-old Megan (Keira Knightley) is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind—while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart (Mark Webber) proposes, Megan panics and—given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week—hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Annika's world-weary single dad Craig (Sam Rockwell). Keira Knightley shines as Megan, a rare female slacker hero who shows us that while you never stop growing up, you can choose to stop lagging, and start living on your terms. Directed by Lynn Shelton, whose unique voice created such astutely observed comedies as Your Sister's Sister and Humpday.

Based on Amy-Jo Albany's powerful memoir of growing up in the care of her gifted, tormented and frequently absent musician father, the bebop jazz pianist Joe Albany, Low Down focuses on the years 1974 to 1976, when Amy (Elle Fanning, Maleficent, Ginger & Rosa) had few resources other than the love of her aging grandmother (Glenn Close) and a ragtag bunch of Hollywood outcasts and eccentrics that were her friends. While Joe (John Hawkes, Winter's Bone, The Sessions) struggles to find gigs, maintain his heroin addiction, and stay out of jail, Amy grows up quickly in a hotel on the fringes of Hollywood. There she bears witness to heartbreak and tragedy as well as soaring beauty and joy—in the jazz music that shaped her, the city and its denizens that nourished her, and the loving bond with her father and grandmother that kept her alive. Creating the gritty textures of a bygone era, director Jeff Preiss returns to the same evocative locale as Let's Get Lost, the Bruce Weber documentary on which he served as cinematographer. Stellar supporting cast includes Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Flea.

Amy-Jo Albany (writer) and Flea (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Landmark Theatres’ Dan Gorski. Film synopsis: Based on Amy-Jo Albany's powerful memoir of growing up in the care of her gifted, tormented and frequently absent musician father, the bebop jazz pianist Joe Albany, Low Down focuses on the years 1974 to 1976, when Amy (Elle Fanning, Maleficent, Ginger & Rosa) had few resources other than the love of her aging grandmother (Glenn Close) and a ragtag bunch of Hollywood outcasts and eccentrics that were her friends. While Joe (John Hawkes, Winter's Bone, The Sessions) struggles to find gigs, maintain his heroin addiction, and stay out of jail, Amy grows up quickly in a hotel on the fringes of Hollywood. There she bears witness to heartbreak and tragedy as well as soaring beauty and joy—in the jazz music that shaped her, the city and its denizens that nourished her, and the loving bond with her father and grandmother that kept her alive. Creating the gritty textures of a bygone era, director Jeff Preiss returns to the same evocative locale as Let's Get Lost, the Bruce Weber documentary on which he served as cinematographer. Stellar supporting cast includes Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Flea.

Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons (actors) appeared at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Greg Ellwood from Hitflix and New York Magazine's Kyle Buchanan. Film synopsis: Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the gripping drama Whiplash stars Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) as Andrew Neiman, a 19-year-old jazz drummer determined to rise to the top of the country's most elite music conservatory. One night, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a conductor equally known for his talent for teaching as he is for the terrifying method of his instruction, discovers Andrew practicing the drums, and the next day requests that he be transferred into his band. At first, Andrew is an "alternate," confined to turning the pages of the "core" drummer, but at the band's next competition, the core drummer's sheet music is misplaced and Andrew gets the opportunity to play. Though the act further alienates him from his fellow musicians, the band nonetheless wins the competition, and he seems poised to become Fletcher's new "favorite son." Andrew's maniacal effort to achieve perfection is further fueled by Fletcher's psychological brinksmanship. The nearer to perfection Andrew gets, the narrower his circle of intimates becomes until he is left only with Fletcher—and even that relationship is jeopardized by the ferocity of Andrew's ambitions. A journey that can be seen alternately as a descent into madness or an ascent to greatness comes to a crescendo on the biggest platform for Andrew's talents—the unforgiving stage of Carnegie Hall.

Ned Benson (writer/director) appeared at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: With his unique vision, writer/director Ned Benson ambitiously captures a complete picture of a relationship in the beautifully relatable portrait of love, empathy and truth that is The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Once happily married, Conor (James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland) and Eleanor (Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty, The Help) suddenly find themselves as strangers longing to understand each other in the wake of tragedy. The film explores the couple's story as they try to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone. Screened for the first time at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Benson's latest version of their story combines his previous two films—titled Him and Her—uniting their perspectives and taking a further look into the subjectivity of relationships.

Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig (actors), and Craig Johnson (writer/director) appeared at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: In the hilarious and emotional The Skeleton Twins, twins Maggie (Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids) and Milo (Bill Hader, "Saturday Night Live") lead separate lives on opposite sides of the country. After many years of estrangement, both feel that they're at the end of their ropes, and an unexpected reunion forces them to confront how their lives went so wrong. For Maggie, that means re-examining her marriage to sweet "nature frat boy" Lance (Luke Wilson) and her own self-destructive tendencies, while Milo must face the pain of an early heartbreak he never quite got past. As the twins' reunion reinvigorates them both, they realize the key to fixing their lives just may lie in accepting the past and mending their relationship with each other. Also starring Ty Burrell ("Modern Family").

45th Anniversary - Dyan Cannon and Elliott Gould (actors) and Quincy Jones (composer) appeared at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood) are a sophisticated California couple who, after attending a free-thinking group retreat, decide to push the boundaries of their marriage by experimenting with outside affairs. Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon) are a more traditional couple who always enjoy hearing about the provocative adventures of their best friends until they are invited to join them—in bed! Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is the comedy classic from director/co-writer Paul Mazursky (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, An Unmarried Woman) that hilariously captures the sexual revolution of the late sixties.

Landmark Theatres CEO/President Ted Mundorff interviewed filmmaker Rory Kennedy on May 28, 2014. Film synopsis: Award-winning independent filmmaker Rory Kennedy (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Ethel) dares to reopen the books on a war that scarred our national psyche. Chronicling a story few of us know, Kennedy's potent documentary may both shock you and restore your faith in humanity. During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance crumbles. The United States has only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country. As Communist victory becomes inevitable and the U.S. readies to withdraw, some Americans begin to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers and friends. Meanwhile, the prospect of an official evacuation of South Vietnamese becomes terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and the inexplicably optimistic U.S. Ambassador. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans take matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible.

Woody Allen (writer/director), Colin Firth and Jacki Weaver (stars) appeared at a press conference on Sunday, July 20, 2014. Film synopsis: Set in the 1920s on the opulent Riviera in the south of France, Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight is a romantic comedy starring Colin Firth (The King's Speech) as Stanley Crawford, a master magician who tries to expose psychic medium Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) as a fake. Persuaded by his life-long friend (Simon McBurney), Stanley goes undercover on a mission to a Côte d'Azur mansion in order to debunk the alluring young clairvoyant, who is staying there with her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). From his very first meeting with Sophie, Stanley dismisses her as an insignificant pip-squeak who he can unmask in no time. To his great surprise and discomfort, however, Sophie accomplishes numerous feats of mind-reading and other supernatural deeds that defy all rational explanation, leaving him dumbfounded—and wondering whether Sophie's powers could actually be real.

John Michael McDonagh (writer/director) and Brendan Gleeson (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: "I'm going to kill you, Father." In Calvary, an inventive mystery-drama with a pitch-black comic heart, Father James (Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges) is a good priest who is threatened in the confessional by a mysterious member of his parish. Although he continues to comfort his own fragile daughter Fiona (Kelly Reilly) and reach out to help members of his church with their various scurrilous moral—and often comic—problems, he feels sinister and troubling forces closing in, and begins to wonder if he will have the courage to face his own personal Calvary. Also starring Chris O'Dowd. From John Michael McDonagh, the acclaimed writer and director of The Guard.

Mike Cahill (writer/director), Michael Pitt and Astrid Berges-Frisbey (actors), Megan Gray (costume designer) and Hunter Gray (producer) appeared at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: I Origins tells the story of Dr. Ian Gray (Michael Pitt, The Dreamers, "Boardwalk Empire"), a molecular biologist whose study of the human eye points to evidence with far-reaching implications about our scientific and spiritual beliefs. Writer/director Mike Cahill's bold and original second feature film takes place in the same realm of speculative fiction as his last movie, Another Earth. A tale of science versus faith, reincarnation versus despair and life versus death, I Origins also stars Brit Marling (The East, Another Earth) and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey.

Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke (actors) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Boyhood by writer/director Richard Linklater (director and co-writer of Before Midnight) is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's "Yellow" to Arcade Fire's "Deep Blue." Boyhood is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It's impossible to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey.

George Lazenby (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: James Bond goes undercover in the treacherous Swiss Alps in this underrated, highly entertaining, action-packed epic filled with artillery-laden ski pursuits, incredible stunts and nonstop thrills! George Lazenby (in his only appearance as James Bond) leaps into the role of Agent 007 with supreme confidence and undeniable charisma, even finding love with the beautiful and seductive Tracy Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). But first Bond must stop evil genius Blofeld (Telly Savalas) from releasing a germ warfare plot that could kill millions! Directed by Peter R. Hunt (Gold, Shout at the Devil).

Gillian Robespierre (writer/director), Jenny Slate (actor) and Elisabeth Holm (producer) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: For aspiring comedian Donna Stern (Jenny Slate), everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her incredibly relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job and finds herself pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day, she has to navigate the murky waters of independent adulthood for the first time. As she grapples with an uncertain financial future, an unwanted pregnancy and a surprising new suitor, Donna begins to discover that the most terrifying thing about adulthood isn’t facing it all on her own. It's allowing herself to accept the support and love of others. Never failing to find the comedy and humanity in each awkward situation she encounters, Donna finds out along the way what it means to be as brave in life as she is on stage. Anchored by a breakout performance from Slate, Obvious Child is a winning discovery, packed tight with raw, energetic comedy and moments of poignant human honesty. Written and directed by Gillian Robespierre.

Gena Rowlands (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Writer/director John Cassavetes' improvisational style is used to superb effect in A Woman Under the Influence, one of the benchmark films of American independent cinema. This devastating drama details the emotional breakdown of a suburban housewife and her family's struggle to save her from herself. Starring Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk (in two of the most harrowing screen performances of the 1970s) as a married couple deeply in love yet unable to express that love in terms the other can understand, the film is an unforgettable portrait of domestic turmoil. Academy Award nominee for Best Actress and Best Director; selected by the National Film Preservation Board.